Recipe: Hot Herb and Garlic Loaf (Delia Smith)

In Delia's Complete Cookery Course cookbook, she has a chapter on "Barbecues and Picnics" and this hot herb and garlic loaf was in this chapter.  This is basically garlic bread with a fancier name. I served this with my homecooked Irish lamb stew, and it worked marvellously in soaking up the wonderful gravy from the stew.

I made a whole loaf, and we easily finished it between 3 adults and 2 kids. Actually, we had to fight for the last piece :P I have another recipe for cheesy garlic bread which you can view here, I usually cut them into slanting pieces before spreading the cheesy herb butter. With Delia's recipe, you make diagonal incisions on the loaf, but not cutting right through so that it remains as a loaf. The butter is spread in between the slices and on top of the bread and baked whole. This is how they sell it in the UK supermarkets too and the hot loaf if torn off at the dinner table.

For this loaf, you can use either fresh or dried herbs or a mixture of both like I did - I used 1 tablespoon of fresh parsley and 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme. This hot herb and garlic loaf would also go well with soups.

Hot Herb and Garlic Loaf
Recipe adapted from Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course
Preparation time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 French stick loaf

For the herb butter
75g salted butter, at room temperature
2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely minced
2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (parsley, chives, tarragon, thyme) or 1 1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs


1. Preheat oven to 200°C.

2. First, place the butter, garlic and herbs in a bowl and mix evenly. Using a sharp knife, make diagonal incisions along the loaf, as if you were slicing it BUT do not slice right through (ie you want the loaf to be whole when u place it in the oven). The loaf should stay joined at the base.

3. Spread each slice with butter on both sides (roughly will do) and spread any remaining herb butter along the top and sides of the loaf.

4. Wrap in foil and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes (I did mine in 10 minutes) and serve hot.

Click here for the recipe for Irish lamb stew.  Once again, a very Happy St. Patrick's Day to all celebrating ;)

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