I guess my first bread book was “Beard on Bread” about 30 years ago.  It’s a really classic good bread book and very accessible for a first time bread baker. I would recommend it today.   And now, Gadfry, how many bread books do I have?  Ahem, (cough) (clear throat) not counting baking books without Bread in the title, (blush) ahem, there are 44, YES, I said 44,  What do you mean you can’t hear me?  I just whisper wrote it, see 44.

OK, yes I said forty-four.  Sheeze.  Now, why does anybody need that many bread books.  Well, nobody needs that many.  But, I do enjoy each one of them. 

Everybody has some number of dishes/recipes that they consider to be their pride and joy, a signature if you will.  A dish/recipe that you’ve made over and over.  It always turns out spectacularly well and tastes fabulous.  Usually, but not necessarily, it has some visual element of Wow!  For me, one such has been this for many years.  The recipe always executes to perfection.  I have learned a new technique since I last made it and so have plans to change it the next time I make it.  It will be an old dog doing new tricks.  But, that’s dessert, this is bread. 

This is about Herb-Garlic Bread and it is one of my pride and joys.   Most garlic bread, and I absolutely LOVE garlic bread, starts with a loaf of bread and a mix of butter and garlic.  And oh, my goodness, the joy of smelling that warm bread and garlic filling the kitchen and then intensifying right under your nose and then engulfing your whole body with that first bite.  Now, that gives me an adrenaline rush.  Well, this garlic bread is not that one.  This garlic bread is celestial with an adrenaline rush.  It’s honest home made bread and then it’s blessed with garlic and fresh herbs.  This will put all the others to shame or at a minimum make them hide until this one is all gone because all others pale in comparison.

And which one of these many bread books did this recipe come out of you may ask.  Actually I didn’t find it in one of my bread books, I found it in

That’s Entertaining: Celebrations for All Seasons written by Yvonne Young Tarr and published in 1987.  In the book it’s titled Herb Pull-Apart Bread in the book.  I call it Celestial Garlic-Herb Pull-Apart Bread. 

I have made this recipe pretty much by the book (replacing varying amounts of whole wheat flour for some of the bread flour) for many years.  But, for sometime now I’ve been a follower of the slow rise school.  A slower rise that incorporates a starter really allows for the development of the flavor in the flours and since it uses less yeast, there is not an overwhelming yeasty odor. 

As fate would have it a few days ago, I made up a starter for another bread and it didn’t get used - that’s a whole other story.  As I reached for the milk and butter called for in the recipe for this bread that starter sort of leapt into my hands and brought this bread up another level. 

Celestial Garlic-Herb

Pull-Apart Bread

My adaptations in Blue

the Starter

1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

200 ml water

100 g bread flour

the Dough

6 - 7 cups bread flour used 7 cups plus dusting

weight at 1100 grams

180 grams of this was whole wheat flour

1 package yeast used 2 teaspoons instant yeast

2 tablespoons sugar  omitted this

2 teaspoons salt  used 1.5 teaspoons

1.5 cups water

1/2 c milk used 1%

6 tablespoons butter divided use  used 3 in dough

used 4 with herbs  I know = 7

3 large minced garlic cloves  used 6

1/2 teaspoon Maldon salt

2 tablespoons thyme used 3 tablespoons fresh

2 tablespoons coriander  omitted

2 tablespoons marjoram  omitted

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary

fresh microplane grated Parmesan cheese: didn’t use this time but it’s a wonderful variation

Whisk together yeast and flour.  Stir in water.  Cover.  Let sit until it starts to foam, mine took 50 minutes.  Refrigerate something like overnight.

Allow starter to warm for 30 - 40 minutes before starting the dough. 

Measure 920 grams of bread flour into a bowl.

Measure 180 grams of whole wheat into separate large bowl.

In the bowl with the whole wheat flour, place 2 cups of measured bread flour and whisk in the yeast.  Mix water, milk and 3 tablespoons of butter together and then into the starter.  Mix/beat together well for about 2 minutes.

Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Form into a ball and place in a covered oiled bowl.  Allow to double in size about an hour to an hour and a half.

Preheat the oven to 400° F.

Punch the dough down and divide into 2 equal parts.  On a lightly floured surface, cover each dough ball and allow to rest 15 to 20 minutes.

Mince the garlic cloves, herbs of your choice and the 1/2 teaspoon salt and mix into very soft or melted butter.

Spread half the garlic herb butter on each rectangle. 

None of these has to be perfect in size.  Stand the slices upright in the pans fitting the pieces end to end. 

The original recipe says to allow the shaped dough to rise in a warm, draft free place until double or about an hour.  Mine has never taken that long.  Twenty to 30 minutes is enough.

Bake 30 minutes until golden brown.  Allow to cool. 

You now have a loaf of bread that is “pre-sliced” with garlic butter, it will simply pull apart into slices!  Magic if you like.

I leave one loaf out for us to eat and wrap the remaining in foil and place in plastic bags in the freezer.  If I don’t freeze it, we eat it all in less than 24 hours.

If this looks and sounds familiar to some of you, it’s because I posted it on the previous life of this blog - that’s why it’s a second helping.

Call it whatever you want, it’ll knock your socks off.