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I love garlic bread. Who doesn’t, right? I saw this recipe for garlic buns at Torview, which had in turn been inspired by garlic pull-apart rolls at Edible Garden. They look so delicious, I couldn’t wait to try them! The other recipes used chopped up coriander, but I’m not a big fan of that, so I decided to use thyme instead. Luckily, there was still some growing in the garden so I could use it fresh.

Ingredients (makes 6-8 rolls):

For the bread dough:

• 100 g strong white flour
• 1/2 tsp dried yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 100 ml water
• 1 tbsp olive oil

For the garlic and thyme butter:

• 80 g salted butter
• 3 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• A handful of fresh thyme leaves

Add the yeast and sugar to the hot water (still cool enough to out your finger in) and let it stand for 10 minutes. Mix together the flour and salt. Add the yeast mixture and oil and combine to make a sticky dough.

Make an olive oil lagoon in your flour.

Knead the dough for a few minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Cover it, and leave it somewhere warm to rise until it has doubled in size.

Meanwhile, mix together the butter, garlic and thyme. It’s a bit easier if the butter has softened first. When the dough has risen, roll it out into a flat rectangle, no less than 1/2 inch thick. (Mine got a bit too thin, as you can see from the pictures of the finished rolls.) Spread the dough with the garlic and thyme butter and roll it up, like a Swiss roll.

Slice the rolled dough into individual pieces, each about an inch thick. Place the rolls into a baking dish or tray, spiral side up. (Never having made cinammon rolls or anything, I made a mistake here I think. See the pictures at Edible Garden for a better idea!) Let the rolls rest for about 20  minutes.

Bake the garlic bread rolls at 180° C for 30 minutes. Serve immediately!

They were delicious! Now, as a garlic bread connoisseur, I’m going to have to say that these are not really the same as classic garlic bread. If you like your bread buttery or oily, with garlic juices dripping out, or crispy in any way, this may not be the one for you. There is a lot of butter in the recipe, but it mostly gets absorbed or left behind in the baking dish. I’d see them as more as a garlic take on the dinner roll, albeit a very filling one. The garlic/olive oil/herb combo makes them ideal to accompany pizza, or other Italian dishes, if you can stomach the extra carbs! They’re even tasty as leftovers the next day.