Garlic Toasts: Pan-Toasted Bread Rubbed with Garlic
We make garlic toasts for almost every festive table. They are a universal base for all sorts of open sandwiches and go well with just about anything people like to spread or pile on toasted bread at a party. Strictly speaking, the garlic is just one of the extras and is not essential.
Cuisines around the world have plenty of toasted or dried bread products, known as toasts, croutons or rusks. As a rule, they are either a snack in their own right or an ingredient in other dishes. Most often, toasted pieces of bread go into salads or soups. Caesar salad, for example, is made with croutons, and the famous pea soup is delicious with a handful of them thrown in.
Either fresh or stale bread is used, cut into cubes of various sizes or into slices. For open sandwiches, fairly large pieces of thinly sliced white loaf or bread are used. In the simplest case, the bread is dried in the oven. More elaborate versions call for grilling or pan-frying, with or without oil. There are also many recipes where the bread is fried in an egg mixture.
For convenience, home cooks very often use a toaster, a common kitchen appliance. If you need dry toasted pieces of bread that you then rub with vegetable oil or garlic, or simply top with a filling, it is a very handy option. Making sweet toasts or slices of bread fried in an egg mixture in a toaster is a problem, though.
So-called “toast” bread is not very convenient: it crumbles and contains a lot of additives. It is best to toast a white loaf, a baguette or slices of fresh yeast-free bread. After toasting, these breads keep their texture and turn slightly crisp.
Out of the many ways of toasting bread, everyone tends to pick the one that suits them best. I have settled on a simple method: slices of fresh white loaf or bread are toasted in a dry frying pan or on a grill. Once they have cooled, each toast is rubbed with a clove of garlic. If you like, you can brush the slice with olive oil, as for bruschetta. After that the toasts are ready to serve, and all that remains is to add a topping.
Ingredients
a large appetizer platter
- White loaf or baguette 1
- Dark yeast-free bread 1
- Garlic 1 head
- Olive oil optional
- Sprats in oil, olives, cold cuts, hard cheese, mozzarella, pickled gherkins, pates and salads, fresh herbs, lemon, eggs, tomatoes, etc. optional
Step-by-step recipe
- In its plain and simple form, garlic toast is nothing more than toasted bread rubbed with garlic. Everything added to it afterwards is entirely up to your taste and imagination. For toasts that are crisp rather than hard, it is better to toast fresh bread. That way you get a barely noticeable softness inside along with a wonderfully crunchy surface. Sandwiches made with this kind of bread are the tastiest. One more thing: for a party it is better to prepare several kinds of bread, to suit every guest.
- As a rule, we toast a fresh French baguette. This bread is not very thick, so we cut it with a bread knife on a very sharp diagonal. The slices come out oval and very elongated. Dark bread is usually wide enough for a sandwich as it is, so it is sliced the usual way. All the slices are about 15 mm thick.
- To get tasty garlic toasts, we toast all the bread in a dry frying pan. It is great if the pan has a ridged base, as the toasts come out looking better. Toast over slightly higher than medium heat: that gives the inside of the bread time to dry out and a golden, crisp crust time to form. Turn the slices often.
- As a rule, the bread takes 4-5 mins to toast. Do not overdo it, as bread starts to burn quickly. Put the toasts on a plate to cool. In the meantime, you can toast the next batch of bread. Once the toasted slices have cooled, they can be rubbed with garlic. The surface of toasted bread is fairly rough in texture, so a clove of garlic grates against it very well, as if on a grater. Usually one clove of garlic is enough for 2-3 medium slices of bread. But you can rub in more if you like, or just a little.
- After that, season the bread lightly with the finest salt and, if you like, brush it with a few drops of vegetable oil. Serve it as an alternative to bread at lunch. Or, as we do, put together a large appetizer platter with various toppings and extras.
- Arrange the toasts on a large plate. Add lemon slices, hard-boiled quail eggs, sprats, pickled gherkins, some fresh herbs and small fresh or pickled tomatoes. And 2-3 cloves of garlic as well, in case someone finds there is not enough. The bread can be brushed with the oil from the sprats. If you like, cold cuts or sliced cheese, smoked fish, pickled mushrooms and seafood would also be great on the platter.
Yield: a large appetizer platter Calories: 240 Prep: 20 mins Cook: 10 mins Total: 30 mins Category: Snacks and Sauces Cuisine: European Rating: