Brown Butter Garlic Bread

Brown Butter Garlic Bread- Nutty brown butter, fresh garlic and herbs, and plenty of cheese are schmeared on fluffy bread for the ultimate garlic bread upgrade.

February 12, 2025 by Nicole Collins

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Today, we’re making Brown Butter Garlic Bread!

You know how brown butter was kind of my whole personality in 2024? We made brown butter cookies. We made brown butter hollandaise. We made brown butter Rice Krispie Treats. It was all brown butter, all the time.

Turns out, that has not changed in 2025. So, let’s get right to our first brown butter recipe of the new year. And bonus, it involves bread!

First things first, we have to brown the butter. You guys know that I prefer to do this in a light colored saucepan, because it’s a little easier to see the color change. If you don’t have any utensils like this, that’s ok. You’ll smell the butter when it’s ready. But, I just like that extra security. Either way, it only takes about 8-10 mins over a low-medium heat for a stick of melted butter to become golden in color, nutty and fragrant, and oh so delicious. We’re essentially just toasting the milk solids in the butter, and that caramelization takes it from wow to WOW.

Once the butter is toasty, we want to transfer this to a stainless steel bowl, and pop it in the freezer for a few minutes. If you retain nothing else from this post, retain this: DO NOT use a glass bowl for this step. It will crack. The super hot butter in a glass bowl might be enough already to make it crack, but the extreme temperature change by tossing it immediately in the freezer will 100% make it crack. Plastic is not going to cut it either. The brown butter will basically be hot lava, and we don’t want to melt our bowl from the inside out. Trust me, stick with stainless steel for this one.

We need to chill the butter just long enough for it to solidify. You’ll see the butter become opaque, and that’s just what we want. We’re looking for the texture of softened butter…not too firm, not too melty. Once the brown butter reaches that consistency, we’ll add in some grated garlic, some minced parsley, a pinch of salt, and a little freshly shredded parmesan cheese. Then, we’ll use a hand mixer to whip the extra goodies into the butter, and it’s ready for the bread.

I like to use either a French or Italian baguette for this. Both are nice and crusty on the outside but still perfectly fluffy on the inside. And, that makes for gooooood garlic bread. We’ll split the loaf, lather our brown butter mixture all over the bread, then to the oven it goes to get nice and toasty. That’s it, so simple!

This bread…UGH!! Just when you thought garlic bread couldn’t possibly get any better, we introduce nutty brown butter to the party. That sweet, toasty flavor balances out the pungent garlic and savory cheese in the most beautiful way. And the bread. Oh the bread. It gets nice and crisp on the outside, but it still has the perfect soft chew in the center. Talk about an actual dream. This is the garlic bread to end all garlic breads.

Ok, everyone! What else should we add brown butter to? The possibilities are endless!

I hope you guys enjoy! And, let’s eat!

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Brown Butter Garlic Bread

Serves: 8          Print

Ingredients:

• 1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter

• 4 cloves garlic, grated on a microplane

• 1 tbsp parsley, minced

• 1/3 cup freshly shredded parmesan cheese

• 1/8 tsp salt

• 1 loaf (14- 16oz) French or Italian bread, sliced in half horizontally

Directions:

1. Brown the butter: Add butter to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once melted and starting to sizzle, cook for 8-10 mins, swirling the pan occasionally, until the butter turns deep golden in color and has a nutty smell. Transfer brown butter to stainless steel bowl, and place in the freezer for 25-30 mins until the butter just starts to solidify but is still soft.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. To the chilled butter, add grated garlic, parsley, parmesan, and salt. Use a hand mixer to whip the butter until smooth and fully combined.

4. Arrange both halves of the bread on the prepared baking sheet, cut side up. Evenly schmear the butter mixture all over the bread. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden and toasty. Enjoy!
   

Recipe notes:

*I like to use a saucepan with a light color interior to help see the color of the butter change as it browns.

*Grating the garlic vs. mincing it helps to ensure the garlic is so fine that it will be nice and evenly distributed throughout the garlic butter preventing any bites with large hunks of garlic.