Black Garlic Bread

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As you probably know by now, I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting ingredients.  The latest is black garlic.  Derek and I have seen it used before on some of our favorite cooking shows like Chopped or Iron Chef and have always thought it sounded super delicious.  Put quite simply, it’s aged garlic.  More specifically, it’s traditionally aged using low heat for at least a few weeks, though with a pressure cooker you can make it in a ‘mere’ nine days.  The result is garlic cloves that are black, super soft, a little sweet, and no longer have the “bite” that raw garlic does.  It has an amazing flavor, almost like if you crossed roasted garlic and balsamic vinegar.  Recently our local grocery store starting selling it, so it was time to finally try it for ourselves!  After some research, we learned making it at home is a hassle (unless you want your home smelling of garlic for weeks on end), so I’m glad to know we have a regular source. 

The possibilities are endless for what you can use black garlic for, but I knew right away I wanted to create a schmear for bread with it.  My dad used to make a simple garlic bread growing up that I always loved, so I created a version of that using the black garlic.  So delicious!

Let’s get to it.  

Preheat your broiler.

Now put the softened butter and black garlic in a blender, food processor, or medium bowl.  I did mine in a bowl and used an immersion blender to mix it all together.  If you don’t have one, just blend or process until it’s smooth and creamy and there’s no chunks of black garlic.

Cut the French bread in half lengthwise and put it on a cookie sheet.  Slather on the garlic butter and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese.

Pop the bread under the broiler and keep watch.  It should only take a few minutes to get nice and browned and tasty.  Take it out and slice it into slabs.

Enjoy the bread warm.  The garlic butter will keep in the fridge, if you don’t want to make a whole loaf of the garlic bread at one time.  I actually just made a partial loaf for us the first time (which is probably for the best, because we would’ve wolfed down the whole dang loaf if I’d made it!).

The parmesan creates a salty crust on top of the bread and the garlic butter makes the middle almost creamy. 

If you buy a whole head of black garlic, you’ll have some extra cloves after making this bread.  Here are some other things you could use it for:

• As the flavor base in a vinaigrette
• Topping for baked potatoes
• Mixed in with butter on popcorn
• Simple sauce for pasta
• In a homemade BBQ sauce
• As a schmear by itself on crackers, bread, or bagels

Let me know if you think of other ways to use it!