Overnight Bread Made With 33 Cloves of Garlic!

Yep, you read that right, my friends.  But the garlic is roasted so it goes all squishy and caramelised, tender and tasty.  I always have a huge stockpile of garlic cloves in my freezer, so I was ready to make this aromatic bread.  

I've made a sort of hybrid of Matt Preston's No-Knead Bread recipe, and Molly Yeh's No-Knead Garlic Bread.  There are lots of great recipes in her book Molly on the Range, and Matt's book simply called Matt Preston Cookbook.  He's a food critic and former judge on our Aussie MasterChef tv series.  And she is a food blogger turned writer and tv host, who created the blog my name is yeh.

crusty, golden and garlicky

I'm not much of a bread baker, so this overnight, chuck the dough in the fridge-type-bread is just perfect for me.  This dough makes two loaves, so I gave one to friends who live nearby.  They've been having a rough trot of it lately with their health, so cheering up was in order.  Speaking of which, what is going on with the planets lately? :-)  So many people have had bad falls (like me), and accidents and Covid and the flu (even Mr P., and he never gets sick) and and ...  

Something is awry up there!  The Gods (or Aliens) must be having a right old chuckle at the chaos they're causing down here.  Currently, I have a wheelie walker and crutches and a walking stick in the house!!  My foot is only partly black now.  And I do mean black.  Black as the Ace of Spades as the saying goes.  Oh, and yellow and swollen like an elephant.  Enough said!  You get the picture.  Or if not, check down below.

ingredients:

3 heads of garlic, broken up into cloves (don't bother to peel 'em)

1 Tbs olive oil

1 kg./2.2 lb bread flour 

1 (Aussie) Tbs sea salt flakes (about 15g./a big 1/2 oz)

2 x 7g. packets of dried yeast = 14g. or 1/2 oz

30g./a big ounce semi-dried tomato strips

950 mL/32 oz lukewarm water (boiled and left to cool for 45 mins. to 1 hour)

Method:

First roast your garlic cloves - anointed with olive oil, wrapped in tinfoil/alfoil, and baked at 205C/400F for about 45 minutes till very tender and golden

Let them cool, then squeeeeze out the lovely garlic mash - you could do this step on the day you make the bread, but I suggest doing it the day before - put in the fridge overnight if so

Place the flour, the salt, and the yeast into a large mixing bowl, and give it a big stir with a dough whisk or a regular whisk, then add the tomato strips and stir them in well

Now add your lukewarm water to the dry ingredients, and stir/whisk/mix by hand till you have a well-combined dough

Swaddle it like a baby in lots of clingfilm and whack the bowl into the fridge overnight

Next day, take the dough and garlic out of the fridge for an hour or so to warm up before baking

You then put dabs of the garlic mash all over the dough, and stir it in with a palette knife/spatula, or however takes your fancy 

Now cover the bowl with a tea towel, and leave it for another hour to meld and marry the flavours

Grab two loaf tins, line them with baking paper, and toss a bit of flour around the tins

Give the dough a final stir, throw half into each loaf tin, and bake at 220C/428F for 30 minutes - make sure you place a bowl of water on the bottom shelf while it bakes

Splash a few drops of regular tap water over the tops of the loaves, and bake for another 20-30 minutes till golden - it should sound hollow when you tap it on the bottom (obvs. when you take it out of the tin!)

Let it cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slice up and slather with butter, or wrap them in a tea towel till you decide whether to eat the lot, or put away safely and well-wrapped till another time

Notes:

Apparently the average bulb of garlic has 9 or 10 cloves; I ended up with 33, that kinda morphed into 34 as I had some twins

Just FYI, I ended up with about 83g./3 oz of mashed garlic

Pssst - Matt says you can use normal plain baking flour in a pinch

I left my boiling water to cool for nearly an hour.  I read various articles, and it seems to come down to around 60 minutes, but stick your finger in it, and if it feels tepid/warm but not hot, go for it!  Or mix 1 part regular tap water with 2 parts boiling water and check it

Matt says this makes a wet dough, but mine was rather dry!

time to roast these garlicky little babies!

ready for roasting

after 45 mins. at 205C/400F

all squished out 

dry ingredients

all stirred in

after overnight proving in the fridge

dabbing on the squishy garlic

ready for the oven

after 30 mins.

golden and crunchy after 60 mins.

Mr P. slathering on the butter

yep and more butter from me :-)

We don't usually eat any butter, so this was a special treat.  The last tub sat in our fridge for about nine months!

© Sherry M.

Look away now if you are squeamish!  Here she is, my yucky foot.

so black and yellow and awful!

This photo doesn't really do the foot justice, as it was black and yellow all over and even underneath my foot.  Getting better slowly!  Thank heavens for time and physios.