Vegan Garlic bread

Oh, baking. Do you love baking? The scent of freshly baked bread coming softly and filling every corner of your home? I do. And if you are anything like me, then you’re gonna love this garlic bread. If you love bread, you’re gonna love it.

We sometimes avoid garlic for obvious reason: you cannot just stuff yourself with garlic and then go outside into people’s faces frolicly. Yes, we do have tooth brushing and freshening gadgets but sometimes too much is too much. But not with this bread! Just a slight hint of taste and scent. Enough to tickle your senses and fill you up nicely but still make you presentable and not avoidable (now that’s not a proper phrase, I presume, but you know what I mean).

And that’s a good thing, as Martha Stewart would say, it is really so good to be able to enjoy garlicky, soft and delicious bread along with some fresh veggies or yoghurt. Or by itself, as we ate it.

I made a batch of it recently and I’m pretty sure my close neighbours we’re lifting their eyebrows and noses with envy. So I ate one and packed the rest. Few for my husband at work and few for those neighbours, of course. You have to keep things in balance when baking, you know. Especially when baked goods are as yummy as this garlic bread so you get tempted to eat more than you should. And to nurture good neighbour relationships. And surprise your better half at work with this great snack.

This garlic bread is nothing more than usual vegan flatbread but enriched with some garlic and olive oil brushing. You can also sprinkle it with some seeds if you like. I had some pumpkin seeds sitting idly so used them for added taste and nice look, but you can also use sesame or anything else, as long it doesn’t get in the way of beautiful garlic aroma. Some fresh herbs on top of it when baked would go nice as well!

So how do you make it? Pretty easy, as you’ll see.

And how do you like your flatbreads? How do you make them? Tell me! 😀

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Vegan Garlic Bread

Vegan, soft and so delicious, this Garlic bread is ideal along with some veggies or yoghurt!

Servings: 8 pieces of flatbread

Ingredients

• 20 g fresh yeast or 1 tbsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 270 ml tepid water
• 500 g flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil

For brushing:

• 2 - 3 garlic cloves
• 4 - 5 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. Take your mixing bowl, add water and sugar and dissolve everything nicely. You can wait few mins till the yeast activates but I never do, so it's up to you. 

2. Add flour, salt and oil and mix well. For best results, use hand or stand mixer and mix for good 10 mins. The dough will be sticky but DON'T ADD MORE FLOUR because the dough will be hard and dense. So mixer it is. After 10 mins dough should lose much of it's stickyness and be nice, elastic and smooth. 

3. Cover the bowl with a lid (save on those plastic foils and Earth too 😉 and leave it to rise, shine and bubble for an hour or so. 

4. Line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper. 

5. Turn your oven to heat to 200°C / 400 F.

6. Prepare brushing: mince the garlic finely and add olive oil. 

7. Punch the dough down and knead for a short min. Divide it in 8 equal parts and roll them out into a thin ovals, sized about like the man's big palm. Put them onto the baking sheets. 

8. Leave the bread to rest for about 10 mins or so till the oven is fully heated. 

9. Bake the bread for 4 mins. Take it out, brush with some garlic and oil and take it back for another 2 - 3 mins. Watch for the garlic not to burn. 

10. Serve it warm or cooled with some great veggies or yoghurt. Or just eat it by itself, dipping it into the brushing oil leftovers 😉 

I usually make flatbread by this odds of ingreedients but this garlic thing I saw at Croatian blog Dubravka: svaki dan.

And another thing. I’ve been learning about food photography and of course, looking up to my role models. One of them is my dear friend Aleksandra from trilingual blog Vanilla & Staubzucker. Aleksandra writes in English, Italian and Croatian and I do love her recipes! But equaly as much I do love her beautiful photos so with this bread I tried to recreate some of them. Dark, a bit moody, with light beautifly layed on a bowl of rising dough or fresh, vibrant fruit. Just like on old master’s paintings, I tell Aleksandra, you are a master painter. Aleksandra is humble and just nodds her head, but her photos speak much for her. I wanna be Aleksandra when I grow up! 😀

And before you go, pin this recipe for later! See you soon, my dear cooks and bakers!