|
Preparation: 10 mins
Cooking Time: approx. 25 mins
Serves approx. 8
Ingredients
1 unsliced round/oblong crusty bread loaf such as sour dough, Vienna, casa di pane, etc.
1 cup (or more) grated/shredded melting cheese – such as a mix of Mozzarella, Cheddar and Parmesan (delicious), or try Mozzarella, Gruyere or Provolone.
Garlic Butter Mix:
½ to 1 cup (250gm) butter – melted (amount depends on the size of the bread loaf you’ve got)
2 to 3 cloves garlic – crushed (or use 2 to 3 tspns tube/jar minced garlic), more or less to taste
1 tblspn fresh parsley – finely chopped (or a good alternate is the lightly-dried parsley now available on supermarket shelves)
salt, pepper to taste
Directions
• Preheat your camp oven to hot, or your home oven to 200°C or 180°C fan-force.
• Using a large, sharp, serrated bread knife, cut the bread into a criss-cross (diamond) pattern, about 3 to 4cm wide (1” to 1 ½”), but DON’T CUT all the way through to the bottom of the bread. (Just like you would cut a French stick for garlic bread.)
• Place the bread on a large sheet of foil, enough to wrap entirely. (It’s easier to do this now, than try and lift the bread onto the foil once you’ve poured in the garlic butter.)
• In a smallish bowl combine the melted butter with the other garlic butter mix ingredients.
• Using your fingers or a knife, pry open the cracks in the bread and drizzle in the melted garlic butter mix evenly in the cracks.
• Last, sprinkle or spoon in the grated cheese into the cracks.
• This is fiddly, I’ll be honest, with both the garlic butter mix and the cheese, but it is well worth the effort in the end.
• Cover and enclose the bread with foil.
• Place on a baking tray and bake for 15 to 20 mins until the cheese has mostly melted, then open up the foil and bake for another 5 to 10 mins until the bread is nice and crusty.
• In your camp oven, make sure you have a trivet in the bottom, and then place the foil wrapped bread on the trivet, cover and bake as detailed. (Coals top and bottom.)
• Serve immediately - open up the foil and let everyone grab a piece and pull it out!
Viv's hint:
You could add some finely chopped spring onions, chives or finely chopped bacon. If you can’t be bothered melting the butter, just let it really soften and then mix in all the ingredients and spread as evenly as you can throughout the cut bread.
NOTE: the denser the bread, the better the pieces will hold together when pulled off.
You could make this ahead at home the day before you head off on a camping trip and take with you to finish off baking in your camp oven. To make ahead, after wrapping in foil, wrap with cling wrap as well then store in the refrigerator, or freeze to keep longer. To cook, thaw then follow directions to bake. |
