When I was experimenting in the kitchen and learning how to prepare American fare back in high school, I often reached for prepared foods. It was what I knew and it gave me a starting point to use as a guide. One of those prepared foods I'd reach for is frozen garlic bread. It was a must whenever I made an Italian inspired pasta meal. What I didn't realize back then was how simple it was to make at home. Even better was making it completely from scratch - even the bread!

I recently got back into working on my breadmaking skills through the Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge group. I've been out of the bread loop for a few months but now I'm ready to get back into it. For this week's challenge, I made some Poolish Baguettes. I used one of the baguette loaves for the following herbed garlic bread recipe. Of course, you can use any loaf of bread you'd like - French, Italian, even Texas Toast! What makes this delicious is the herbed garlic and cheese butter that's spread on the bread and baked at a high temperature. What's also nice about this recipe is you can adjust the amounts of garlic, herbs and cheese to suit your tastes. This was the perfect accompaniment for the Italian Sausage & Spinach Manicotti we had for dinner.

*If you're a bread head, you may like YeastSpotting - a site of some amazing bread pics and recipes!

9-10 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil leaves
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 tablespoon minced fresh flat leaf parsley
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh oregano leaves
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 fresh ground pepper

1 loaf Italian bread, halved lengthwise (I used a homemade Poolish baguette)