Can you microwave something you normally toast? Sure, but only to warm it up or make it slightly crispy. You can re-toast something like garlic bread. You certainly can’t make garlic bread by microwave that’s as good as the one made by a toaster oven!
We’ve made garlic bread before in the microwave. It’s simpler to use a toaster, toaster oven, or conventional oven to make them for obvious reasons. They don’t come out as crispy as when you bake or toast them. Using the microwave can serve as an alternative way for you to cook garlic bread.
So can you microwave garlic bread? Yes! Is it as good as toasted or baked garlic bread? No, but you can make something serviceable for lack of an oven or toaster. Learn exactly how and why below.
Can You Microwave Garlic Bread?
You can make garlic bread with a microwave. Just place the bread slices apart on a microwave-safe plate then place paper towels over the top of them. Use the lowest power setting available on your microwave then “nuke” them from 20 seconds to 40 seconds.
You should have reheated pieces of garlic toast bread in no time or barely a minute flat. When it comes to reheating already made garlic bread, you have to microwave it for 3-5 seconds instead of at peak power.
If frozen, put it on high power for 15 to 25 seconds instead. You can also defrost them at 30 percent for 20-30 seconds to 50 percent for 23-33 seconds (depends on the power setting of your defrost button).
Can You Make Garlic Bread with Your Microwave?
Sure, but it’s not as toasty or brown as when made by an oven or oven toaster. In order to make a loaf or slice of bread into garlic bread, you need two ingredients. You can purchase ready-made garlic bread or Texas toast garlic bread if you wish.
Experiment a bit to see if the right timing or power level works for your bread relative to the type of microwave you’re using. We base our timing and settings on a typical 1-kilowatt microwave.
How to Cook Garlic Bread in the Microwave
Regardless of the bread, you use to make garlic bread, the cooking time should remain the same. The microwave should heat it up enough to melt the butter but not enough to toast it golden brown. Adding cheese to the bread should increase the cooking time a little in order to melt the cheese.
Like what was mentioned earlier, put the bread slices apart on your microwave-safe container. Put a paper towel atop them to absorb moisture. Use the lowest power setting then cook it for 20 seconds to 40 seconds.
You can also place wax paper under the bread for extra cooking assistance. Don’t microwave the bread for too long, like for a full minute. The crust of French bread can turn the bread tough and chewy.
You may also like: How to Toast Bread in a Microwave Convection Oven
How to Cook Garlic Bread in the Convection Microwave
A convection microwave oven combo works best in baking garlic bread fast. You can use it the same way you’d use an oven. Just preheat from 300°F to 400°F. Afterwards, bake the bread for 10 minutes. Don’t use the combo method of using microwaves along with the convection fans.
Just use the convection mode. Add foil below the bread and above the baking pan. Don’t use the aluminum foil while in microwave mode or combo mode. This results in arcing or electrical sparks that could burn your bread or destroy your microwave oven.
How to Prep Your Garlic Bread
Prep your garlic bread before baking or microwaving it. Youc an do so by seasoning it with garlic or putting on garlic butter all over it. The most basic garlic bread has butter, garlic powder, and garlic salt mixed all over it.
Main Ingredients
You can use either garlic salt or garlic powder. The difference? The salt one has more sodium. If you use salted butter, you can just use garlic butter. The unsalted butter may require extra salt. How much salt? It depends on how salty you wish your garlic bread to be.
If the garlic bread gets too salty it takes away from its garlic flavor. Go with your personal taste. A good tip? Make sure not to chill the butter. Use soft butter to make it easier to spread it all around the bread.
Additional Ingredients
You can add seasonings like dried chives, oregano leaves, and parsley flakes to go with your buttered garlic bread. Aside from butter, you can use olive oil as a substitute. It’s harder to cook in a microwave but should work fine with a conventional oven.
Onion powder can also be used to sprinkle all over the bread but sprinkle it moderately. To start prepping the bread, spread butter or oil on each slice. Afterwards, add garlic salt or powder. You can also sprinkle additional herbs if you’re using them as well.
What Cheese Should You Use for Garlic Bread?
You can use various cheeses to make your garlic bread more delicious. The ones that regularly show up for Italian dishes should work fine. Any cheese type could be used, but go for cheeses that melt like cream cheese and whatnot.
You can add cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, or mozzarella cheese to get an extra cheesy garlic bread result. Only use a moderate amount of cheddar. This cheese doesn’t melt as well as parmesan, mozzarella, or cream cheese. It could also burn easily on the oven or microwave.
Grated parmeson should be put atop the bread after cooking or baking the bread. When microwaving the cheese, make sure they’ve already melted.
You can use sliced or shredded cheese atop the bread. The cheese should be added first before seasonings. You can try putting the seasoning before the cheese and see if you prefer it that way. We personally prefer adding cheese first.
Things of Note
Renowned for its taste, garlic bread serves as a great side dish or accompaniment to pizza, pasta, or spaghetti. What’s more, you can make your own garlic bread if you don’t wish to specifically buy a ready-made one from Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, or Domino’s.
You can turn French bread, Italian bread, or whole wheat bread into garlic bread. You can season a simple piece of toast with a special garlic butter spread in order to turn it into garlic bread. As shown on this guide, you can microwave it too.
References:
- “FAQ: How to cook garlic bread without an oven?“, TheInfiniteKitchen.com, March 8, 2021
- Eric M Wilkens, “How To Prepare and Microwave Garlic Bread“, CookingChops.com, Retrieved November 17, 2021
