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Garlic Confit 4-Strand Braided Loaf

food
5
food
170 mins
bread
side dish
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by Natasha
Published on 01 September 2022
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Garlic confit has been taking over the internet these past few months. With people making them as spreads for toasts or infusing them in potatoes, it has been one of the most viral creations on the internet. There’s a whole account dedicated to garlic confit-based recipes on Tiktok. Not only it’s viral, but garlic confit is also delicious. It’s one of the best things to add to your dishes, such as pastas, rice or like in this recipe, your favourite bread!

So what is garlic confit, exactly? Well, the term confit is used when something is cooked slowly until it’s very tender in texture. The basic ingredients of a garlic confit recipe is very simple: garlic, olive oil, salt and black pepper. Anything else added is to enhance the flavour of the confit even more.

I always wanted to make something that involves garlic confit and I thought of making garlic bread with it. But garlic bread itself is a pretty simple-self explanatory recipe, right? So how can I make this more interesting? By making the dough of the bread itself infused with garlic confit!

For me to level up this garlic confit bread recipe, even more, is by shaping the bread into something that I’ve never made before, a 4-strand braided ball shape. I’ve been pretty addicted to bread making and honestly, shaping the dough is one of the most fun things I’ve ever done!

I wanted the texture of this bread to be very soft but still pliable. So I used full olive oil for the fat content as well as adding one egg yolk. Yolks in bread recipes are always a great way to add moisture and give a more tender and soft texture to the dough once baked.

Another thing that also makes this a more fancy type of garlic bread is by glazing the outside of the bread with some garlic confit butter glaze. You can slice the loaf and make a sandwich with them.

This garlic confit recipe will also show you how to make a unique shaping technique so you can impress your friends and family!

So please do try this Garlic Confit 4-strand Bread Loaf recipe of mine! Surely you won't regret it!

Additional Notes from Author:

  • Garlic heads can vary in size, so make sure if you get a large one just use one, if you get small/medium ones, you might need more than one. The amount of garlic used in this recipe is never too much. Might even be better if it’s more than what’s written on the recipe.
  • Adding the yolk to warm water won’t cook it since 100 celsius is not that hot.
  • This dough is going to be more on the wet side so take your time kneading it. When kneading with your hand, you can never over-knead it.
  • Look up “4-strand braided ball” to understand the pattern more.

Some terms you might need to know:

Garlic Confit 4-Strand Braided Loaf

by Natasha
servings
4 people
prep time
155 mins
dish type
Bread
cook time
15 mins
course
Side dish
total time
170 mins

ingredients

  • For the Bread

    • 65 gramwater(warm)
    • garlic confit(¾ (75%) of the amount made)
    • 12 gramolive oil
    • 1 pc(s)egg yolk
    • 140 grambread flour
    • 1 gramyeast
    • 0.25 tspsalt
    • 0.13 tspblack pepper
    • 10 gramegg wash(as needed, for brushing)
    • 5 gramolive oil(as needed, for brushing)

  • For the Garlic Butter Glaze

    • 5 grambutter(room temperature)
    • garlic confit(¼ (25%) of amount made)
    • 1 pinchsalt
    • 1 pinchblack pepper

instructions

Making the Garlic Confit

  1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius.
  2. Take your head(s) of garlic and chop the root part of.
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  3. Prepare your baking tray and add large-size aluminium foil (enough to fit your garlic).
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  4. Add your garlic to the aluminium foil and season with olive oil, salt and black pepper. Close off the aluminium foil so that the inside doesn’t leak out.
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  5. Bake it for about 40 minutes or until nice and tender.
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  6. Take the confit out of the foil and let it cool for 10 minutes.
  7. Take a small bowl and squeeze the confit out of its skin. Using a fork, smash the garlic confit until it forms a paste. Set it aside.
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Making the dough

  1. Heat your water in the microwave at 300 watts for 30 seconds or until it reaches 100-105 degrees celsius.
  2. Add ¾ (75%) of your garlic confit, olive oil and egg yolk to the warm water. Mix very well.
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  3. Add bread flour, yeast, salt and black pepper together. Mix very well.
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  4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix using a spatula until it forms a tacky dough.
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  5. Take your dough to a work surface and knead your dough for about 15 minutes or until smooth on the surface. Shape your dough into a ball.
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  6. Prepare a clean bowl brushed with olive oil.
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  7. Take your ball of dough and place it seam side down in the greased bowl. Wrap the bowl with some plastic wrap. Rest at room temperature for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
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Making the glaze

  1. Take your butter and add the garlic confit (¼ of the amount that was made). Mix well until fully incorporated. Set it aside.
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Making the 4-Strand braided loaf

  1. Punch the dough to release the gas inside. Take it out of the bowl and place it onto your work surface. Shape into a ball.
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  2. Weigh the dough and divide it into 4 equal parts. Shape individual dough into a ball.
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  3. Take the used plastic wrap from before and cover the top of the dough. Let it rest on the work surface for 10 minutes.
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  4. Flatten out each dough with your hand to get rid of the gas in the dough.
  5. Stretch the dough with your hands into an oval and roll the dough into a cylinder shape. Seal the seams so that the roll doesn’t break.
  6. Roll each dough into a long rope, about 28 cm long.
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  7. Start by placing 2 ropes horizontally with 2cm space apart from each other and 2 ropes vertically with 2cm apart from each other as well. Now take one horizontal rope over one of the vertical ropes and take the other horizontal rope over the other vertical rope, making a lattice pattern. Then take the right top rope and cross over the left and continue to do it in a counter-clockwise pattern. Now take the left rope and do the same but in a clockwise pattern. The pictures below should help with the step-by-step.
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  8. Prepare your baking tray with a baking mat/baking paper. Place the dough on the tray and cover with the used plastic wrap.
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  9. Let the dough rest for 25 minutes.
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  10. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius.
  11. When the dough has risen, brush the dough with some egg wash until fully covered.
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  12. Bake the bread for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
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  13. Take the bread out of the oven and brush the garlic confit butter glaze on your bread until fully covered. Sprinkle it with salt and black pepper on top.
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bread
side dish
garlic confit
garlic bread
loaf
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Natasha
Bake it till you make it!