Tear-and-share garlic bread

Method

• step 1

  Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl, and 2 tbsp olive oil with 300ml hand-hot water, in a jug. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix to a smooth dough – first with a wooden spoon, then your hand. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until super-smooth and very elastic (or for 5 minutes in a stand mixer). Put back into your cleaned-out bowl, cover with oiled clingfilm and leave to rise at room temperature until doubled in size.

• step 2

  Meanwhile, put the mozzarella balls in a sieve, break them into fine pieces and squeeze out as much water as you can. Leave in the sieve until the bread is risen.

• step 3

  Put the mozzarella into a food processor with the butter, parmesan, garlic, parsley, basil, oregano and some seasoning. Whizz until smooth.

• step 4

  To assemble the loaf, line the base and ends of a 900g loaf tin with one long strip of baking parchment. Using half of the dough at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface until it stops shrinking back and is a big square, with each side roughly three times the width of your tin. Using kitchen scissors, cut the sheet of dough into 9 smaller squares – each square should be roughly the same size as the end of your loaf tin – roughly is the key word, the rougher it is, the better the end result will be. (If you end up rolling more of a rectangle than can be cut into 8 small squares, that’s fine too – 8 or 9 won’t matter.)

• step 5

  Keep back a couple of tbsps of the garlic butter, then spread half of the rest over each piece of dough. Stack the pieces on top of each other like a tall sandwich, then lift into the tin so the stack’s on its side – it should fill roughly half the length of the tin. Balance the tin against a jar or something at this stage, so the layers don’t fall apart, and stay stacked at one end.

• step 6

  Repeat with the other half of the dough, and lift the second stack carefully in to sandwich with the first and fill the tin. Sit the tin back on a flat surface, cover loosely with oiled clingfilm, and leave for 20-30 minutes at room temperature until the layers have started to rise out of the tin and puff.

• step 7

  Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Bake the loaf in the middle of the oven for 40-45 minutes until the loaf is risen, golden and crisping on the top and sides. Brush the top with the remaining butter, or leave it for dunking when the you serve the bread. Leave the loaf to cool for 30 minutes in the tin, then carefully lift out onto a board, and let everyone tear slices off.