Olive Cheesy Garlic Bread

Yes, I love olives. So does my husband, so do my children… bonus. This is an unusual scenario because olives are one of those foods that tend to bring about extreme emotions. People tend to love them, or hate them… there are no wishy/washy feelings about olives in my experience. So if you are in the love camp like my family, read on!

When I pinned this original recipe, I knew it would be a winner. What was not winning about it for me were the original amounts of butter, mayonnaise and cheese it called for. I reduced all three by half and it’s still a decadent, delicious {yet super quick} meal. I added lots of garlic, using the dry-toasting method for the cloves from my most favorite ever recipe for Garlic Bread and my original recipe for Mexican Pasta Salad. I’d also just made a trip to Penzeys Spices for some fun things to add to my cooking collection, and so I added a dose of smoked Spanish paprika to the topping mix for this bread… so good!

And speaking of bread, maybe this is obvious to those of you reading, but if you are going to the trouble of making a bread topped with such goodness for dinner, then please search out some high-quality bread. My go-to is Panera because we have a store at the end of our residential street. I bike there and walk there often, pretending I’m Parisian as the cars go flying by on the street, HA! But seriously, make sure your bread is a star for this recipe. When I went to purchase mine, they were out of Country Loaves, so I used Sourdough. It was an awesome compliment for these toppings.

Also, despite significantly reducing the butter, mayo and cheese from the original recipe, this bread is still far from health food. But that’s OK if it’s surrounded with fresh fruits and veggies you actually enjoy eating. This was what our dinner looked like… fresh spinach salad topped with red peppers and a country French vinaigrette using some more of my Penzeys Spices, and some super sweet cantaloupe for dessert. A delicious dinner, fast.

Print Pin

Olive Cheesy Garlic Bread

Servings 8

Ingredients

• One loaf Sourdough bread from Panera
• 1 6 oz. can black olives, drained and chopped fine
• 1 5.75 oz. jar green olives with pimentos, chopped fine
• 6 cloves garlic dry toasted and pressed
• 1/4 c. red onion chopped fine
• 4 T. unsalted butter softened
• 1/4 c. mayonnaise not low-fat
• 1 1/2 c. 6 oz. Munster cheese, shredded
• 1/2 t. Spanish smoked Paprika
• fresh cracked pepper

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Slice bread evenly in half lengthwise and place on a large sheet pan, cut sides up.
• In a large bowl, use a spatula to spread out your softened butter so it mixes evenly with everything else. Then dump in the rest of your ingredients {both olives, pressed garlic, onion, mayo, cheese, Paprika and pepper}. Mix very well so all the ingredients are evenly distributed. Divide mixture in half and spread evenly over both sides of the cut bread.
• Bake on center rack for 28-30 minutes. Turn on your broiler's high setting and broil bread for 1-2 additional minutes to nicely brown the top. Allow to cool for a bit before slicing and serving.

Notes

To dry toast garlic, do NOT peel the cloves. Simply separate them from the head. Heat a non-stick skillet to medium heat and toast the unpeeled cloves for 8-10 minutes, shaking pan occasionally to toast all sides of garlic. Allow to cool for a bit and put them through a press to add to your topping mixture.

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman