Italian Herb Bread is an incredibly delicious, easy-to-make, no-yeast, no-knead bread. With just 15 minutes of active work time, you'll be slicing this savory bread in 90 minutes!
This Italian Herb Bread is loaded with garlic and has a delicious soft outer crust and a soft, somewhat dense interior.
With generous helpings of herbs and garlic, every bite is incredibly flavorful.
My favorite way to serve it is toasted with unsalted butter.
Is Italian Herb Bread actually Italian?
Nope. While the fresh herbs used -- oregano, rosemary and thyme -- are commonly used in Italy and often referred to as "Italian" in the United States, they are widely used all over the Mediterranean. And authentic Italian breads are not full of herbs like this one.
How to Serve it
- This bread is firm enough to use for sandwiches, and will enhance everything between the slices.
- As I mentioned above, toasted with butter is amazing.
- It's delicious to serve warmed alongside a bowl of chili.
- They are lovely to serve as dinner biscuits (using a muffin pan), with almost any meal.
Recipe Tips and Substitutions
- This Italian herb bread recipe calls for fresh oregano, rosemary and thyme -- however, feel free to use your favorite fresh herbs. You can also use just one or two if you prefer.
- If you don't have fresh herbs, use about ⅓ of the amount of dried herbs.
- Make it gluten free if you'd like to. Substitute the regular all-purpose flour with Cup4Cup Gluten-Free all-purpose flour and use 2 tablespoons less.
- The instructions call for a 12 x 4½ x 2½ loaf pan. If you don't have one, the batter will make 2 loaves in 8½ x 4½ x 2½ inch pans (bake approx. 30 minutes), or 18 biscuits in a muffin ban (bake for 20 minutes).
It's just as easy to bake Italian Herb bread as biscuits in a muffin pan, and the cooking time is about half. The batter will make about 18 biscuits in a standard-sized muffin pan.
Can you make it ahead?
There's nothing quite like a bread right out of the oven, so I always suggest serving it as close to the baking time as possible. However, yes, it will still be delicious if you make it ahead.
- Room temperature. In a tightly sealed container or zip-lock bag, the bread can be kept at room temperature for about two days.
- Refrigerator. In a tightly sealed container or zip-lock bag, it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Freezer. Wrapped tightly, you can store it for about a month in the freezer.
- Unless it's at room temperature, always warm it before serving.
I hope you love this Garlic Italian Herb Bread as much as my family and I do.
More savory bread recipes without yeast:
Garlic Italian Herb Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (2¾ cup if using Cup4Cup Gluten-Free)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic (the finer the better)
- ⅓ cup finely chopped mixed fresh herbs (oregano, rosemary, thyme) washed and dried
Instructions
- Set the oven and prepare the pan. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of a 12 x 4½ x 2½ inch bread pan with the 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
- Make the batter. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. Mix and then make a well in the center and set aside.In a medium-sized mixing bowl, gently whisk buttermilk, egg and garlic. Pour this mixture in the well in the dry ingredients and add the olive oil and herbs. Mix just until it's well everything is well blended.
- Bake. Pour the batter into the oiled pan, drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil evenly on top, and bake in the preheated 350°F oven until the bread is set and slightly golden on top, about 45 minutes.
- Cool. Let the bread cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes. Wait at least 20 minutes before slicing.
Notes
* Makes 2 loaves in 8½ x 4½ x 2½ inch pans (bake approx. 30 minutes)
* Makes 18 muffins/biscuits in standard muffin pan (bake approx. 20 minutes) Calorie count is only an estimate.
Cooking On The Weekends is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
sippitysup
Embrace your gluten if you can. I do... In fact I bought a similar bread at the Hollywood Farmers Market this week. I should have baked my own. GREG
valentina
thank you, Greg! 😀
Lori @ RecipeGirl
I love this recipe- no yeast- yay! no rising- yay! It's beautiful! Enjoy your gluten 🙂
valentina
Lori - thank you! 🙂
Denise
Love garlic bread and this seems an easy and delicious version!
valentina
Easy and delicious, it is! 🙂
Kim
The herbs make it very appropriate for Spring! But I'm sorry your son can't enjoy this one with you. Next time, call me over and I'll help share the loaf. 🙂
[K]
valentina
You got it, Kim. 🙂
Melissa
This looks absolutely amazing! Two questions, if you'll indulge: do you think I could use dried herbs instead of fresh and do you think this bread is strong enough to use for sandwiches? As soon as I saw it, I got a hankering for a turkey sandwich!
valentina
Hi Melissa! Yes it's great for sandwiches (though I'd toast under the broiler and not in a standing toaster). If you use dried herbs you'll use much less, maybe 1 tablespoon for the whole loaf. Thanks for sharing in my blog -- hope you enjoy! 🙂
alan
Your website is great I am happy I found it
Thank you for the great garlic bread recipe I will try it out tommorrow. I am always fond of anything spicy with garlic especially garlic bread-I have been known to be able to eat a loaf alone when its warm maybe I'll bake 2 .
best
wishs
alan
valentina
Thanks so much, Alan! Hope you love the bread! 🙂
Sophie
This looks so good and simple to make. I can't wait to try baking it soon!
valentina
I hope you do try it, Sophie! 😀
Abbey
I just made this recipe and it came out so tasty! I used basil(I think it would be good either way though). The breads texture is so moist and yummy. Thanks for sharing this easy bread recipe!
valentina
Hi Abbey! I'm thrilled you made and loved the bread! And the basil sounds like the perfect addition! xo
Lana
OK, I am so making this bread tomorrow morning! I love the quick, no-yeast-breads and it reminds me of lunches in Serbia, when my mom would bake something similar. I made biscuits and eggs and gravy and bacon today, and I am not slaving tomorrow morning:)
Happy Passover!
valentina
I hope you have a relaxing morning, Lana! Sending hugs! 🙂
Brittany
I love your site! I just recently started staying at home so I could finish planning my wedding, get married in June, and take summer classes. Let me just say, this bread is getting made TONIGHT. I am so excited to try this and a lot of your other recipes. Thank you! I love finding new things and experimenting with new things in the kitchen.
-Britt
valentina
Brittany, thank you for your sweet comment -- I'm happy to have you here! Hope you enjoy the recipes. And congratulations of your up coming wedding! How exciting! 🙂
LouAnn
I love this and will try it soon. My husband and myself absolutely love breads like this. It warms my heart to see such a loving mother and of course father. For you both to embrace such a change in your diet to show your son support just warms my heart. I'm glad that you indulge in gluten once in awhile because that makes it easier i'm sure to be able to go gluten free for longer times knowing that you can have gluten once in a while. HUGS to you for being such a great mom. Thank you for this recipe, it looks amazing and I will be trying it this weekend for sure.
valentina
LouAnn, what a sweet comment. Thank you. 🙂 I hope you love the bread as much as I do! Your home will be filled with the wonderful scent of herbs and garlic! xo Valentina
Judy Kallmeyer
Sounds yummy! I am a diabetic. Do you have any idea how many carbs would be in, say, a one ounce slice? I am going to try the recipe using stevia instead of sugar. Will be interesting to see if it changes the consistency of the batter at all.
valentina
Hi Judy, I'm so sorry but I don't know the nutritional breakdown of this bread. I will try to research that. I think the stevia will be fine! 🙂
valentina
Sawyne, I haven't made this without the yogurt, but it would probably work to add 1/2 cup more of the buttermilk and skip the yogurt -- that said, I'd use the yogurt if you can. 🙂 Thanks for visiting my site!
Roseanne Dolan
I always have yogurt on hand and use it in all my muffins and quick breads. Love your healthy approach as I have to tweek fat & sugar in most everything! I add zucchini & toasted nuts to bump up the fiber. Shall enjoy trying your recipes! I don't own 11 in. pans, but will try the muffins.
valentina
Thanks for visiting my site,Roseanne! Hope you enjoy this yummy bread! 🙂
Debbie
I have some jewels gluten free flour substitute that is pretty close to regular flour I think I'm going to try that. I have found that I have a gluten and yeast sensativity and while on occasion I'll eat a piece of regular bread I will pay for it in then end. Excited to try this yeast free recipe.
valentina
I hope you enjoy it, Debbie! Thank you for visiting! 🙂
Mary
This looks so good and easy. I'm going to make it your original way and then I'm going to try adding some shredded Asiago Cheese to a second batch. Then it's on to the Chocolate/Coconut one!!
Jenn Ross
I tried this recipe once, it was so delicious. That was also my first time visiting your site. Then I got a new computer and could not find the page to save my life. I've been searching for two days. Finally I remembered you talking about your son with Celiac disease. I searched for "home chef blog with celiac son makes herbed garlic bread". I don't know how terrible that sounds but that's the only thing that worked for me. I was so very, very thankful to have found it. I LOVE your site and it's now in my faves. Thanks!
valentina
Jenn -- what a sweet comment. Thank you! I'm so very happy you found me again -- and that you loved the bread! 🙂 Valentina
valentina
Thanks, Katy! Can't wait to hear how it turns out! 🙂
Amy
Yum! This is the first garlic bread recipe I've tried that I was actually impressed with! Flavor wasn't overwhelming, fairly light and its actually moist! Thanks!
I did alter it a bit though to suit the ingredients I had-
I only halved it because I wasn't sure how it would turn out but man now I wish I did a full recipe. I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose and just added a little less, I used normal milk because I didn't have any buttermilk and I didn't have any fresh garlic or herbs so I used dry. I actually only had garlic salt so I cut about half the salt out and added about a fourth of what the garlic called. Oh and instead of sugar, I used coconut sugar. 🙂
valentina
Amy, thank you for the lovely compliment! All of your alterations sound delicious. Love it! 🙂
Amy Swim
We just made this tonight, and it's definitely a keeper. It came out a little heavy, but that'll happen when you leave the egg on the counter instead of in the dough. 🙂
We used Pam to grease the pans, and a good bread knife, and were able to turn it out and cut it while still piping hot, which is how we prefer to eat our bread.
Also, we baked some of the dough in pint size mason jars (about half full was perfect). We plan to give lasagne and garlic bread as gifts this holiday season, so we'll bake the lasagne in the bottom half of a jar, and top with foil. Then we'll bake this bread in a half pint jar and move it to place on top of the lasagne. Then of course make it look nice with labels and ribbon. We're hoping this will be a welcome change to all the sugar my daughter's teachers get every year. I've heard you can seal baked bread in mason jars and leave on a shelf for several months if you seal while it's hot. We're trying this with one jar of this bread.
valentina
Hi Amy, thanks so much for sharing your experience with this recipe. And what a fantastic gift idea -- I've never made bread in a jar before. What fun! (Maybe even better to be the recipient!) Thanks so much for spending time on my site. 🙂
Wanda
just made these in muffin pans & used dried rosemary b/c that's what I had in the cabinet. The house smells wonderful! The muffins taste good, but didn't get that pretty brown top like your pic before they were done inside. Muffins might do better with a slightly lower temp. Also, they were a bit sweet for my taste, so I'll reduce the sugar next time. all in all -- its a keeper!
valentina
Hi Wanda! So happy you liked this recipe, and that you can adjust it to your taste. I LOVE when the scent of rosemary fills my house. 🙂
valentina
Yes! 🙂
Sandy
Hi...Liking ur recipe a lot n wanted to give a try.I m a pure vegan.Can u suggest a substitute for an egg.
valentina
Sure. I haven't tried it with a substitute, but I think it would work.Here's how to make egg substitute with flax meal . . . http://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-a-flax-egg/ Let me know how it goes, whatever you use!
angiesrecipes
I want a few slices with a bowl of hot steaming cheese soup 🙂
Karen (Back Road Journal)
Your herb bread sounds terrific and I really like the idea of turning it into muffins. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.
Jeff the Chef @ Make It Like a Man!
This looks fantastic! I think I'd love it for breakfast.
2pots2cook
WOW !!!!!!!! YOU SPEAK MY LANGUAGE DEAR ! Love, love it !!! I wish you and your family to have happy and healthy 2022. !
Christina
Pass the butter, Valentina!! Looks good!
valentina
Thank you, my friend! And a very happy new year to you and your family. xo Valentina