You Should Rethink Doing This When Grilling Bread

Grilling bread requires a light touch, and you can easily fall prey to a ton of mistakes when you start making toast over a high heat source. According to The Spruce Eats, you need to use a hearty loaf, like sourdough, rye breads, and thick-sliced loaves filled with nuts or cheese. These varieties of bread take on new life when toasted and compare to few other baked goods. Once you have your selection of bread picked out, you can now start cooking. To avoid any grilling bread missteps DVP and Executive Chef at La Brea Bakery Cafés, Henk Drakulich, spoke with Mashed about what to keep in mind. 

Olive oil can prove finicky at the best of times, and using it in a high heat situation could easily spell disaster. "To avoid burning extra virgin olive oil, don't put it on before grilling," Drakulich advised. "Instead, add it after the bread comes off the grill." You might make the assumption that a fancy oil or butter deserves to hit the bread before cooking it, but according to Drakulich, you want to avoid dressing up your bread while it toasts. "Either put the slices on the grill dry or brush lightly with a neutral oil, like grapeseed oil," he explained.

Even if you avoid over-oiling your bread, using thin slices can spell disaster on a grill. "Slice bread on the thicker side, around 1.5 inches," Drakulich said. "This way, the outside is crisp but the inside is still soft and airy." Once your slices have properly cooked, you can start thinking about coating them with your favorite oils. "Once the bread gets some nice color on it from the hot grill, brush generously with a quality EVOO and rub with a garlic clove," Drakulich recommended.

With a bit of practice and some advice from Drakulich, anyone can take their grilled bread to the next level and avoid any fiery pitfalls. By ensuring you use thick slices and little to no oil when grilling, you can end up with a toasted loaf worth showing off. Just make sure to whip up a few more pieces of bread than you expect — with a final product this good, you'll want to indulge a bit more with this hot-off-the-grill treat.