The Best Garlic Bread Ever

We've all made garlic bread, and let's face it, it's one of the easiest and most satisfying accompaniments to almost any meal. At its most basic, all you really need is some form of bread, butter or a substitute, salt and garlic powder, and it comes out pretty good. However, it's incredibly easy to take this from meerly good to fantastic, though admittedly it's harder to do this for a crowd than for one or two people. This is my go-to method when I want or need really good garlic bread and don't want to make a whole loaf's worth. It does take a little effort, but the outcome is worth it and it also makes for some really excellent croutons.

Garlic Bread

Ingredients:
- Crusty Bread, sliced 3/4-1 inch thick. French, Italian or whatever you would like to use, except for sliced sandwich bread
- Olive oil
- Garlic clove, split open or partially smashed
- Salt (optional)

Directions:
Brush the olive oil on one side of the bread. Try to do this thinly, and use a pastry brush. If it's too much, it will just be sopped in oil and soggy after you're done. Lightly salt the bread on the oiled side if you so desire. Toast the bread in a hot skillet, as you would with grilled cheese sandwiches. When it's crisped and browned to your liking, remove from the pan and rub the raw garlic clove over the grilled side. Rub a little, it's just a little garlicky, rub a lot, it's a lot.

Notes:
- Learn from my experiments, and don't try to do this with an olive oil spray. It's an easy way to build up a thinish layer of olive oil, but it doesn't taste as good when it's done. Ideally, you're using a half-decent olive oil for this anyway, such as one that you'd use for bread dipping.
- To make this into croutons, just cube it up after you're done cooking it. If you're making it specifically for crouton purposes, oil both sides of the bread as lightly as you can, and grill both sides.