Air Fryer Garlic Bread
To make Air Fryer Garlic Bread, spread a French bread loaf with garlic butter, top with cheese if you like, and air fry at 350°F for 5 to 7 minutes until golden and bubbling. Watch it closely near the end since garlic butter browns fast.
Garlic bread is technically a side dish, but it has never shown much respect for the chain of command. Put a basket of it next to pasta and suddenly the pasta feels like paperwork. This air fryer garlic bread gets there fast: softened butter is mixed with fresh garlic, parsley, salt, and black pepper, then spread all the way to the edges of a halved baguette or Italian loaf. Parmesan goes over the top, with mozzarella if you want the full melted-cheese situation. Soft butter matters because patchy buttering creates dry spots that toast faster than everything around them.
At 350°F, the bread needs only about five to seven minutes for the edges to turn crisp and the garlic butter to sink into the crumb. Watch closely after minute five. Air fryers have wildly different ideas about urgency, and garlic can move from fragrant and golden to evidence in a fire investigation faster than seems reasonable. Let the bread cool for two minutes, slice it, and serve it while the center is still buttery and the edges still crackle. Seventeen minutes from start to finish is barely enough time to remember you were supposed to make a salad too.
