If you like bread seasoned with herbs and spices, you don’t have to buy the expensive ones in specialty stores. You can make your own herbed bread.

In fact, you can make yours even better because you can season the bread with as much or as few herbs as you want, thus making the bread more customized to your taste.

But first, you need to buy good bread. A loaf of crusty baguette, ciabatta, Italian or French bread are all suitable for making your own herbed bread. At the recently opened Lartizan Boulangerie in Serendra, BGC, there’s a wide choice of bread available, including sourdough baguette and crusty rolls.

Serve these herbed bread slices with your favorite pasta, or with cheese, ham, chorizo and sausages. If, like a few people I know, you don’t like to have sweet cakes with your coffee, you can have instead these herbed bread slices.

Herbed Bread Slices

1 loaf baguette
¼-½ c butter
¼-½ c olive oil
Salt, to taste
1 tbsp mixed herbs such as herbes de Provence or Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Slice the bread diagonally into about ½-inch pieces. Melt the butter in a small skillet then stir in the olive oil. Remove from heat.

Brush one side of each bread slice with the butter-olive oil combination. Season to taste with salt. Sprinkle mixed herbs on each bread slice. Arrange bread slices on a baking tray.

Bake in the preheated oven for six to eight minutes. Remove from the oven and serve with desired pasta, with cheese or with cold cuts such as salami, pepperoni and ham. Makes around 20 slices.

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Cook’s tips