pizza pull apart bread

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Anyway……onto the yumminess.

I was innocently browsing Pinterest yesterday morning and I came across this little delight from Confections of a Foodie Bride.  She got the idea here, at Annie’s Eats.  I pinned it and thought, “hum, I pretty much have all those ingredients right now.”  So the bird and I whipped it up and we enjoyed pizza pull apart bread for lunch!  It was delicious…. and now it’s gone.  :)  The original poster used pepperoni, which I didn’t have and we don’t like, so I used just mozzarella cheese.  I guess if I were going to bring it to a party I would use pepperoni.  It would be such a fun thing to bring to a party.  I would double it for sure!  (Maybe even triple.)

I was thinking that this summer I would try it with fresh mozzarella wrapped around basil from the garden!  YUM!  That sounds amazing.  I could serve it with grape tomatoes.  Little Caprese pizza bites. Yum.

1.  Make the dough into equal(ish) sized balls.  (Next time I’ll try to make them a tad smaller.)  I used one package of dough from Trader Joes (which is enough for one pizza) and it made about 21 balls.  I could have probably stretched it to make 24.  So then 2 doughs would make 48.  (look at my mad math skills in action!) That’s probably enough for a party!  :)

2.  Stick a square of mozzarella in the middle.

3.  Pinch it closed.

4.  Pinch it closed really well.  (I had only one explode – but it was a delicious cheesy explosion so I didn’t mind)  It actually was delicious because the cheese that escaped from that one got all crispy and crunchy and garlicy from cooking on the bottom of the pan.  ummmm.

5.  Place each cheese filled dough ball into a pan that has melted garlic butter in the bottom.  Add minced fresh garlic to melted butter (or even garlic powder would work.)  I used a teaspoon of my handy dandy jar of minced garlic from Trader Joe’s and added it to half a stick of butter.

6.  Drizzle the rest of the garlic butter over the dough balls.  The original poster used a bundt pan which I don’t have.  But a bundt would be fun!

7.  Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.  (see the explosion in the bottom left corner….so crispy and good)

8.  Pull apart and eat!

9.  Look at all that cheese!

Pull Apart Pizza Bread

Ingredients:
pizza dough
4 oz. mozzarella cheese, cubed (about 20-24 pieces)
Sliced pepperoni (optional) (or any other pizza topping/filling you can think of) 

For topping: 
4 tablespoons of butter (or olive oil)
2 cloves of chopped garlic
Grated Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning (I didn’t have these – but they do sound good)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400˚ F.  Melt butter and add garlic.  Lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate or cake pan with garlic butter.  Divide the pizza dough into 20-24 roughly equal sized pieces.  Take one of the dough pieces, top with a cube of cheese and a slice or two of pepperoni.  Pull the edges of the dough around the fillings and pinch closed.  Place seam-side down in the baking dish.  Repeat with the remaining dough pieces.  

Lightly brush the tops of the dough balls with remaining butter mixture.  Sprinkle with Italian seasoning and grated Parmesan cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.  Serve warm, with dipping sauce as desired.