When an old friend reached out to me and asked me to share the recipe of "this amazing bread pizza pull apart thing," I knew exactly what my first food blog recipe would be! Pepperoni pull apart bread. This same friend also remembers that in 4th grade the bread "gave her life" so I just have to share it with you all. Isn't it funny how we can remember pull apart bread from 4th grade but struggle to remember something that happened just a few days ago? Some food just can't be forgotten! Food also has a way of bringing people together, which is one thing I love so much about it.
Ok, so on to the pepperoni pull apart bread. This recipe is actually quite easy and doesn't have many steps to it! Not to mention it will make your kitchen smell delicious... (garlic + butter = yum!)
Ingredients (serves about 5)
- 1 loaf of Rhodes frozen bread dough
- garlic butter
- 1/4 cup of butter (half of a stick)
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- 2 tsp of garlic powder/garlic salt/fresh garlic
- can add any other desired herbs for flavor (ex: oregano, Italian seasoning, fennel, etc.)
- 1 cup of cheese (mozzarella/parmesan/mixture of both)
- 1/2 bag of pepperoni
How to make it
The night before
- thaw one loaf of Rhodes frozen bread dough the night before in a large bowl coated with olive oil
- cover the bowl with parchment paper and a towel and allow to rise over night (or approximately 6-8 hours) until doubled in size
The day of
- melt 1/4 cup of butter & once melted add 1/4 cup of olive oil to it, mix together
- add 2 tsp. of garlic to the butter & olive oil mix (add any other desired herbs to the mix at this time)
- use 1/2 tsp.-1 tsp. of butter (or cooking spray) to grease a bundt pan
- cut dough into pieces about 1in x 3/4in (doesn't need to be this exact--this is a ballpark estimate)
- coat dough pieces in garlic butter mixture & line the bottom of the bundt pan
- after each layer of dough, sprinkle a layer of cheese and pepperoni
- repeat layers until dough is gone
- once finished, cover bundt pan with parchment and towel & let rise for at least 1 hour
- preheat oven to 400 degrees
- after dough has a chance to rise, place it in the oven at 400 degrees for 26-28 minutes
- once bread is done cooking, remove from oven & let cool down a bit before serving
Finished product
For next time...
The next time I make this pepperoni pull apart bread I will cut up the pepperoni pieces into halves or fourths in order to more evenly disperse the pepperoni throughout the pull apart pieces. Additionally, I had a hard time getting the bread out of the bundt pan so I recommend possibly coating the pan with cooking spray instead of butter! Next time I may experiment with the extra added herbs. For this batch of pepperoni bread I used about 1.5 tsp. of oregano which tastes great, so if I was used oregano again I would add more. That being said, I think the bread would be just as yummy without the herbs.
Variations
If you are looking to change up this recipe a little bit, there are many ways to do so. For those of you looking for a vegetarian option one idea would be to replace the pepperoni with extra cheese, olives, onions, and/or cooked mushrooms. The opportunities are endless. Also, if you are going for a sweet option you can make a cinnamon sugar butter mixture instead of the garlic butter. Then just add your desired layer fillings (nuts, chocolate, raisins).
All in all
Overall this recipe is a great one to play around with, but if you are looking for some simple and delicious pepperoni bread, try out the recipe above and let me know what you think. I'm so glad an old friend reached out to me and asked about this recipe; it brings back fun memories. Do any of you have a special recipe that you would like to see made on the blog? Let me know in the comments or send me a message in the 'get in touch' tab. I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading :)
