Garlic Parmesan Pull Apart Bread is a rustic, buttery loaf made from frozen bread dough and loaded with garlic and parmesan flavor.
Even without the Parmesan, this bread is obscenely delicious. It’s already buttered for you…what could be better than that, right? How about multiple loaves!
My husband Matthew looked in the fridge before I made this and asked me why I had 5 loaves of bread dough defrosting. As if it was obvious, I said I was making extra loaves to freeze for later. “But why are you defrosting bread just to freeze it again?” he asked. Really? After eating nearly half the loaf at dinner (and I thought I had a bread addiction) Matthew told me it was a great idea it was to freeze some for later. Ugh!
Reasons to love this Parmesan Garlic Pull Apart Bread Recipe:
- Easy , no-knead custom bread loaf
- Uses frozen bread dough, so the heavy lifting of making dough is already done
- Garlic bread goes with almost any entree – seriously!
- Great for freezing. Just though out the loaf and re-heat when ready to serve.
Start by rolling the defrosted dough out into a rough 12 inch square and spread on the butter mixture.
You can make perfect edges if you like…but as you can see, it’s not what I did. For a much less rustic looking loaf, roll the dough out into an exact square and make all of the cut squares uniform in size.
Then sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the butter mixture, and use a pizza roller or dough cutter to cut into 16 squares. Stack 4 squares of the dough in your hand and transfer to the loaf pan. Repeat with the remaining dough. Once all the dough is in the pan, spread out the dough squares to fill the pan, making sure they are touching.
This is a loaf of chocolate pumpkin spice pull apart bread before rising. Your dough will go in the loaf pan the same way. For this recipe, sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese over the top of the squares before covering and setting to rise.
Here is my loaf baked for 50 minutes. I did not tent it with foil because we love the crispy crust on top! When I made this bread the first time, it was taken out of the oven too soon and it was not “done” in the center. Having learned my lesson, this time I slightly pulled apart two pieces in the center to make sure it was baked thru!
Garlic Parmesan Pull Apart Bread
Ingredients
- 16 ounce bread dough 1 loaf from frozen
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter softened
- 1 tbsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- pinch salt and pepper
- 1 cup parmesan cheese grated
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9 x 5 loaf pan.
- Roll and stretch thawed frozen bread dough into a 12 inch square, on lightly floured board.
- In a small bowl, combine softened butter, parsley, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Spread evenly over the 12-inch square of rolled bread dough. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup of the parmesan cheese, pressing lightly.
- With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into 16 small squares. Make four stacks of four squares each.
- Place each stack on it's side in the prepared loaf pan. Gently separate the squares so the dough fills the pan and the squares are touching. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup parmesan cheese over the assembled loaf.
- Cover the loaf loosely with plastic wrap and set the loaf in a warm place until the dough rises by half it’s size, about 2 hours.
- Bake the loaf until browned and cooked thru, about 45-50 minutes. Tent with foil if browning too quickly.
- Let cool 15 minutes in the pan, then loosen the sides with a knife. Transfer the loaf to a plate and let cool an additional 30 minutes before serving.
Chef Tips
Note – if using salted butter, omit the pinch of salt in the recipe.
Note – reduce or omit the red pepper flakes if you don’t care for spicy bread
Equipment Used
Nutrition Facts
© Copyright Christine Mello for Must Love Home. We would love for you to share a link to this recipe but please do not copy/paste the recipe instructions to websites or social media. We are happy for you to share a photo with a link back to this website instead.
