Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread – Homemade pizza dough is tossed with herbs, butter, garlic, and Parmesan cheese, and then baked into a loaf and served with marinara sauce for the perfect snack or appetizer.

A few weeks ago, I shared my epic Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread. I love how fun it is to eat as you pull off each ball of cinnamon sugar goodness and pop them into your mouth. After making that recipe, I thought about the next way I could incorporate this concept into a new baked treat.

Well, I decided to take that idea on a savory path. I’ve seen some savory monkey breads in those Tasty videos and they inspired me to create my own version. Instead of stuffing my dough balls with cheese or meat, I decided to keep them au natural and focus on what I love most: CARBS.

The result was a loaf of fluffy balls of bread coated in tons of Italian spices and Parmesan cheese. My husband couldn’t stop popping these bites into his mouth. He ate about half of the loaf himself!

I present to you my Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread!

How to make this recipe

This pull-apart bread focuses on the bread. There is no stuffing or crazy topping. We simply take homemade pizza dough, roll it into tiny balls, dunk each ball in melted herb butter with Parmesan cheese and garlic, and then bake them in a beautiful round loaf. Because they are baked in separate dough balls, they are easy to pull off the loaf and easy to eat.

Fresh Herbs vs Dried Herbs

For the herbs, I decided to use dry herbs because there are so many in this recipe. I cannot stand buying tons of fresh herbs and then having to find another use for them before they spoil. Yet another reason why I need to get my herb garden going this year. Until then, I’m using dry herbs for this recipe to make my life a little easier.

Homemade pizza dough

In the past, I would buy fresh pizza dough from my local bakery whenever I wanted to make homemade pizza or cheese bread or garlic knots. Well, earlier this year, I perfected my own homemade pizza dough recipe so I decided to try it out in this recipe. It worked perfectly! Fluffy on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside – thanks to the extra virgin olive oil.

Tips & Tricks

I bake my loaf in a Bundt pan so that it has a round shape and an open center just large enough to place a dipping sauce. However, you can easily bake this recipe in a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
Dried herbs are more potent than the fresh herbs. Therefore, if you decide to use fresh herbs in this recipe, you’ll need about 3x more fresh herbs to get the same amount of flavor.
Make sure to remove the loaf from the pan while it’s still hot. When it cools down, the grease in the bottom of the pan will turn solid and act as a paste and it may be difficult to remove the loaf.

Print Recipe

Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread

Homemade pizza dough is tossed with herbs, butter, garlic, and Parmesan cheese, and then baked into a loaf and served with marinara sauce for the perfect snack or appetizer.

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Resting Time1 30

Servings: people

Ingredients

For the dough:

2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
¾ cup warm water
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil

For the coating:

4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried thyme
⅛ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Add warm water to a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast and sugar over the top. Let the yeast mixture activate for 10 minutes. Add in the flour, salt, and olive oil. Mix together until dough forms. Turn dough out onto clean, floured surface. Knead with your hands until soft, smooth dough forms, at least 6 minutes. Add more flour if dough sticks to the surface. Once dough is smooth and elastic, place into a greased bowl to rise for 1 ½ hours or until it has doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare Bundt pan by spraying with nonstick spray. Prepare bread coating by meting butter and adding in herbs, garlic, Parmesan cheese and salt. Mix together. Set aside.
Once dough has risen, punch it down and remove from bowl. Place onto clean counter and cut into 4 even wedges. Cut each wedge into 8 pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and them dip into herb butter. Place coated balls into prepared Bundt pan, making sure to create even layers of dough balls. Let loaf sit to rise for 30 minutes.
Bake loaf in preheated oven until the top begins to turn golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Turn over onto large. Serve with your favorite marinara sauce.