Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Pull apart bread...the second


By now many of you must be acquainted with my bread baking addiction. Once you are in the world of yeast, flour, measuring cups and baking tools, it is difficult to resist to bake the next one. 

This time it was a pull apart bread.

I like pull apart breads, as it is fun making and is a snack in itself. Various different fillings between the layers add flavors to the bread, making the bread versatile and individual pieces of the bread can be pulled apart rather than cutting it.

Generally pull apart breads are shaped like a loaf or a round, but you can give it any shape and use numerous combination of filling to your pull apart. The first pull apart I posted was with roasted garlic and sun-dried tomato. This one was flavored with roasted red bell peppers, cheese and fresh parsley. I added beer to the dough to make the dough softer and flavorful. The addition of beer was a great success. The bread was fluffier, softer and the dough took less time to rise. Though adding beer to the dough was a success, can't say the same for the choice of cheese this time. The cheese I used for the filling was store bought cottage cheese and I feel it is not a good choice for pull apart bread. First of all it does not impart any extra flavor and secondly the pieces of cheese exposed on the top turned very hard after baking.

So my inference is- grabbing a bottle of beer from the man's stock was a good choice, but using store bought cottage cheese (just because it's going to expire within three days) was not at all good. I will recommend using  mozzarella or cheddar or monterey jack or goat cheese etc as the filling.

Here I have tried my best to explain the baking procedure with step by step pictures. You can also check the other pull apart bread recipe.

Things needed to make Pull Apart Bread:

  • Flour: 3 cups
  • Active dry yeast: 2.5 tsp
  • Warm water: 3/4 cup
  • Sugar: 1 tsp
  • Salt: 2 tsp
  • Butter: 5 tbsp (divided)
  • Beer: 1/4 cup
  • Garlic powder: 1 tsp
  • Red bell pepper: 1 large
  • Cheese of your choice 
  • Fresh parsley (finely chopped): 3-4 tbsp
  • Honey: 1 tbsp
  • Freshly ground black pepper: to taste
  • Extra flour to dust


Steps of making Pull Apart Bread:


1. Proof yeast. Mix yeast, warm water and sugar, cover and wait for 10 min, till it bubbles up.

2. In a cup or pan warm beer and 3 tablespoon butter, cool down and bring it to room temperature.

3. In a large bowl add 1 cup flour, salt, garlic powder, beer and butter mixture, mix well. Add the proofed yeast. Mix well. Gradually add the rest of the flour till the mixture comes together and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Drop the dough on a lightly floured working surface. Knead for 10 min. Dust flour as you work, so the dough does not stick to your hand.


4. Grease a large container, put the dough in the container. Turn the dough to coat oil from all sides. Cover and let it rise to double in size, about 1-2 hrs depending on the room temperature.

5. As the dough rising prepare the filling. I roasted a red bell pepper. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Clean and wash the bell pepper. Pat dry the pepper and coat well with EVOO. Place on a baking sheet and cook for 20-25 min in the pre-heated oven. Turn the pepper in between. Broil for 5-7 min. Switch off oven and keep the bell peppers in a paper bag. Let the peppers cool down. Peel the skin off, discard seeds and pulp. Chop into small pieces.


6. Mix roasted peppers, cheese, honey, chopped parsley, black pepper powder. You can always use some other filling for your pull apart bread.


7. After the dough doubles in size, punch down the dough. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface.


8. Melt rest of the butter and brush melted butter on the rolled dough.


9. Spread filling on the dough.


10. Cut the dough into thin long strips.


11. Stack the strips one above the other.


12. Cut into the stacked dough into pieces.


13. Grease a 9X5 inch loaf pan. Arrange the cut dough pieces in the pan, cut side down.


14. Cover the pan with a wet towel and let the dough rise for 30 min.

15. Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Bake for 30-35 min on the middle rack. Let cool down on a wire rack. Enjoy your pull apart.


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5 comments:

  1. wow...that is yummy, it has work but worth trying

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    Replies
    1. Divya, Apparently it looks like there are so much work involved, but truly it's very simple.

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  2. You have an awesome blog, can we follow each other on BLOGLOVIN? and If you dicided to follow me , please let me know so I can follow you back!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This bread looks so good can't wait to try it, TY :)

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  4. Love the idea of adding beer to the dough!

    ReplyDelete