A pull apart bread made with soft and chewy sourdough bites that are dipped in a garlic herb butter and layered together to bake. It's made using a sourdough dough that's so easy to work with (you can do it all by hand!), and only needs one rise.
My standard go-to sourdough recipes are a basic sourdough loaf (with lots of butter, thank you very much) or these soft dinner rolls, but sometimes I want something a little richer and a little more fun. Enter: this garlic-herb pull apart bread.
It's so easy to make, and SO delicious, it actually might overtake all other forms of sourdough as your go-to.
I can't get enough. YUM.
The dough
This dough is so easy to work with. I know I've already said that more than once, but I really can't emphasize it enough.
(Plus, easy dough can feel elusive in the world of sourdough. This is like a nice, not sticky dough that you would get with commercial yeast - except there's no commercial yeast here!)
You can make this by hand OR using a stand mixer. Just keep in mind it is a stiff dough, so initial mixing will be an arm workout if you're doing it by hand.
To make the dough, start by melting butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Remove from heat and add in the milk. The milk will cool the butter and the butter + pan will warm the milk, resulting in perfect temperature liquids with no wait time! Since there's less butter in this dough than some of my other recipes that use this technique, you may need to put the pan back over low heat for a minute or two to take the chill off - make sure you feel it before adding it to the dough. It should feel like warm bath water.
Combine the warm liquids with the sugar and starter. Add in the flour and salt and mix until combined. Knead (by hand or with a mixer) until the dough begins to look smooth (about 5-8 minutes).
Rise times
Form the dough into a ball, place back in your mixing bowl, and cover. Leave it to rise at room temperature until doubled in size. This usually takes around 12-14 hours, although I once left this for 24 hours because I just could not get to it, and it was totally fine. It's a very forgiving dough!
Since these only rise once, you do want to make sure they rise really well! Once they're cut and in the pan, they can go straight into the oven.
Shaping
To shape this dough, you'll roll it out into a 10-11 inch round that's about ¾" thick, and cut it into 1-inch squares. Then, dip the dough pieces into the garlic butter, and layer in a pie dish lined with parchment paper.
The rosemary-garlic butter
I love rosemary and garlic together, particularly if there's a carb involved. Each piece of dough is dipped into the garlic butter here, which makes every bite so flavorful, but also helps to keep them really soft.
To make the butter, melt a stick of butter in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and add in the chopped rosemary and garlic. Pour off 2 tablespoons into a bowl to brush the baked bread with later. Dip each piece into the remaining butter in the pan, then layer in the pie pan.
Don't forget to brush the baked rolls with the extra butter! It really makes them so soft. And, sprinkle with salt.
Baking
If you're using a metal pie pan, you'll want to start checking the bread around the 35 minute mark. If you're using a ceramic or glass pie pan, start checking at 40 minutes. It can be hard to tell if the rolls are baked by looking at them because the bottom rolls stay super soft, so I recommend using a thermometer and making sure they're 200 degrees.
Substitutions + variations
I don't recommend any substitutions for the dough since I've only made it exactly as written, and any ingredient substitutions would at best change the texture of the bread and at worst give you a bad outcome.
But for the garlic butter, you can really play around!
- The garlic: if you don't have fresh garlic, or prefer not to use it, you can use ½ teaspoon garlic powder.
- The rosemary: lots of herbs will work well in this recipe. I recommend using woody herbs that will withstand a longer bake time, like thyme or sage. You could also substitute dried herbs for the fresh rosemary, such as oregano or an Italian seasoning blend. If you're using dried herbs, I'd reduce the amount to 1 teaspoon.
Rosemary Garlic Sourdough Pull Apart Bread
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 240 grams whole milk
- 100 grams active sourdough starter
- 50 grams sugar
- 500 grams bread flour
- 13 grams salt
For the Herb Butter
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- For finishing: flakey salt
Directions
Make the Dough
- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Once melted, remove from heat and add in the milk. The warm butter and pan will heat the milk while the cold milk will cool the butter slightly. Since there is so much more milk than butter in this recipe, you may need to heat it longer to take the chill off. Feel it to make sure it's not too hot or cold before proceeding. To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the warm milk and butter, starter, and sugar. Mix to combine. Add the flour and salt and mix until no dry flour remains. Switch to the dough hook and knead on LOW speed for 5-8 minutes, until the dough begins to look smooth.Shape dough into a ball, cover the bowl, and let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 12-14 hours.
Assemble + Bake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 10-inch cake or pie pan with parchment paper. The easiest way to do this is by crumpling up the parchment paper and flattening it out a few times. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Remove from heat and stir in the rosemary and garlic. Set aside 2 tablespoons in a small bowl.On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to ¾-inch thickness. Cut into 1-inch pieces (I use a pizza cutter for this). Dip each piece into the butter mixture and layer in the prepared pan.Bake 35-45 minutes (see note) or until golden brown and cooked through to 200 degrees. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Lift out of the pan with the parchment paper, then brush with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and sprinkle with salt. Serve warm.
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