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Sep 9, 2012

Parmesan Pull-apart Bread

Parmesan Pull-apart Bread

This month's Twelve Loaves challenge is bread with cheese.

Both my sister and I were given two cookbooks, one from 1978 and another from 1981. One is called "Come for Lunch," and the other is "Come for Dinner." Remember those spiral bound collections of personal recipes put together to raise money for a school or a charity? That's what these are.

To quote from Come for Lunch, "Assembled in this modest cookbook is a collection of tried and proven recipes particularly suited to noontime entertaining...... We have tried to make it a bit easier for the harried hostess who finds she has invited a number of her friends to COME FOR LUNCH."

Most of the recipes in these books involve a can of cream of something soup and the names of the dishes and include words such as "supreme, medley, fiesta, and princess."

It was a different time. I always wondered what it would be like to have a bunch of ladies over for lunch and maybe have a standing Thursday bridge game.

There is one recipe that we have made over and over. You take a can of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, cut them into quarters, and toss them in melted butter, parmesan, dried parsley, dill seeds, and onion flakes and then bake them in a metal pie pan. They are goooooood.

Ever since I started baking bread from scratch, I've been thinking about how to interpret that recipe. Then I saw a cheesy pull-apart bread by Cake Duchess. Inspiration!




Parmesan Pull-apart Bread
Prior to the second rise

Parmesan Pull-apart Bread

Inspired by Cake Duchess and adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients

Dough:

10.6 to 12.75 ounces (2 1/2 to 3 C) unbleached all purpose flour
2 t. sugar
2 1/4 t. active dry yeast
1/2 t salt
2 ounces unsalted butter
1/2 C plus 2 T whole or low fat milk
2 large eggs at room temperature

Filling:

3/4 C chopped fresh parsley
1/2 C freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus extra for sprinkling 
1 T. dill seed
1 T. dried onion flakes
5 T. salted butter, melted
Optional: 1 T. fresh minced garlic

In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, whisk together 2 1/2 C of the flour, the sugar and the salt. 

Heat the milk and butter until the butter melts. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool to 115 to 120 degrees fahrenheit. Add the yeast to the milk and butter and allow it to sit for five minutes.

Whisk the eggs into the milk mixture and pour the milk and eggs into the dry ingredients and stir with a large spoon, dough whisk, or spatula. If you are using a stand mixer, knead on low for a few minutes, adding flour as needed. The dough should be very tacky and may stick to the sides of the bowl. 

Place the dough in an oiled bowl or dough rising bucket and spray the top with spray oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rised until doubled in size, about 60 minutes.

While the dough is rising, mix the parsley, parmesan, dill seeds, and optional garlic. Melt the butter and add the onion flakes. 

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead the dough to deflate. Form it into a ball, cover it, and let it rest about five minutes. 

Grease or spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. 

With a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a 20 x 12 inch rectangle. Brush the entire rectangle with the butter, and spread the cheese and parsley mixture evenly over the butter. 

Cut the rectangle into 6 even 12 inch strips. Stack the strips on top of each other, and cut the stack into 6 even squares. 

Set the loaf pan on its side, and stack the squares into the pan. Straighten the pan, sprinkle the bread with extra cheese, and cover it with plastic. Allow the dough to rise until doubled, 30 to 45 minutes.  

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown. If the top gets too dark before the bread is done, tent with foil and continue baking. 

Remove from the oven and let the bread rest in the pan for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan. Best served warm. Wrap any leftovers in foil. Can be reheated wrapped in foil for about 10 minutes at 325 degrees. 

Parmesan Pull-apart Bread



This bread is part of the Twelve Loaves challenge. Our #TwelveLoaves theme of the month is cheese.  This month's leaders are Cake Duchess, Creative Culinary, and Life's a Feast. Check out their cheesy bread awesomeness. 

Submitted to Yeastspotting.


Would you like to comment?

  1. I love the way those books Come to Lunch and Come to Dinner sound and would be happy to see them. I love old cookbooks. Your pull-apart bread looks so good! All that wonderful garlic and cheese:)Thanks for baking along with us again Karen:)xx

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  2. It's 4pm and I have not eaten yet today. This is TORTURE I tell ya. I would literally eat this entire loaf of bread all by myself. Right now. Amazing. Delicious. Stupendous...OK I'll stop now before I embarrass myself. Too late?

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  3. Gorgeous! And now after Lora and you I have got to make a version of this, too. Fabulous! And I LOVE your description of the cookbooks: "Most of the recipes in these books involve a can of cream of something soup and the names of the dishes and include words such as "supreme, medley, fiesta, and princess." Ah, I grew up in those times. But cookbooks like that always contain gems to inspire amazing foods like your bread. Thanks for redoing this cool recipe for Twelve Loaves!

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  4. Thanks all! I love these cookbooks. I also have a well worn 1964 Joy of Cooking that was the only cookbook I used for years. Now my cookbook habit is out of control.

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  5. We really enjoyed this warm bread last night! Hubby said "wow, was this hard to make? I give t an 11.5 if I could !" ( We have a 10 point scale)

    I'd recommend adding the instant yeast to the dry ingredients. Saves a step and protects the yeast


    This bread has been my wish least for a long time. Glad I made it. I omitted the dil seed, but asking hubby to pick it up tomorrow for a more complex flavor. Might be good with some spiness also

    Great for a get together. People will love it
    Thank you for the post , Karen!!!

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    Replies
    1. I'm so glad! I think I must have done the yeast blooming thing because the original recipe called for active dry, and I didn't know any better! Yes, definitely try it with the dill seeds when you can find them =)

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