Buttery Garlic + Herb Pull-Apart Bubble Bread

Easy and absolutely fantastic, this buttery garlic + herb pull-apart bubble bread makes a delicious side dish or snack!

Hello, hello! I’m still over here baking all the things, namely carbs, and I’m so excited to share this fun baking project with you today. Buttery garlic + herb pull-apart bubble bread!

Or you can call it savory monkey bread, if you happen to already be friends with monkey bread. 

Either way, it’s a carb lovers dream! Luscious tiny pillows of fluffy, buttery, garlicky dough bake up into a pull-apart wonder that’s as fun to eat as it is to make!

It’s a great recipe for busy, little (or teenage!) hands if you have any of those hanging around these days. 🙂

The perfect mashup

This bubble bread recipe is a mashup of several huge favorites:

• this buttery pull-apart bread
• these divine breadsticks (that’s where I tweaked the dough part from!)
• the aforementioned monkey bread that’s a beloved favorite around here

And of course now that I’ve ventured into the land of savory monkey bread recipes, I can’t wait to put future spins on this. Pizza pull-apart bubble bread, I’m looking at you.

Easiest dough ever

The dough for this bubble bread is from my favorite breadstick recipe. It’s ridiculously easy to make and can easily be made by hand if you don’t have a mixer. It also doesn’t require any lengthy rising times. 

Once the dough is mixed and cleans the sides of the bowl (soft but not overly sticky!), it rests in the bowl until slightly puffy, just 10 minutes or so. 

I like to use nonstick cooking spray to grease the counter before turning out the dough for cutting. It makes it nonstick without adding more flour and changing the texture of the soft dough. 

Pat the dough into a thick 8-inch square and cut into eight strips. 

Then cut those eight strips into eight pieces. Since we’re basically all experts at math these days (#unexpectedhomeschooler), you’re probably already there. Yep! 64 little pieces. 

Don’t panic! That may seem like a lot, but it’s not a big deal to quickly roll them all into little round balls. Especially if you have some bored kids laying around just staring at each other. 

This will keep them busy for at least 2 1/2 minutes! You can thank me later. 🙂

The dough balls don’t have to be perfect. Rustic is the name of the game here. Just give them a quick roll in the palms of your hands and call it good. 

Dip, dip, dip

The balls of dough get a quick little dip in a bath of butter, garlic and simple seasonings.

You can dip them one by one or just dump a bunch of the dough spheres in at once. 

Layer the butter-dipped dough pieces in the bottom of a bundt pan. After each layer, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bundt pan substitution: if you don’t have a bundt pan, layer the dough bubbles in two loaf pans instead. 

Again, there is no exact science to this. The layers will look wonky. It’s impossible to get them straight and even. That’s ok. 

You just want a few layers of dough with a bunch of Parmesan cheese sprinkled in there. 

Once all the buttery dough pieces make it in the bundt pan, cover and let the whole jumble rise until really puffy! 

And then bake in a 350 degree F oven for about 30 minutes. 

Thanks to the butter and garlic, your house is going to smell AMAZING. 

How to serve bubble bread

Pretty much right out of the oven, turn the bread out onto a cooling rack or parchment paper or whatever you’ve got. 

You can flip it back right side up and serve it with the bubbles on top. It kind of looks like a weird little flower.

Or you can leave it turned upside down. There’s no right or wrong way to tackle this issue of how to serve it. Although it probably says a lot about each of our personalities depending on what we choose. 

Although, I don’t know about you, but right now, I’m not super interested in a personality diagnostic. I’m not sure it would be very flattering.

I flip this buttery bundt bread right side up for serving. But this monkey bread is always served upside down. 

Because of that, I naturally tend to serve this pull-apart bubble bread upside down. And we all fight over those crunchy bits of Parmesan cheese sneaking through the crevices of the bread.

If you want it even cheesier, throw some mozzarella shreds in between the layers! Or gouda. Or cheddar. Or whatever you have on hand that might be yummy-ish for a cheesy bubble bread? 

I mean, in terms of flavor and dough profiles, this bread isn’t entirely different than just making breadsticks. 

But I can assure you that this bread is 100% more fun than boring ol’ breadsticks. 🙂  Plus the presentation is pretty darn impressive and rewarding. 

Of course at our house, presentation goes out the window when five sets of hands are grabbing bites of buttery garlic bread left and right. Sometimes we dip this glorious bubble bread in marinara sauce; sometimes it’s gone before we even have time to think that through all the way. 

I can’t wait to see how you change this up to suit your style and/or what ingredients you have on hand! Happy garlic + herb pull-apart bubble bread day! (Ok, I just made that up, but now that this bread is in my life, it certainly should be a holiday.)

One Year Ago: Honey Lime Chicken or Pork Enchiladas
Two Years Ago: Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble
Three Years Ago: Simple Weeknight Greek Chicken Burritos {or Wraps!}
Four Years Ago: Amazing Cinnamon Chip Scones {Best Basic Scone Recipe}
Five Years Ago: My Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies
Six Years Ago: Lemon Drop Sugar Cookie Bars
Seven Years Ago: Smothered Chicken with Mushroom Gravy 
Eight Years Ago: Spring Penne Pasta with Light Butter Sauce

Buttery Garlic + Herb Pull-Apart Bubble Bread

Yield: 8 servings

Prep Time: 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Cook Time: 30 minutes mins

Total Time: 2 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

4.82 stars (111 ratings)

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Ingredients

Dough:

• 1 ½ cups warm water
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast (see note for active dry yeast)
• 2 tablespoons sugar or honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 to 4 cups (426 to 568 g) all-purpose or whole wheat flour (see note)

Butter Mixture:

• ½ cup (113 g) salted butter
• ½ teaspoon dried basil, lightly crushed between fingers
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano, lightly crushed between fingers
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 cup (114 g) grated Parmesan, or Asiago cheese

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Instructions 

• In an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook (or in a large bowl by hand), mix together the water, yeast, sugar, salt and one cup of the flour.
• Continue adding the flour until the dough just clears the sides of the bowl; knead for about three minutes. It should be soft and slightly sticky without leaving a lot of residue on your fingers. Let the dough rest in the bowl for 10 minutes.
• Melt the butter and stir in the seasonings and garlic powder.
• Pat the dough into a thick 8-inch square (doesn’t have to be exact). Cut into 8 strips and cut each strip into 8 pieces to end up with about 64 small pieces.
• Roll each piece lightly into a ball (should just take a second or two in the palms of your hands – it’s ok if they look kind of rough and misshapen).
• Dip each dough ball in the butter/seasonings mixture (or dump several in the butter mixture at a time) and place in a single layer in the bottom of a bundt pan. Two loaf pans can be used in place of the bundt pan.
• Sprinkle the first layer of dough with Parmesan cheese. Repeat the process adding layers of butter-dipped dough, sprinkling each layer with a little more Parmesan cheese.
• The layers won’t be super even or exact. That’s ok! Don’t stress. Sprinkle any remaining Parmesan cheese over the top of the last layer. Cover the bundt pan and let rise until very puffy, 45-60 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Bake the bubble bread for 30-35 minutes until golden and baked through. (If your pan has a very dark nonstick coating, watch the time carefully so the bread doesn’t burn.)
• Turn the bread out onto a serving plate or cooling rack (it can be served right side up or upside down). Pull off pieces of bread and enjoy!

Notes

Bundt Pan: if you don’t have a bundt pan, you can try separating the dough into two loaf pans and baking that way.

Herbs: you can substitute a favorite herb seasoning blend or mix for the 1/2 teaspoon basil and 1/2 teaspoon oregano.

Flour: the exact amount of flour you’ll need for this dough will depend on a variety of factors (elevation, humidity, how you and I each measure the flour). Don’t stress about the exact amount – just keep adding flour gradually until a soft, easy to work with dough is formed. If it leaves a lot of residue on your fingers, continue adding flour a bit at a time.

Active Dry Yeast: to sub in active dry yeast, use the same amount called for; proof it in 1/4 cup warm water with a pinch of sugar until it is bubbly and foaming (should take a couple minutes). Use as directed in the recipe, decreasing the overall water amount to 1 1/4 cups.

Author: Mel

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American

Method: Bake

Serving: 1 Serving, Calories: 341kcal, Carbohydrates: 40g, Protein: 10g, Fat: 16g, Saturated Fat: 10g, Cholesterol: 42mg, Sodium: 587mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 3g

Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

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