Cheesy Sourdough Garlic Pull Apart Bread
My cheesy sourdough garlic pull apart bread is simple to make but feels so special! Each piece is full of garlic butter and gooey cheese. What's not to love?! My husband and I love enjoying this bread alongside our favorite bowl of soup! I hope it finds a special place on your table like it has on ours!
Ingredients
Bread
- 1/4 cup fed sourdough starter
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder (no salt added)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Cheesy Garlic Filling
- 1 cup shredded low moisture mozzarella
- 1 cup shredded mild cheddar
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 3 Tbsp melted salted butter
- optional - dried parsley
Instructions
Feed Your Starter
- BEFORE YOU GET STARTED: Feed your starter 4-12 hours before starting this recipe. I recommend feeding your entire starter jar a 2:1 ratio of unbleached flour to filtered water to get the same results as I do when making this recipe.(Example: Feed entire starter 1 cup flour + 1/2 cup water and let it sit on the counter at room temperature until it's bubbly and has grow in the jar. Your starter needs to be active, bubbly, and a thicker consistency to use in this recipe.)
Make the Dough
- In a large mixing bowl, add in sourdough starter, water, salt, and garlic powder. Stir until combined.
- Add flour and stir until a shaggy dough forms. Use your hands to bring the dough into a ball. (If dough is too wet, your starter is more hydrated than mine. Just add a few tablespoons of extra flour. If dough is too dry, your starter is less hydrated than mine. Just add a few tablespoons of extra water.)
- Turn dough out on the counter and knead by hand for 2 minutes or use an electric mixer with a dough hook. Place dough back into mixing bowl and cover with a lid loosely, plastic wrap, or a damp kitchen towel (that's been wet and rung out)
Bulk Ferment
- Let dough sit on the counter top at room temperature for 12 hours. Please see notes below!
Shape the Loaf
- Once bulk ferment is complete and your dough has doubled or in size, line a 9x13" stainless steel loaf pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Punch down dough to deflate air bubbles, then turn out onto a lightly floured counter to prevent sticking.
- Divide dough into 8 equal pieces
- Roll each piece out into 1/4" thick rectangles (they'll be about 3x4" each). Set aside.
- Once all the dough is rolled out, make garlic butter by combining melted butter, garlic powder, and salt in a small mixing bowl.
- Brush garlic butter mixture with a kitchen brush on each rectangle of dough. Save any extra for brushing on top before baking.
- Then add a pinch of both shredded cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese (about 1 Tbsp each) to all dough pieces. Evenly distribute any extra cheese.
- Fold each piece of dough in half so the garlic butter filling is in the middle. Pinch top two edges to seal but don't close the entire top or side seams. Place each into the prepared pan with the opening facing up. Repeat until loaf pan is filled with folded dough (gentle squeeze in the last one if there isn't much room).
2nd Rise/Proofing
- Optional: Cover with a damp kitchen towel or Saran wrap and place pan in the fridge for up to 24 hours before baking to give yourself more time. (If you do this add 2-3 hours extra on to the 2nd rise/proofing time below since the dough starts out cold.)
- To continue whether you did the cold ferment or not: Place a dry kitchen towel over pan of dough and let rise at room temperature on the countertop for 2-4 hours until puffy (they won't grow in size as much as regular bread).
Bake & Serve
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and brush excess garlic butter on top of dough (if you have any left).
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until fully cooked.
- As soon as it comes out of the oven, sprinkle with dried parsley to give it color!
- When ready to serve either keep in the pan or remove bread by the parchment paper and pull slices apart. Enjoy!
Notes
For more information about storage, freezing, and serving please see the blog post.
Troubleshooting
What to do if your dough isn't doubling in size during the bulk ferment:
This recipe was developed from scratch in my kitchen by me, Molly LaFontaine, and tested many times by my husband and me to ensure success. Just like all of my recipes on Plum Branch Home. They’re created with purpose, cherished in our own home, and developed with my experiences, trial and error, and skills. NEVER AI (artificial intelligence).
- If your dough doesn't look like it's doing anything halfway through the rises, you need to place it in a slightly warmer area.
- This can be in a turned-off oven with the light on and oven door open, or you can slightly warm the oven to about 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit, then turn it off and place your dough inside with the door shut.
- Never leave the oven on, even on the keep warm setting, with fermenting dough inside. Your dough, for both rises, needs to double.
- If your dough doesn't double even in the warmer area, there is a problem with your starter. It is too weak to ferment the dough even in a warm environment.
- To fix this, you will want to leave your starter out on the counter for 2 days and feed it every 12 hours at a 2:1 ratio of unbleached flour to filtered water.
- For example, 1 cup unbleached flour + 1/2 cup filtered (or bottled) water.
- Make sure you're using unbleached flour and filtered or bottled water to do this. If you don't, it will affect your starter strength. Reverse osmosis water (or any water that uses salt in the filter) can make the starter weak.
- This will strengthen the cultures in your starter to give you fluffy baked bread and treats. After the 2 days, you can go back to feeding it like usual (once a week if stored in the fridge or once a day if stored on the counter). Be sure to use the 2:1 ratio feeding from here on out.
Did you make this recipe?
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Here at Plum Branch Home, we’re loving our families and serving our God one recipe at a time!