Provolone Pull-Apart Bread

Provolone Pull-Apart Bread-A yeast based Italian bread that is so filled with cheese and mortadella. This bread is so much fun to make and even more fun to eat!

What are you making for Thanksgiving next week? I'm going to be making a Provolone Pull-Apart Bread! I wanted to give you guys a different homemade bread idea for your Thanksgiving feast. This bread is AMAZING! It doesn't just have two different provolone cheeses in it; it also has mortadella!

Yes, I know! Not very light for a Thanksgiving feast, but since when was Thanksgiving light? And If you are like me who is an Italian and usually celebrates this holiday with a houseful of Italians, it's fun to make something with an Italian twist for them. Trust me, I will also be making some pull-apart rolls and maybe some fluffy biscuits.

How do you call a pull-apart bread in Italian?

In Italian this bread is called Pane al Fisarmonica: Accordian Bread. You fill the bread strips with your cheese of choice (I used two different provolone cheeses from Italy and also mortadella).

When I was taking photos of it after it came out of the oven, I was trying to find the right angles to show you the crazy delicious cheese oozing out the sides of the soft bread sections.

It is so hard to wait for it to cool a little before you rip off a piece to bite into. These are the mini loaves (barley malt pull-apart loaves)I made last year during the holidays.

They are wonderful! And these no-knead dinner rolls are so simple and FABULOUS!!
I will be back soon with more holiday ideas. I think it's time to share some tarts and pies...it's been way too long!!

Once you roll out the dough into the large rectangle, you just have to slice it into two long sections. You begin by adding your filling in the first section.

Be sure to leave  space in between each portion of the filling, because you are folding the dough over, slicing and making pockets of cheesy goodness!

If you have it all bunched up without space, you will have a mess when it bakes. I pinched as well as I could the pieces of dough around the borders of each pocket section I cut out. It's ok if some cheese oozes out while baking (oozing cheese...who's complaining?!?)

Even if you are a novice bread baker, this bread is not that as difficult as it may look when you first see it. The method to get the pretty layers is really pretty simple. 

Can I make a sweet pull-apart bread?

Yes, look at these sweet versions. 

I also made a cinnamon pull-apart bread using a different method and it was a bit more complicated but so good! You could also check out this ginger pull-apart bread for another sweet version.

The strips get sliced into they savory and cheesy pockets that you then file into your loaf pan sort of like a filing cabinet. A nice brush of an egg wash makes it so pretty! It's sort of a show-stopper bread that seems really hard to make and will really impress your guests on Thanksgiving or at any special get together.

Some other bread recipes to enjoy:

Sourdough Discard Challah Bread

Crescia al Formaggio

Anadama Bread

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PROVOLONE PULL-APART BREAD

A yeast based Italian bread that is so filled with cheese and mortadella. This bread is so much fun to make and even more fun to eat!

Prep Time1 hr 30 mins

Cook Time40 mins

Total Time2 hrs 10 mins

Course: Bread

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: pull-apart, yeast

Servings: 1 loaf

Author: Lora

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup warm water about 110 degrees
• ▢ 2 1/2 teaspoons 1 envelope active dry yeast
• ▢ 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• ▢ 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 egg
• ▢ 3 teaspoons salt
• ▢ 1 cup provolone cut in chunks Gouda or Fontina also are great
• ▢ 1 cup) sliced mortadella omit if you’d like it meat-free or even sub with salami or ham

Instructions

• In a small bowl, add the water and sprinkle the yeast on top of the water. Add 3 tablespoons of the oil and whisk together. Set aside.
• In large mixing bowl, add the flour and 3 teaspoons of salt; whisk together or mix together on low speed in your mixer. Whisk the egg into the yeast mixture.
• Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add about half of the flour mixture. Stir with a rubber spatula until it is combined. Attach the dough hook to your mixer and add the remaining flour.
• Form the dough into a ball and place into an oiled bowl (when I put the dough in the bowl I swish the dough around the bottom of the bowl and then flip it over so all of the dough is covered in a light film of oil). Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature until doubled in size (about 1-1 1/2 hours).
• Turn dough out onto a well-floured counter and roll the dough into a 20-by-12-inch rectangle, making sure it doesn’t stick to the counter. Divide it into two strips. Brush one side of the first strip with olive oil.
• Brush the top portion of the first strip with olive oil.
• Add your filling with about 2 inches space between each portion along the strip. Fold over the bottom half onto the top oiled half and press down gently.
• Fold over the bottom half onto the top oiled half and press down gently.
• Brush the folded dough with a little olive oil. With a pizza cutter or knife slice your individual filled pockets squares.Take care to not slice the filling. You can sort of feel the cheese and slice a bit away from it.
• Stack your pockets in a parchment lined loaf pan. (I ended up with some extra cheese pockets and baked them individually while baking the loaf on a cookie sheet. They were like mini calzones. You may end up with not enough sections. You could sort of shake the pan you could wiggle the pan a little so that the dough parts fill the pan. Don’t worry too much about that as they will fill up more as it rises again and then bakes). Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and set it aside to rise again for 30 to 45 more minutes.
• Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Brush on an egg wash and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Transfer the loaf to a wire rack and let it cool for a few minutes before pulling out the bread with the parchment paper. Best enjoyed as we did-hot out of the oven! Who had the patience to wait for this delicious bread?;)

Tried this recipe?Mention @savoringitaly or tag #savoringitaly!