Have you already planned your next barbecue? Then I have the perfect side dish for you today! A sourdough pull apart bread filled with homemade herb and garlic butter. The dough is yeast-free and egg-free. You can easily prepare the pull apart bread and allow it to rest overnight in the fridge. If herb butter isn’t your thing, I have a few other variations for you on how you can fill your pulled bread.
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Make your own sourdough pull apart bread for grilling
Pull apart bread is the perfect side dish for a barbecue! It tastes aromatic and summery and can be shared without using a knife. It also looks great. If you are looking for more summer breads, then take a look at the crispy baguettes, the fluffy ciabattas or the Italian focaccia.
Homemade herb and garlic butter
Of course, you can also use store-bought herb butter to fill your pull apart bread. But you can make your own herb butter in no time at all. You need about 80 grams of butter for this recipe. A few teaspoons of olive oil ensure that the butter remains spreadable. Then all you have to do is forage your herb garden. The rule here is: more is more! You can also mix garlic cloves, fermented lemons or chili into the butter.
Pull apart bread variations
For more variety, you can also fill your pull apart bread with pesto, tomato butter or cheese and (vegan) bacon. The recipe also works in a sweet version. To do this, replace the salt in the dough with sugar and fill the bread with jam, chocolate or cinnamon and sugar.
What is the shelf life of pull apart bread?
Pull apart bread tastes best fresh out of the oven. But you can also prepare it a day or two before your next barbecue party. The dough will keep for up to 48 hours in the fridge and you can also leave the unbaked bread to rise overnight in the fridge. The finished bread will also keep for two to three days. However, I would bake it briefly in the oven before serving.
You’ll need these ingredients
- Wheat flour: Bread flour is best for your challah. If you want to replace some of the flour with wholemeal flour, you may need to increase the proportion of water.
- Water: Cold in summer and lukewarm in winter.
- Sourdough starter: The sourdough doesn’t have to be freshly fed, but it shouldn’t have been more than a week since it was last refreshed. If you have discard left over, I have the right recipes for you here. I feed my sourdough with equal parts water and flour. For the flour, I use a mixture of wheat flour and wholegrain rye flour. If you feed your sourdough with a different water-to-flour ratio, you will need to adjust the amount of water in the recipe accordingly.
- Olive oil and butter for the filling and the dough.
- Salt for the flavour.
- fresh herbs (e.g. thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage), coarse salt and a few cloves of garlic for the filling.
In three steps: How to make sourdough pull apart bread
Prepare the dough and the filling
Mix* the flour, water, salt, sourdough starter and olive oil to form a dough. Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for three to four hours. The volume should have increased considerably. Then place the dough in the fridge overnight.
To make the homemade garlic and herb butter, chop the herbs and garlic as finely as possible. Mix the softened butter with the olive oil, herbs and garlic and season with coarse salt.
Folding technique for the pull apart bread
Roll out the dough* and spread with the herb butter. Cut the dough into rectangles using a pizza cutter*. The rectangles should be the size of the short side of your loaf tin*.
Stack the rectangles and place the stack in the greased loaf tin*. Cover and allow the bread to rest at room temperature for two to three hours.
Bake the pull apart bread
Preheat the oven to 230 degrees using a steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven dish* and lava stones*. Reduce the heat to 200 degrees. Bake the pull apart bread for 20 minutes with steam and 20 minutes without steam.
Helpful tools – My recommendations
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- A grain mill* for freshly ground wholemeal flour.
- A Danish Whisk* – especially if you don’t use a kitchen machine. This allows you to mix your ingredients without the whole dough sticking to the spoon.
- A kitchen scale*.
- With this sharp baker’s knife*, you can make precise cuts in your bread and get creative with intricate scoring patterns.
- You can use a stainless steel dough knife* to cut your dough pieces or shape your loaves.
- A stainless steel loaf tin*.
- A wooden rolling pin*.
- A steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven mould* and lava stones*. The tray is filled with the stones and placed on the bottom of the oven during preheating. When you put your bread in the oven, pour hot water onto the stones. This creates steam, which ensures that your bread rises well.
- A cooling rack* for bread, rolls and waffles.
- A pizza cutter* for sweet knots, croissants etc.
- A stainless steel toaster* for slices of bread, toast and rolls.
You can find more product recommendations here.
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Recipe for Savory Sourdough Garlic Pull Apart Bread
Ingredients
For the dough
- 500 g wheat flour bread flour (or type 550)
- 250 g water
- 50 g sourdough starter
- 3 tbsp. olive oil
- 1½ tsp. salt
For the garlic butter
- 80 g butter
- 2 tsp. olive oil
- fresh herbs e.g. thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage
- flaky salt or other herbs to taste
- 3 cloves garlic optional
Instructions
Day 1
- Mix* the flour, water, salt, sourdough starter and olive oil to form a dough. Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for three to four hours. The volume should have increased considerably. Then place the dough in the fridge overnight.
- To make the homemade garlic and herb butter, chop the herbs and garlic as finely as possible. Mix the softened butter with the olive oil, herbs and garlic and season with coarse salt.
Day 2
- Roll out the dough* and spread with the herb butter.
- Cut the dough into rectangles using a pizza cutter*. The rectangles should be the size of the short side of your loaf tin*.
- Stack the rectangles and place the stack in the greased loaf tin*. Cover and allow the bread to rest at room temperature for two to three hours.
- Preheat the oven to 230 degrees using a steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven dish* and lava stones*. Reduce the heat to 200 degrees. Bake the pull apart bread for 20 minutes with steam and 20 minutes without steam.
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