Name: Cheese Stuffed Pull Apart Bread
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 270 min
Ingredients: 3 ¼ cups AP flour; ¼ cup sugar; 1 Tbsp Yeast (preferably SAF Gold*); ½ cup warm water; 4 Tbsp butter (melted); 2 eggs; 1 ½ tsp red pepper flakes (optional); 1 ¼ tsp salt; 1 ½ cups Pepper Jack (in ½” dice); 1 ½ cups Sharp Cheddar (in ½” dice)

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Cheese Stuffed Pull Apart Bread - a simple dough rolled around diced cheeses and baked in a coil

I know we’re all trying to cut down on the amount of bread we eat, and that’s probably a good thing. So when I do bake bread, it’s not going to be any plain-Jane loaf. It’s going to be a totally splurge-worthy loaf full of flavor and a special treat to eat. This Cheese Stuffed Pull Apart Bread is easy to make and worth every carb and calorie. It’s my streamlined riff on a recipe from Cook’s Country. It’s so cheesy-licious all you need for a satisfying meal is a bowl of your favorite soup. I will warn you though – this Cheese Stuffed Pull Apart Bread is almost too good. It’s nearly impossible to walk by it on the counter without snitching a piece!

In my version I flavor this bread with pepper flakes and a blend of cheddar and pepper jack cheeses. However, feel free to flavor this bread any way you like. For example, you could sub in olive oil for some of the butter, sub italian herbs for the pepper flakes, and use fontina, romano, provolone, etc. for the cheese, and serve with marinara for a dipping sauce.

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Cheese Stuffed Pull Apart Bread | Yeast Breads | Cheese Breads

Here’s What You Need to Make Cheese Stuffed Pull Apart Bread

For the Dough

3 ¼ cups AP flour
¼ cup sugar
1 Tbsp Yeast, preferably SAF Gold*
½ cup warm water
4 Tbsp butter
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp red pepper flakes, optional
1 ¼ tsp salt

For the Filling

1 ½ cups Pepper Jack, in ½” dice
1 ½ cups Sharp Cheddar, in ½” dice

Ingredient Notes:

This dough has a good amount of sugar and fat and will therefore take its time rising. SAF Gold yeast is especially formulated to work exceptionally well in these types of doughs. It’s readily available in cooking shops and online. You can use regular yeast, but the dough will need a bit longer to rise.
Dicing rather than shredding the cheese helps keep it in ooey-gooey layers, instead of melting into the dough.

Here’s What to Do

If you have a bread machine, place the dough ingredients in your machine and run the dough cycle. If cycle finishes before dough has doubled, allow dough to continue to rise until it does.

To make the dough by hand, combine flour, sugar, salt, yeast and pepper flakes in the bowl of a large stand mixer. Put water in 1 cup glass measure and add butter. Microwave 30 seconds to melt butter. Whisk until butter melts and mixture cools to 110 (lukewarm). Add water & butter mixture and eggs to dry ingredients. Knead with dough hook attachment for 6-8 mins.

Cover dough and let it rise in a warm location until doubled, 1 ½ to 2 hours. (I have a bread proofing box, and this dough rises well at 85 degrees). Dice cheese and let come to room temp before end of first rise.

Dump risen dough out onto unfloured counter and roll out to a 12” x 26” rectangle. Scatter cheese evenly over dough, leaving an inch or two around the edges. Roll dough up jelly roll fashion and pinch seam to seal. Roll back and forth to remove any air and stretch roll out to as close to 30” as you can.

Shape roll into a coil (like a giant cinnamon roll), pinching the end under the coil. Grease a 9″ round cake pan and line with parchment paper. Place coil in pan and let rise in a warm place until doubled, 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes; rotate pan and loosely cover with foil to prevent overbrowning. Bake about 20-30 mins longer until bread reaches 190 on an instant-read thermometer (or sounds hollow when thumped). Depending on what cheese you choose, you may need to put a baking sheet or a piece of foil underneath to keep cheese from bubbling onto oven.

When finished, you will have one gorgeous pan full of puffy, golden brown, cheesy goodness!

Allow finished bread to cool 10 minutes in the pan before tipping it out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Because the coil climbs upward as it cooks, when you tip it out of the confines of the pan it may flatten back down. Don’t panic! Those layers separating make the bread easier to grab a hunk off. : )

Cheddar and Pepper Jack cheeses fill this easy Cheesy Pull Apart Bread recipe

To serve, pull off soft, cheesy hunks and enjoy!

Here are three other fabulous bread recipes for you to try:

Pinnable image for Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread Recipe — Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

pinnable image for cranberry orange swirl bread recipe — Cranberry Orange Bread Two Ways – Sweet Rolls or Swirl Loaf

Colossal Cinnamon Roll with Cream Cheese Frosting | Yeast Breads | Cinnamon Rolls — Colossal Cinnamon Roll with Cream Cheese Frosting

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Cheese Stuffed Pull Apart Bread

This Cheese Stuffed Pull Apart Bread is an easy to make pull apart bread swirl stuffed full of ooey-gooey cheeses that you can vary to suit your tastes.

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Keyword Specialty Bread, Yeast Bread

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1

Rising time 3

Total Time 4 30

Servings 8 servings

Author Elizabeth at thewildolive.org

Ingredients

For the Dough

3 ¼ cups AP flour
¼ cup sugar
1 Tbsp Yeast - preferably SAF Gold*
½ cup warm water
4 Tbsp butter - melted
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp red pepper flakes - optional
1 ¼ tsp salt

For the Filling

1 ½ cups Pepper Jack - in ½” dice
1 ½ cups Sharp Cheddar - in ½” dice

Instructions

If you have a bread machine, place the dough ingredients in your machine and run the dough cycle. If cycle finishes before dough has doubled, allow dough to continue to rise until it does.
To make the dough by hand, combine flour, sugar, salt, yeast and pepper flakes in the bowl of a large stand mixer. Put water in 1 cup glass measure and add butter. Microwave 30 seconds to melt butter. Whisk until butter melts and mixture cools to 110 (lukewarm). Add water & butter mixture and eggs to dry ingredients. Knead with dough hook attachment for 6-8 mins.
Cover dough and let it rise in a warm location until doubled, 1 ½ to 2 hours. (I have a bread proofing box, and this dough rises well at 85 degrees). Dice cheese and let come to room temp before end of first rise.
Dump risen dough out onto unfloured counter and roll out to a 12” x 26” rectangle. Scatter cheese evenly over dough, leaving an inch or two around the edges. Roll dough up jelly roll fashion and pinch seam to seal. Roll back and forth to remove any air and stretch roll out to as close to 30” as you can.
Shape roll into a coil (like a giant cinnamon roll), pinching the end under the coil. Grease a 9″ round cake pan and line with parchment paper. Place coil in pan and let rise in a warm place until doubled, 1 to 1 ½ hours.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes; rotate pan and loosely cover with foil to prevent overbrowning. Bake about 20-30 mins longer until bread reaches 190 on an instant-read thermometer (or sounds hollow when thumped). Depending on what cheese you choose, you may need to put a baking sheet or a piece of foil underneath to keep cheese from bubbling onto oven.
Allow finished bread to cool 10 minutes in the pan before tipping it out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Because the coil climbs upward as it cooks, when you tip it out of the confines of the pan it may flatten back down. Don’t panic! Those layers separating make the bread easier to grab a hunk off.
To serve, pull off soft, cheesy, hunks and enjoy!

Notes

Ingredient Notes:
This dough has a good amount of sugar and fat and will therefore take its time rising. SAF Gold yeast is especially formulated to work exceptionally well in these types of doughs. It’s readily available in cooking shops and online. You can use regular yeast, but the dough will need a bit longer to rise.
Dicing rather than shredding the cheese helps keep it in ooey-gooey layers, instead of melting into the dough.