Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread

AKA my first time baking bread, ever!

My friend and I decided to try out a recipe from Pastry Affair not too long ago.

It started out with yeast:

It took us two tries to get this satisfactorily frothy yeast - I think on our first try, the water we used wasn't warm enough, and nothing happened. 

Then we added in the flour, oil, and salt. We decided to substitute 1/3 of the flour with whole wheat flour (the ratios are not 1:1, remember that!). We had to mix manually, so the next step was hand-kneading! I looked at some tutorials but was not prepared for how long we kneaded. The recipe specifies 7-10 minutes, but we alternated kneading the dough for close to 30-40 minutes. It was difficult to tell how much kneading was enough, as none of the indicator tests really seemed to be working out for us, so we just decided it would have to be enough.

Then we let it rise in a warm place.

In the meantime, we prepared the butter, garlic, and parsley mixture:

And set out plenty of parmesan cheese!

The recipe calls for grated rather than shredded, but this option was much cheaper at my grocery store...

And then the dough had risen!

Only to be punched down:

And shaped into balls to be dipped and stacked.

We must have made our dough balls far bigger than Kristin did, as we only managed to get to about a layer and a half of dough. Still, we ended up running out of the butter mixture and had to make more. Ultimately, we made 1.5x the amount of mix specified in the recipe. Now to let the dough rise again:

And into the oven!

Quick note: do not attempt, as we did, to bake this in an angel food cake pan. We didn't have a bundt pan but failed to realize the importance of the fact that an angel food cake pan separates, allowing butter to leak through after it heats up in the oven and fill the whole kitchen with smoke! Next time I would try using multiple loaf pans instead (or just... actually get a bundt pan.)

After the smoke subsided, though, we had our finished product! We baked it for probably about 15 minutes longer than the recipe recommended - of course, adjust according to your oven.

Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread

Recipe from Pastry Affair

Ingredients:

2 tsp active dry yeast

1 1/3 cups warm water

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (of course, you can try this with different kinds of flours!)

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tbsp dried parsley flakes

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the yeast and water. Let sit 5-10 minutes until yeast is foamy. Mix in the olive oil, salt, and flour. 

2. If you have a stand mixer, attach the dough hook and knead the dough for 5-6 minutes, or until elastic. If you are doing this by hand, knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until the dough is elastic, about 7-10 minutes (or more!). 

3. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Allow to rise for 1.5-2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size. 

4. In a small bowl, combine the melted butter, parsley flakes, and minced garlic.

5. Punch down the dough. Tear off small pieces of the dough, coat in the butter mixture, and place in the bottom of a bundt pan. Repeat this process until you have one layer of dough balls, then sprinkle 1/3 of the Parmesan cheese.

6. Continue layering dough balls and cheese until the dough is used up. Cover the pan with a clean towel or plastic wrap and let sit until it has doubled in size, 20-30 minutes.

7. Preheat oven to 350F (175C), and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown.

Now for a final inside shot!

I think it came out fairly well for my first encounter with bread :)