Bring new pizzazz to pizza night with these stuffed pizza pull apart rolls! Soft, buttery garlic herb yeast rolls are topped AND stuffed with mozzarella cheese and pepperoni, and finished with garlic herb butter. Use your favorite pizza toppings and wait until you taste (and smell!) one fresh from the oven.
This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast.
Is there anything more appetizing than pulling apart a warm, soft roll to reveal a gooey cheese center, a little puff of steam escaping? Add to that the smells of freshly baked bread and pizza, garlic butter, and Italian seasonings. Oh my gosh… is your mouth watering yet?
My taste testers raved about these pull apart pizza rolls, and especially loved them dipped in some warm pizza sauce. They’re soft and flaky like dinner rolls, but with the added flavors and toppings of your favorite pizza, and a surprise-inside melted mozzarella-and-pepperoni middle.
Here’s Why You’ll Love These Pizza Pull Apart Rolls
- Flavor: Today’s rolls combine the savory flavors of herbs, garlic, and butter, with the classic pizza flavors of mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. If you love the garlic and herb butter flavors in this recipe, try this rosemary garlic pull apart bread or these sea salt herb skillet rolls next!
- Texture: This is a rich dough (think raspberry sweet rolls) rather than a lean dough (think pizza dough), so the texture is like flaky soft sweet potato dinner rolls, honey butter rolls, or homemade breadsticks as opposed to chewy pizza crust. (I do use pizza dough to make these different pepperoni pizza rolls though!) Pulling apart a roll reveals the stretchy melted mozzarella cheese and pepperoni in the middle. Stuffed crust pizza fans will love these rolls!
- Ease: Homemade bread or rolls can seem intimidating, but the recipe below is packed with thorough details so you can be confident in the kitchen. And if you’re new to baking with yeast, start by reading my Baking with Yeast Guide.
- Time: Making rolls from scratch certainly takes time, but after 1 taste of these pizza pull apart rolls, I think you’ll agree they’re worth it! Set aside at least 3 and 1/2 hours from start to finish, but keep in mind much of that time is hands off as the dough rises.
Key Steps
.. It’s ready to have its 1st rise.
After rising, punch down the dough so you can begin shaping:
You can also add a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes for a little heat, and some chopped fresh basil adds color and fresh flavor. Serve with a side of pizza sauce or homemade pesto for dipping, or even with this pepperoni pizza dip for an extreme pizza experience!
Best Baking Pan to Use
You can bake these pizza pull apart rolls in an oven-safe skillet (I use this 10.25-inch cast iron skillet), but they’re just as tasty in a baking dish. In testing, we found that a 9-inch round cake pan or pie dish was too small for this recipe, but you can bake these rolls in a 9-inch square baking pan, a 9-inch springform pan, or a 9×13-inch baking dish.
Serve With…
The cheesy rolls are wonderful as a shareable appetizer—perfect for a football get-together—or make a delicious accompaniment alongside bruschetta chicken with zucchini noodles or a steaming bowl of minestrone soup or slow cooker chicken chili.
See Your Pizza Pull Apart Rolls!
Pizza Pull Apart Rolls Recipe
Ingredients You’ll Need
Instructions
- Place the yeast and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook or paddle attachment. Or, if you do not own a stand mixer, a regular large mixing bowl. Heat the milk on the stove or in the microwave until warm to touch, about 110°F (43°C). Pour warm milk on top of yeast/sugar. Whisk gently to combine, then loosely cover with a clean kitchen towel and allow to sit for 5—10 minutes. The mixture will be frothy after 5—10 minutes.
- If you do not have a mixer, you can mix the dough together with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula in this step. Add the melted butter, egg, salt, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning and about 1 cup of the bread flour. Beat on low speed for 1 minute to combine ingredients, then add the remaining flour and beat on medium speed until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 2 minutes. If the dough seems too wet to a point where kneading (next step) would be impossible, beat in more flour 1 Tablespoon at a time until you have a workable dough. Dough should be soft and a little sticky, but still manageable to knead with lightly floured hands.
- Keep the dough in the mixer and beat for an additional 5 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5 full minutes..) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- Place the dough in a greased bowl (I use nonstick spray to grease) and cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Place in a slightly warm environment to rise until doubled in size, around 60—90 minutes. (If desired, use my warm oven trick for rising. See my answer to Where Should Dough Rise? in my Baking with Yeast Guide.)
- As the dough rises, grease a 9-inch square pan, a 9-inch springform pan, a 9×13-inch baking pan, or a 10-inch oven-safe cast iron skillet; if using a cast iron skillet that’s already seasoned, no need to grease it. A 9-inch round cake pan or pie dish is too small for this recipe. See Notes for other baking pan options.
- Mix together 1 and 1/2 cups (135g) shredded mozzarella and 1/2 cup (60g) chopped pepperoni in a bowl.
- When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Pinch off a piece of dough about 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons in size (1 ounce/30g). With your hands, form into a ball and make an indent in the center. Pinch a bit of cheese and pepperoni (a scant Tablespoon, about 7–8g) with your fingers and stuff into the middle of the dough. Press the dough around it to seal the filling inside, and place the stuffed dough ball into the prepared pan. Repeat with remaining dough and filling until you’ve filled the pan (you should have about 20–24 balls).
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and allow to rise once again in a slightly warm environment until puffy, about 30–45 minutes.
- tep-9">Prepare the toppings
- In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup (45g) mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup (30g) pepperoni. If you’re making the supreme-style option, heat a skillet over medium heat. Add sausage and chopped green pepper. Cook, stirring and breaking up the sausage into bite-size pieces with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, until sausage is cooked through, about 6–7 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a plate lined with paper towels, to drain. Combine with the sliced olives.
- Adjust the oven rack to the lower third position, then preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the rolls from the oven and sprinkle on the cheese and pepperoni topping; plus the cooked sausage, peppers, and olives, if making supreme style. Loosely tent with foil, then return to oven and bake for another 12–15 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. For a more accurate test of doneness, the rolls are done when an instant read thermometer reads 195°F (90°C). Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes as you prepare the topping.
- Melt 2 Tablespoons of butter and stir in the garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Brush on warm rolls before serving. Serve with a side of pizza sauce, and any other additional pizza toppings such as fresh chopped basil or crushed red pepper flakes.
- Cover leftover rolls tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
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