Pull-apart bread with fresh wild garlic pesto

Pull-apart bread with fresh wild garlic pesto

A wonderfully aromatic and soft pull-apart bread that comes apart very easily - perfect for sharing with your loved ones.

Pull-apart bread is not only a treat for the eyes, it's also incredibly practical: you can pull it apart piece by piece, without a knife. In this spring variation, you combine an airy yeast dough with fresh wild garlic. Its delicate, slightly garlicky aroma pairs perfectly with a homemade pesto and gives it a deliciously intense flavour.

Whether as an appetizer, at brunch or as a side dish, this pull-apart bread is always a crowd-pleaser.

Ingredients

For 3 loaves (28.5 x 8 x 4.5 cm)

Yeast dough

• • • 500 g white flour
    • 75 g butter (cold)
    • 30 g white sugar
    • 10 g salt
    • 250 g whole milk
    • 5 g baking malt
    • 40 g granulated sugar
    • 35 g yeast
    • 50 g whole eggs

Wild garlic pesto

• • • 45 g almonds (toasted)
    • 100 g fresh wild garlic
    • 20 g parsley
    • 90 g parmesan
    • 165 g olive oil
    • 4 g salt
    • Pepper to taste

Moulds & quantities

For this recipe, you ideally need 3 wooden loaf tins (28.5 × 8 × 4.5 cm).

If you have fewer tins, that's no problem: you can bake the loaves one after another or freeze part of the dough.

👉 Tip:

• For 2 loaves → divide ingredients by 1.5
• For 1 loaf → divide ingredients by 3

Preparation

1. Wild garlic pesto

Wash the wild garlic thoroughly and dry it well.

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until you have a creamy mixture. If needed, you can add a little more olive oil.

Very important: don't forget to season! Adjust the salt and pepper to your taste. Set the pesto aside.

2. Yeast dough (by hand)

Place the flour, salt and cold butter in a bowl. Rub the butter into the flour with your hands until you get a crumbly, sandy mixture.

Add the milk, baking malt, sugar, yeast and egg and briefly mix everything together.

Then knead the dough on the work surface: push it forward with the palm of your hand, fold it back and rotate it slightly. Repeat until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Shape into a ball and let the dough rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

3. Shaping the pull-apart bread

Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces (about 320 g each) and shape into balls.

Roll out each ball into a rectangle of about 30 × 20 cm (preferably directly on baking paper). Spread about 110 g of wild garlic pesto evenly over each rectangle.

Place the dough sheets in the freezer for 30 minutes - this will make them easier to cut cleanly later.

Then cut into strips (about 5 cm wide) and stack them. Cut them into squares. Place the squares on their sides in the tin. The coated sides face outward - this is how the typical layers are formed.

Important: just place the pieces next to each other without pressing them together. The dough will rise and fill the tin on its own.

Let the bread rise for about one hour.

Bake in the preheated oven at 180 °C, top and bottom heat, for about 40 minutes.

Variations

This pull-apart bread can be easily adapted:

• With rosso pesto made from sun-dried tomatoes
• With tomatoes & mozzarella
• With your own herb mixtures

Or sweet:

• With chocolate
• With vanilla cream
• With cinnamon & sugar

Perfect as a dessert or for a special brunch.

Soft, aromatic and perfect for sharing - you'll want to make this pull-apart bread again right away.