Starting from a simple rosemary-infused homemade dough, this rosemary garlic pull apart bread is shaped and assembled with butter, garlic, cheese, and herbs. Baked until golden brown and served pull-apart style, this flaky and flavorful bread is completely irresistible. Just wait until you smell it baking! Truly a favorite.
This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast.
Have you ever tried my everything bagel pull apart bread? It is, without a doubt, one of the best bread recipes to come out of my kitchen. I wanted something equally as snack-y and satisfying for this holiday season, so I swapped in some everyday foolproof ingredients like rosemary, butter, and parmesan cheese.
I don’t think a finished recipe has ever disappeared faster in my house. (And I make chocolate chip cookies on the regular.)
Tell Me About This Rosemary Garlic Pull Apart Bread
- Flavor: Cheesy & garlic, rosemary & herb, salty & buttery—all packed inside the homestyle goodness of from-scratch bread. This recipe has a range of some of the BEST flavors around.
- Texture: In addition to the irresistible flavor, this pull apart bread’s texture is definitely something to write home about. The exterior is golden crisp right out of the oven, sealing in a soft and flaky center. The assembly and shape allows for many little peaks and valleys, so you have a lot more texture than, say, dinner rolls or sandwich bread. I’m happy to report that we’re almost nearing croissants in terms of flakiness. (!!)
- Ease: Many pull apart bread recipes use a loaf of bakery bread from the store and while that’s certainly easy and delicious, this recipe utilizes a 9 ingredient homemade dough. If you’ve ever been nervous to bake bread, this recipe is a great starting point. Shaping is pretty simple—the loaf can look messy going into the oven. If you’re new to baking with yeast, review my Baking with Yeast Guide. Lots of helpful information there!
- Time: There’s no arguing that homemade bread takes time, but the results are always so worth the commitment. Luckily this recipe yields 1 simple loaf and once you get the assembly process down, it moves pretty quickly. Set aside at least 4 hours from start to finish, but keep in mind most of that time is hands off as the dough rises.
Looking for rosemary & herb dinner rolls? You will love these herb skillet rolls.
Video Tutorial: How to Make Rosemary Garlic Pull Apart Bread
Let’s Review the Pull Apart Bread Dough
I don’t want to stand in the way of you and this carb-y perfection, so I’ll try to keep this short. This pull apart bread starts with homemade dough. You need 9 simple ingredients including: yeast, sugar, milk, butter, salt, egg, flour, rosemary and garlic powder. Sugar feeds the yeast, while milk hydrates it and gives the bread a softer texture (as opposed to water). Butter, salt, rosemary, and garlic powder add flavor. Egg contributes to the rising and provides more texture and structure.
- We’re using a superior yeast: Platinum Yeast from Red Star. This is an instant yeast that strengthens the dough and provides extra volume to the final product. It’s my preferred yeast for any and all bread baking—I use it exclusively in my kitchen because it’s always a guarantee. We only need 2 teaspoons of dry yeast which is a little less than 1 standard packet.
How to Assemble Pull Apart Bread
There are a billion ways to make and assemble pull apart bread. I use a rolling pin and biscuit cutter for my everything bagel pull apart bread and while you can definitely use that same method here, I opted for something even easier today. You won’t have leftover dough scraps this way.
- Divide dough into 12 equal pieces.
- Flatten into 4-inch circles. They don’t need to be perfect.
- Spread garlic herb butter on top. Sprinkle with cheese.
- Fold the circles in half and arrange upright in a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
*You don’t need a rolling pin, but you could certainly use one if you want.
Pull Apart Bread Step by Step Photos
When you get started, use these helpful photos as your guide.
Make and knead the dough, referencing my How to Knead Dough tutorial as needed. After the dough rises, punch it down and divide into 12 pieces.
Flatten the dough rounds and spread each with garlic herb butter.
Sprinkle with cheese and fold in half to resemble a taco.
Note: I love cheesy bread, but I appreciate that it doesn’t overpower the rosemary in this recipe. If you’re looking for a heavier cheesy flavor, you will love my homemade cheese bread.
Why fold the circles in half? Folding the dough circles in half gives the bread a solid base where no butter/cheese can seep through. I had so much trouble with a similar recipe when I tried to arrange buttered squares of dough in a loaf pan. The butter leaked everywhere and the bread was a greasy mess. While some butter melts around the sides here, the bread’s base is pretty solid.
Line folded circles in a greased loaf pan.
Allow to rise until puffy, then bake until golden brown.
This bread fits the bill for a snack, appetizer, or alongside dinner. You can slice the loaf or tear off pieces. Whenever or however you serve it, I’m confident every lucky taste tester will beg for seconds. If you love the garlic and herb butter flavors in this recipe, try these pizza pull apart rolls next. And if you’re craving sugar, this homemade monkey bread is equally mouthwatering and perfectly acceptable for breakfast. 😉
PrintRosemary Garlic Pull Apart Bread
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Make a flavorful pull apart bread using this delicious rosemary-infused yeasted dough. You can use your favorite cheese in the filling. I love and usually use shredded parmesan.
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 teaspoons Platinum Yeast from Red Star*
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (180ml) whole milk
- 3 Tablespoons (43g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 2 and 1/3 cups (291g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed*
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary (or 2 teaspoons dried)
Filling
- 5 Tablespoons (71g) unsalted butter, extra soft (see note)
- 1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary (or 2 teaspoons dried)
- 1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley (or 2 teaspoons dried)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (95g) shredded parmesan, mozzarella, or white cheddar cheese (or your favorite shredded cheese)
Optional Topping
- 1 Tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter, melted
- flaky/coarse sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Make the dough: 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 butter, egg, flour, salt, garlic powder, and rosemary. Beat on low speed for 3 minutes. Dough will be soft.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer (and switch to the dough hook if using the paddle) and beat for an additional 5 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) 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.
- 1st Rise: Shape the kneaded dough into a ball. 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, prepare the filling in the next step and grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
- Make the filling: In a medium bowl, mix the soft butter, rosemary, parsley, garlic, and salt together. If the butter is soft enough, you can just mix it all together with a spoon or fork. You can use an electric mixer if that’s easier too. Cover tightly and set aside until ready to use. (Don’t refrigerate unless making well in advance. It’s easiest to spread on the dough when at room temperature. If refrigerated, let it come to room temperature before spreading on dough pieces.)
- Assemble the bread: Punch down the dough to release the air. Place dough on a lightly floured work surface. Divide it into 12 equal pieces, each about 1/4 cup of dough and a little larger than a golf ball. Using lightly floured hands, flatten each into a circle that’s about 4 inches in diameter. The circle doesn’t have to be perfectly round. I do not use a rolling pan to flatten, but you certainly can if you want. Spread 1-2 teaspoons of filling mixture onto each. Sprinkle each with 1 Tablespoon of cheese. Fold circles in half and line in prepared baking pan, round side up. See photos above for a visual.
- 2nd Rise: Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and allow to rise once again in a slightly warm environment until puffy, about 45 minutes.
- Adjust the oven rack to the lower third position then preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Bake until golden brown, about 50 minutes. If you find the top of the loaf is browning too quickly, tent with aluminum foil. (Don’t be alarmed if there’s melted butter around the sides of the bread as it bakes, it will seep into the bread before it finishes.) Remove from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack. If desired, brush with melted butter for topping and sprinkle with sea salt.
- Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove from the pan and serve warm.
- Cover and store leftovers at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Since the bread is extra crispy on the exterior, it will become a little hard after day 1. Reheat in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10-15 minutes until interior is soft again or warm in the microwave.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Freeze baked and cooled bread for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator and warm in the oven to your liking. The dough can be prepared through step 4, then after it has risen, punch it down to release the air, cover it tightly, then place in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Continue with step 5. To freeze the dough, prepare it through step 4. After it has risen, punch it down to release the air. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in a freezer-friendly container for up to 3 months. When ready to use, thaw the dough overnight in the refrigerator. Then let the dough sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before continuing with step 5. (You may need to punch it down again if it has some air bubbles.)
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Stand Mixer or Large Glass Mixing Bowl with Wooden Spoon / Silicone Spatula | 9×5-inch Loaf Pan | Cooling Rack
- Yeast: I always use Platinum Yeast from Red Star, an instant yeast. If using active dry yeast, the rise times could be slightly longer. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Flour: Feel free to use the same amount of bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. You can also try swapping out 1 cup of flour for whole wheat flour. Do not replace all of the flour with whole wheat flour—just 1 cup.
- Extra Soft Butter for Filling: Have you ever read my page about room temperature butter? Room temperature butter for baking should still be cool to the touch. You want room temperature butter for the dough. However, for the filling, you want extra soft butter so you can easily spread it onto the flattened dough without tearing the dough. Feel free to microwave it for 10-15 seconds to help it get extra soft.
The flavor was great and this was fun to make! I enjoy making the breads on this website. I’m new to bread making. The loaf didn’t rise completely during the baking step and the bread was a bit dense. What could have caused this? The only ‘problem’ I appeared to encounter was when I pulled the dough out of the bowl to knead it—it was pretty sticky and wet and I added some flour to make it less tacky. I also did all the mixing by hand. I want to try this bread again.
Hi!
I made it and the recipe is so delicious, easy, and fun. I showed pics to my friend and he’d like some. Problem is that he’s 500 miles away. Do you think it’d be ok to overnight it?
Hi Lou, The bread should be ok at room temperature for up to 2 days. Since the bread is extra crispy on the exterior, it will become a little hard after day 1, so when you mail it just send along the directions from the recipe notes for softening it back up.
I followed the recipe exactly, and it was SO good! I had some of the butter spread leftover, which was so good and easy I’d make it on its own too.
I am in Denver Colorado visiting and would like to make this for my daughter and her family. What do I need to adjust for the altitude of 5280
Love how it turns out in IL!!
Hi Audrey, I wish we could help, but we have no experience baking at high altitude. I know some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Best bread I have ever made! So full
of flavour and turns out great every time. My toddler loves it too. Perfect for this novice bread maker.
Keep the amazing recipes coming please!
Hi I have a fan oven what temperature should it be at?
Hi Emma, our recipes are written for conventional ovens, but for convectional ovens we usually recommend that readers lower their temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake.
I’d like to make this using non-dairy (violife) shredded cheese instead of the dairy cheese…I do use it on pizza and other baked dishes. Any thoughts whether that would be ok with this recipe?
Hi UK, We haven’t tested this with dairy free cheese, but if you enjoy it on your pizzas you should enjoy it here also. Let us know if you give it a try!
I just made my loaf with Daiya and worked perfectly!! Violife is miles ahead so I would think it will turn out amazing!
Can we skip the egg?
We don’t recommend skipping the egg. You could try an egg substitute but we haven’t tested any. Let us know how it goes!
Made the bread yesterday and wow, what a sensation of flavours! I followed the recipe using my kitchenaid and it turned out beautifully. As a dutch living in South Korea I struggle to measure with cups. Pitiful since Americans bake such delicious goodies! So I am very glad to see that you write down grams as well, easy to follow. Thank you!
I made mine with a flax egg and worked out great!!!
I used dried rosemary, reduced by 1/2 in both the dough and butter – way too much for our tastes. Next time will reduce it to 1/2 tsp each. But … we tried it with a marinara sauce and OMG it was delish.
Made this recipe, by hand, with young grandkids and had a wonderful time mixing, kneading, assembling. Thank you so much for this recipe.
Hi Sally, for the dough, could i replace garlic powder with a teaspoon of fresh garlic instead?
Hi Ruth, Fresh minced garlic yields a slightly wetter dough so you may want another Tablespoon or so of flour. 2-3 minced cloves would be plenty. Enjoy!
I’ve made several things by you now and this is the first time making the Rosemary garlic pull-apart bread. It is absolutely delicious!
Hi Sally
I made this using homemade vegan butter (same quantity), soy milk, swapped out third of a cup of flour for spelt and added caramelised onions to the filling. It’s an awesome recipe, thank you! Also your cinnamon rolls with similar substitutions, equally fabulous. Just love your website!!!
I cannot eat dairy, so I left out the cheese and made this with almond milk and vegan butter and it was absolutely incredible! My whole family loved this – thank you for this easy and delicious recipe!
I am so proud of myself for successfully making this yesterday!! Homemade bread and I are not always on speaking terms so I was a bit nervous, but it was perfect. I had chives instead of rosemary but otherwise followed to a tee and it looked just like the picture. I put the dough in the microwave next to a glass of recently boiled water to raise. 100% will make again. Thanks Sally – can’t wait to explore your other recipes!
Would this work without the cheese? My husband would love this bread, but he doesn’t like cheesy bread (crazy, I know!)
Hi Andrea! You can leave out the cheese completely. No other changes necessary.
I enjoyed both the process and the results. Will definitely make again, and again.
This is a really good recipe. The family loved it. It was Served with split pea soup. I’ve already sent this other family members. This is a keeper.
This bread is easy to make and delicious. I didn’t have rosemary but used thyme in its place and it worked well.
Made this bread and it was super delicious!!
Your rosemary garlic pull apart bread is another winner! I served it on New Year’s Day and the family loved it. Keep those recipes coming.
Delish!!! I know it’s good when my hubby smiles while eating, and he did with this bread. I used active dry yeast (that’s what I had) but added 25% more to match the rise time of an instant. It had a wonderful crust that added a nice crunchy texture to a soupy scalloped tomato dish I paired it with.
Would I be able to use either half & half or whipping cream in place of whole milk?
Hi Anna, we don’t recommend it – they would be too heavy. You can use water in place of the whole milk if needed.
I made this last night and it was incredible. I did however have an awful time getting my yeast to activate in milk. After the 4th try I finally got a good one. If you subbed water for the milk would it change the recipe much?
I made this with a sourdough starter instead of yeast. I used about 50g of starter so I used 25g less of each water and flour. After kneading it I left it overnight at room temperature (my house is about 18C) and the next morning it was risen and I could deflate it and proceed with the assembly. It worked great!!!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! My family and I had some fresh rosemary and decided to use it on this bread. I was so scared of yeast in the past but I believe I was using low quality or old yeast which is why I yielded such terrible results. We enjoyed this recipe with a tortilla soup. I had planned on giving some of it away but those plans are no more as we can’t quit eating this bread!
Is granulated garlic vs garlic powder ok?
Hi Torie, granulated garlic should work, though you may need to use a bit more for the garlic flavor to come through.
Hello, this recipe looks amazing, how do you think it would be without the cheese? Don’t have any cheese on hand but was considering making it without, just like a rosemary garlic butter bread type thing.
Hi Zoe, absolutely, simply omit the cheese. Enjoy!
Amazing garlic bread and such an easy recipe! I used manitoba flour and not sure if that was the reason I just had to add a few more TB of flour but it wasn’t dry at all. Still super moist and fluffy on the inside. My guests loved it and will be making it again this weekend! I used grated grana padano. I also used regular active dried yeast as the red Platinum yeast is not available here. It was still growing pretty quickly. I wanted to make the dough 2 days ahead and leave it in the fridge but it was still growing like crazy in there so I actually froze it. Once it defrosted it was still really cold but still grew beautifully just had to wait a bit longer for the second rise before it went into the oven. Overall very easy and forgiving recipe that makes delicious garlic bread
So delicious and EASY to make !
Please Please Please will you do a video on how to make White Chocolate Bread!? Club Med makes the best but I’m quite sure you can make it even better or at least teach the proper way how to make it!
Hi Kim! I’ve never had it before. Sounds delicious! So glad you enjoyed this pull apart bread.
I made this in today and it is wonderful. Thank you sally for your recipes. They are now super popular in India too where we love all kinds of food. I am a new baker (6 months ) and I have been an ardent fan of your recipes. They ALWAYS turn out good. ALWAYS. You should call them NO FAIL recipes.