This homemade pizza bread can be made with homemade or store-bought dough and sauce. It is impressive to look at and delicious as a spin on pizza night, tailgating, or movie night. The sauce is made using an easy trick to concentrate the flavor of jarred sauce.
I also make my easy creamy vodka sauce, and don’t miss my pepperoni bread recipe, which uses the same homemade dough as the pizza bread.
For ease of browsing, here are all of my appetizer recipes in one place. Thanks for stopping by!
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Easy Pizza Bread, at a Glance
✅Skill Level: Intermediate
✅Skills: Pizza Dough, Making a Ladder Braid, Proofing and Baking
✅Type: Appetizer Stuffed Bread
✅Number of Ingredients: 8 in the dough, 6 in the filling, 2 for the sauce
✅Shortcut: Use Ready-Made Pizza Dough
✅Prep Time: 1 hour
✅Cold Rise: 12-24 hours
✅Cook Time: 30 minutes
✅Yield: about 16 slices
Jump Straight to the Recipe
How To Concentrate Flavor in Store-Bought Pasta Sauce
I started my pizza bread dip with a jar of store-bought sauce. Since a lot of extra moisture is not great for filling up a braided loaf, here’s how I made it thicker without cooking it for a long time:
- Dampen a coffee filter with some fresh water, place it into a glass or wide-mouth jar and then fold the edges of the filter back down over the rim of the glass or jar all the way around, making sort of a cuff.
- Carefully pour your sauce in and let it drain for a few minutes to reduce the water content and concentrate the flavors. Easy!
I was left with a thicker sauce that I knew would keep my finished bread from getting soggy.
I use large square coffee filters. If you use the basket kind, just smooth one out into a fine mesh strainer and set the strainer over a bowl. That’s easy, too!
For the full rundown of how to make this pizza bread, watch the video and then check out the recipe below.
The pizza bread is a spin on my Pepperoni Bread in case you’d like to try both variations.
How to Make Pizza Bread
If you are comfortable with making yeast dough, you can skip on down to the recipe.
Otherwise, here’s an overview of how to make the dough.
Filling is literally just layering on your chosen ingredients–use your favorite pizza topping combination to fill your pizza bread, or follow my recipe exactly.
The dough is a modified straight dough method.
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- Add warm water, salt, and olive oil to the bowl of your
stand mixer or in a large bowl if making by hand. - Add the flour followed by the rest of the ingredients and knead on low speed to bring the dough together. If making by hand. stir everything together well with a wooden spoon or dough whisk.
- Increase speed to medium and knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and stretchy. If making by hand, turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead by hand. Use a dough scraper or bench knife to help you if the dough is very sticky. Resist the urge to add extra flour.
- Oil a large ziptop bag, put the dough in it, and then close and refrigerate for 12-24 hours. This time in the fridge allows flavor to develop and yeast to continue to multiply slowly.
After the dough’s fridge time, divide the dough in half, roll each half into a rectangle, and then layer the ingredients down the center third of each rectangle.
Using a pizza wheel, cut strips from the outside edges in toward the filling.
Cross strips across the filling all the way up (or down) the loaves. This is called a “ladder braid,” and is an easy way to get an impressive-looking loaf.
Let them rest for about 20 minutes to an hour before baking as directed.
Cool to warm before slicing and serving with extra marinara for dipping.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.
Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.
If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.
A Note About Measurements
My recipes are almost all written by weight, including liquids, unless otherwise specified.
For accuracy and consistency of results, I encourage you to buy–and use–a kitchen scale.
I promise that baking and cleanup will be so much quicker and easier.
This is the scale that I recommend for home use. I have owned and used one for years.
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
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Homemade Pizza Bread Recipe
Video
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Ingredients
For the Dough (See NOTE at End of Recipe)
- 8 oz lukewarm water 1 cup
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt I use Morton's
- 13 oz bread flour 3 cups
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder to taste
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- several grindings of black pepper
- 2 Tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
For the Filling
- 1 ½ cups marinara sauce store bought is totally fine
- 12-16 slices fresh mozzarella cheese , sliced about 1/4″ thick
- 28-32 slices sopressata or your favorite salami or pepperoni
- 1 cup shredded Provolone cheese
- 4-5 Tablespoons drained sliced black olives
- 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
For the Dipping Sauce
- 2 cups marinara sauce store bought is fine
- 2 Tablespoons shredded mozzarella or Provolone for topping
Instructions
For the Dough*
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix the water, olive oil and salt until the salt is dissolved.
- Add the flour, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, black pepper and Parmesan cheese.
- Fit the mixer with the dough hook and mix on low speed until the dough comes together, about 2 minutes.
- Knead on medium speed for 10 minutes at which point you should have a very smooth and stretchy dough that completely clears the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to a zip top bag.
- For the dough into a smooth ball, place in the bag, making sure it gets completely coated with the oil.
- Refrigerate for 12 hours or up to 24 hours.
For the Filling
- Set a moistened coffee filter inside a deep glass or wide-mouth jar. Fold the edges of the filter back over the rim of the glass/jar all the way around, making a cuff to hold the filter in place.
- Carefully pour in the first amount of marinara. You may have to use 2 filters and split the amount of sauce between the two.
- Allow the sauce to drain for about 15 minutes. Discard any liquid that collects in the bottom of the glass.
- Assemble all your ingredients so they are easy to reach.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and cut it in half. Each of my halves weighed 11.2 oz, but nothing awful will happen if you just eyeball it. Cover the second half as you work with the first.
- Roll the dough out into about a 10″ x 12″ rectangle. I find it easiest to roll specific shapes (either round or square-ish) using a tapered pin.
- With a pizza cutter or a sharp knife, slice into each of the long sides of the dough by about 2 1/2″, making the slices about 3/4″ wide. You’ll have a strip of uncut dough running down the center of your rectangle.
- Now start layering half of the ingredients onto the center of the rectangle. I used a small amount of sauce between each layer as you see in the video, so my layering went sauce-fresh mozzarella-sauce-sopressata-sauce-provolone-sauce-olives-sauce-mozarella. Layer yours however you like.* (See Notes, below)
- Now “braid” your loaf by pulling the first of your dough strips from one side of your rectangle up and over the filling and to the other side. Angle the strip down toward the unfinished end. Now take first strip on the other side and pull it up and over the filling, also angled down. Repeat all along the length of your rectangle, working from side to side and angling the strips toward the unfinished end. This way, each “loose” end will get covered by a dough strip that comes after, keeping your loaf nice and neat. But even if the loaf isn’t picture perfect, don’t sweat it. It will still be delicious!
- Repeat with the second half of the dough. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, cover and let rest for at least 20 minutes or up to an hour (if you let it rest longer, the finished loaf will be “poofier.”)
- Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until a lovely golden brown. Let cool for 15 minutes before slicing. Serve warm with the dipping sauce, below.
For the Dipping Sauce
- Drain the second amount of marinara just as you did the first time.
- Place in a microwave-safe bowl and heat until hot, about a minute or so on high power, depending on your microwave. Sprinkle on some grated cheese and microwave for another 20 seconds or so to melt the cheese. Dip with Abandon. Enjoy!
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
Nutrition
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