Cheese Pull-Apart Garlic Bread l Made With No-Knead Focaccia Dough

Today we are making a cheesy garlic butter pull-apart bread that is made with my no-knead focaccia dough. It's soft and pillowy on the inside and crunchy and golden on the outside. It's filled with garlic butter and cheese and then doused with an extra layer of garlic butter. You are going to absolutely love this one especially if you are the garlic lover like I am. So let's get into it. XOXO Garlic Girl. First up grab a bowl and a set of digital scales. Add 680 grams of lukewarm water to the bowl. It should sit at 95 degrees Fahrenheit or 35 degrees Celsius as this is the perfect temperature for your yeast to live in. Add 7 grams of dry yeast to the water. I like to use this brand as they conveniently come in 7 gram sachets. This is an active dry yeast which means it needs to be activated in water before use. Add a tablespoon of honey for a little sweetness and to feed the yeast. Whisk to combine. Leave the yeasty water to sit for five minutes and wait for the yeast to bloom. It will look like this. This tells us our yeast is alive, happy and healthy. Set the bowl to the side and then place a large clean bowl onto the digital scales. Measure out 700 grams of bread flour. I like to use bread flour over all purpose as it has a higher protein content which creates more gluten resulting in a chewier texture and a stronger structure. Next up we need to add 12 grams of salt. Add the salt to the flour and then whisk through to give it a little air. Add the yeasty water to the flour and begin to mix it through with your hands. I always like to use my hands when making dough as the feel and touch is just so important and tells me so much about my dough. But you can use a wooden spoon if you don't want to get your hands dirty. This is a very high hydrated dough. We have 680 grams of water to 700 grams of flour so it sits at 97% hydration. Now this is a very high percentage for a no-knead dough but it does come together. You just have to trust that process. To begin with your dough is going to feel very wet but as we continue to mix and incorporate all of the flour into the water the dough will begin to hold shape and form into a wet and shaggy ball. It should be very wet and sticky in the first step. Cover the dough with a tea towel and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Remove the tea towel and begin the first round of stretch and folds using a wet hand as this will stop the dough from sticking to your fingers. Take one corner of the dough, lift, stretch it up towards you and then fold it over on the opposite side of the bowl. Rotate the bowl one quarter and repeat on each corner of the dough. I like to do at least four sometimes six folds but the dough will tell you when she has had enough as it will begin to pull back and not stretch. Cover the bowl again with a tea towel and leave to rest for an additional 15 minutes. After 15 minutes uncover the bowl, wet your hands and continue your stretch and folds. As you continue these stretch and folds you will notice the dough going from a wet and shaggy texture to a smooth soft and stretchy dough that is quite elastic and strong. This is how we know our dough is developing gluten. Drizzle the dough with two tablespoons of olive oil and work your hands under the dough to ensure all parts are in the oil. The dough will feel glossy and slippery. The oil will protect the dough when it proofs and will also stop it from sticking to the bowl. Cover the bowl very well with plastic wrap. Pop the bowl into the fridge for 12 to 48 hours. This is a cold fermentation that slows down the fermentation process resulting in a tastier dough with better texture. While our dough proofs we need to prepare our garlic butter by slicing the top off four garlic bulbs so the cloves are just exposed. These are little organic garlic bulbs I kept sitting in my pantry for a few weeks which is why we can see their little green gems but they are still totally fine to eat. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for one hour at 200 degrees celsius or 400 degrees fahrenheit. The garlic should be nicely caramelized. Allow the garlic to cool and then squeeze out all of those cloves. Mash them up with a knife to form a paste. Now you could mash this directly into some butter or even blitz the butter and garlic paste together in a food processor but because I'm using a homemade butter that I made myself I am going to spread it out onto a chopping board and then spread the garlic confit paste all through it. It's a garlicky marbled butter. I'm then going to fold up the edges so all of that delicious garlic is enclosed by the butter. Now that we have left our dough to proof in the fridge for 24 hours let's take it out and remove that plastic wrap. You will see that the dough has doubled in size, is nicely aerated with some lovely bubbles and has a beautiful little jiggle jiggle texture. Drop the dough onto your working surface and then stretch out the edges. Don't worry about the dough tearing because remember all those stretch and folds we did? Well they have created a very strong dough. Break off pieces of that delicious garlic butter made and spread it out onto the dough. Sprinkle over as much mozzarella cheese as your heart desires. Now we want to form this into a rough ball so all of that delicious filling is enclosed by the dough. Grab one end of the dough and stretch it over the filling to the middle. Grab the other end and do the same. Then grab the left side, fold it over to the middle followed by the right side. Pick up the dough and place it into a baking tray that has been drizzled with olive oil and then stretch out the edges to the corner of the tray. Cover and leave to proof in a warm spot, this time for at least one to two hours or until the dough has doubled in size. While the dough is rising melt the remaining butter in a small pot in the microwave for one to two minutes stirring at every 30 second interval. When the butter is melted add one tablespoon of finely chopped parsley and stir that through. Once our dough has proofed and has doubled in size remove it from the tray and place back onto your working surface. Using a bench scraper divide the dough into 12 pieces. These pieces do not have to be the exact same size or weight so just eyeball it and do it as precisely as you can. Take each piece of dough and shape them into a ball. I like to use wet hands here as well. Grab your tray that has been drizzled with olive oil and drizzle at least one third of the garlic butter you just melted into it. Not only will the olive oil crisp up the bottom of the dough and give it that iconic focaccia golden and crunchy bottom, it will also prevent the butter from burning. Place each piece of dough back into the tray ensuring they are quite snug. As the dough bakes each little ball will very loosely connect to one another giving it that pull apart effect. Drizzle over half of the remaining garlic butter and brush it onto the dough with a pastry brush. Cover and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Now here comes my favorite part, dimpling that dough. Dimple the dough with your fingers that have a little oil massaged into them as this will prevent the dough from sticking. Drizzle with olive oil and then sprinkle over some more mozzarella cheese. Bake for 30 minutes at 200 degrees celsius or 400 degrees fahrenheit or until all that cheese has melted and the top is golden and crunchy. Leave the dough to rest before transferring it to a wire rack and then pull apart all of those little rolls. You may want to brush a little extra garlic butter on the top as well for some beautiful garlic butterness in every bite. This was so incredibly yummy and maybe my new favorite version of garlic bread which says a lot coming from your garlic girl. Thank you so much for watching. I really hope you liked this video and if you liked this recipe or you made it at home yourself please let me know in the comments. I read every single one of them and I try to get back to you all. I hope to catch you all next week. Have a great day. XOXO Garlic Girl