I originally got this recipe from an old Taste of Home magazine, and since the other two pull-apart bread recipes I’ve posted have been so popular, I thought I’d share this one too.
Like the others, this isn’t particularly nutritious, but it is really tasty, especially if you use real butter to make it. 
Though it is similar to the Pull-Apart Garlic Bread, the dough for this is much richer, due to the use of butter, sugar and an egg. I’ve reduced the amount of fat called for in the original recipe, and if you prefer, you can also use less sugar than is called for.
Here’s how to make this delightfully buttery bread.
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.
Add the sugar, butter, egg, salt, and a cup of the flour, and mix until combined.
Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.
Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead for 5-8 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.
Cover with a wet tea towel, and let the dough rise for an hour. Punch it down, and divide it into 1 1/2 inch pieces (I divide mine into 48 pieces). Roll each into a ball.
Dip each ball into melted butter, and place into a greased tube pan. Drizzle any remaining butter over top.
Cover the pan with the wet tea towel, and let the dough rise 30-45 minutes, or until doubled.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned.
Let the bread cool in the pan for a few minutes, and then turn it out onto a plate or serving platter.
The bread is at its best when warm from the oven, but it’s quite good leftover as well.
Buttery Bubble Bread
1 package (2 ½ teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 ¼ cups warm water (110-115 degrees F)
½ cup sugar
¼ cup melted and cooled butter (or vegetable oil)
1 egg
½ teaspoon salt
4 to 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter, melted
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add the sugar, butter, egg, salt, and 1 cup of the flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn out onto floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in bowl, cover with a wet tea towel, and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled.
Punch dough down. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and divide dough into 1 ½ inch balls. Dip the balls into the 6 tablespoons of melted butter, and layer in a greased 9-inch tube pan. Drizzle with remaining melted butter. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about 45 minutes.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. Serve warm.
____________________________
You may also be interested in:
Monkey Bread
Wednesday Baking archives
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Kristen, I love the pull apart garlic bread! I also love the cinnamon twists. I’ve made them twice now, and my kids ask me to make them again every Saturday AND Sunday!:P
Kristen – I made the pull-apart garlic bread on New Years Eve to go with some lasagne and my guests and I loved it! One question though – it was great with dinner, but once it cooled down and was left out for a short time it got really hard to the point of being inedible. Is this normal? I was kind of disappointed because it was a lot of work to make the dough. Thoughts? Is there some special way to keep leftovers?
Hmm, that is weird. I don’t know why that would have happened. The outside of mine gets less crisp when it is left over, but it is not hard. If anything, it’s softer.
Did your loaf rise properly? If it didn’t rise the right amount, I could see how it would be hard when it cooled off.
Have you had this problem with any other yeast breads you’ve made?
We think my son is allergic to dairy (he will be testing on his first birthday which is next week). But, because I have been breastfeeding, I have been avoiding all dairy for him. We have started the weening process and while I get sad about moving past this bonding stage, I am excited (so EXCITED) to try all these wonderful bread recipes you post.
Mmmm … hmmm … this recipe looks mighty tasty. I don’t know how you would ever find out that the leftovers tasted good; there wouldn’t be any!
I’m with Mara! Whenever I make the pull-apart garlic bread, we wonder why I bothered to make anything to serve with it, because all we want to eat is the bread.
I think I might make this to go along with spaghetti tonight!
I finally made the yogurt. I work at a hospital and shared it with my co-workers.
Ya, they think I am slightly weird for making laundry soap and yogurt, but I am just trying to be a better steward of my resources!
not weird, interesting. How do you make your own laundry soap?
Kirsten,
I have never seen that method of breadmaking before, so was quite pleased to stumble upon your blog.
I made the garlic pull-apart bread last week when we had guests and it went down a treat! I used real garlic and fresh parsley in the butter mix, though, and while it was SO yummy, it ended up being a garlic fall-apart loaf! Not sure if I dunked it in waaaay too much butter, or what.
I didn’t allow enough time for it to rise once in the pan, so it was a bit solid and fairly hard a day later, so maybe that’s what went wrong for Erika as well?
Thanks for the recipe. This bread looks wonderful. I might make this for a bookclub meeting I am attending next weekend.
I have to thank you for the glazed honey rolls recipe. I made them this past weekend for my family member to rave reviews. Paired alongside the squash soup, those rolls were absolutely devine.
Oh my! Those look delicious!
I made this exact same recipe a while back and changed it a little bit and made it into a monkey bread. It was delicious! Your photos are so beautiful!
I use Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day brioche dough ( with one less egg for ease of handling) and dip the balls in cinammon sugar for a cinnamon pull apart bread. YUMMY!
oh, and can I make a suggestion for a Wednesday baking post? Instead of a recipe, could you one time show us a video clip of how you knead? I’m not sure my technique is correct or very good…
I second Franci’s request. Actually, I was thinking about how you actually learned to knead, and if you had someone by your side while you learned, to be with you step by step. Maybe you could write a post about it one day?
I just made the monkey bread last night and baked it this a.m. for breakfast! It was so much better than the recipe I had which uses frozen yeast balls and pudding mix. And, it really was pretty easy to make. Also, last week I made the basic dinner rolls and they were delicious – everyone loved them. Thanks for the recipes!
This reminds me of the biscuits we make on our camping trips. We always bake them in a bundt pan inside a dutch oven.
Been meaning to make this on a morning for ages. This weekend I decided it would be something nice for a small lunch. However, I didn’t have the same sort of tin as you have used and so used a normal loaf tin. Also… it was a big rush in the morning and I had just 20 minutes to get the dough made, and I forgot to knead it (how can you forget such a thing?!!) and so a couple of hours later when we got back home it had not done much. So I kneeded it and then last it for just another 20 minutes, it rose a bit. I made the balls and put them in the tin, let them rise for a bit. Put into oven and gave it 30 mins. It didn’t seem cooked, so put in for another 10. It was mostly ok, I think the large loaf tin meant the balls in the middle were too doughy, but the ones on the outside were great. So good that even though it was only a semi-success for me due to my own mismanagement, our children wanted to take bits for their lunch today at school!
Will try again next weekend, and children def loved helping making the balls and dipping in butter!