Pull-apart Garlic Butter-Butter Flaps

Adding little twists to all-time favourites helps to make the holidays special. Given that holiday meals are usually served family style, serving pull-apart breads makes the idea of breaking bread, together, at the table, memorable and fun.

In place of the usual dinner rolls, serve this pull-apart bread, which is made up of individual butter flaps (given a makeover with garlic butter), jammed up together in one pan with enough space to grow and become puffy.

These Garlic Butter-Butter Flaps can be made days ahead and be kept refrigerated. If you don’t have the time to make your own, by all means, use a good quality store-bought garlic butter.

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT

• 1 x 10-inch round or square baking pan, brushed with oil
• Rolling pin

INGREDIENTS

For garlic butter:

• 1/3 cup roasted garlic
• 2 tablespoons finely minced parsley
• 8 ounces salted butter, room temperature

For dough:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups warm water (110 – 115 degrees F)
• 2 tablespoons Canola or vegetable oil, plus extra for the bowl and dough

DIRECTIONS

For garlic butter:

1. Add all the ingredients and mash together with a fork until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. If you are making this days ahead, transfer the butter to plastic wrap and spread to create a log of 4 – 5 inches long, roll to wrap and encase the butter and refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Bring the garlic butter up to room temperature before adding to dough.
3. Reserve 2 – 3 tablespoons of the butter to melt and brush over finished bread.

For dough:

1. Add flour, sugar, salt and yeast to a bowl and mix well.
2. Add water and oil to flour mixture and bring together to form a dough (depending on your brand of flour you may need to use less or more water). When the dough comes together, transfer to floured work surface and knead for 4 minutes.
3. Rub dough with oil and transfer to an oiled bowl. Cover and place somewhere warm but draft free and let proof for 90 minutes or until more than doubled in size.
4. Punch down dough, knead for 2 minutes then divide equally into 12 pieces; form each piece of dough into a ball.
5. Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, roll it into a 3-inch diameter, take 1 tablespoon of garlic butter or a little more if you like and smear on one side of the circle, fold the dough in half and then again in half to make a shape like a triangle. Set aside. Repeat until all the dough has been buttered and folded.
6. Assemble the flaps in the pan ‒ 8 on the outer circle and 4 in the middle ‒ with the pointed side facing down in the pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. 20 minutes before the hour is up, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until brown. Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of the remaining garlic butter. Brush the bread with the melted butter as soon as it comes out of the oven. Let rest in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool to room temperature.
8. To serve, take bread, intact, to table and let everyone pull apart at the seams.