Ryann showed me the original viral video to this recipe not too long ago. We had it queued up to play when he got a call and had to step away. So naturally I started watching without him (how dare I, right?). And then I watched two other videos that are basically the same recipe with variations. When Ryann came back into the room, I told him that this is actually a pretty straight forward recipe and instead of sweet, I want to go savory. Thus, born the Pizza Wool Bread.
Ingredients:
- 0.3 cup (80 ml) whole milk, warmed up to about 100-110ºF or just about lukewarm to the touch
- 1.5 teaspoon (3 grams) instant yeast
- 2 cups + 2 tablespoon (300 grams) bread flour (it’s fine to use all-purpose flour if that’s what you have, but you may need to add a little more flour)
- 1 teaspoon (5 grams) salt
- 2 tablespoons (30 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 0.5 cup (100 ml) heavy cream
- For filling (note that these filling amounts are rough estimate. You can use more if you want but the dough may be a little harder to roll. However, I do find this dough to be very forgiving so stretch it out and fill to the overflow if you like!):
- About 20-25 slices of pepperoni, sliced to thin strips
- About 0.25 cup (50-60 grams) shredded mozzarella
- 0.5 (125 ml) cup of pizza sauce
- For glazing:
- 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons grated parmesan
- 1 tablespoon of chopped Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
Directions:
- In a small bowl, combine the warm milk and instant yeast and let stand for about 10 minutes until foamy.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the remaining ingredients except the filling. When the milk and yeast mixture is foamy, combine with the remaining ingredients and then mix it with a dough hook until the dough comes together and pulls off the side of the bowl. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can also do this with a wooden spoon and then knead by hand for a few minutes until everything comes together.
- Take the dough and form a ball shape (doesn’t have to be perfect, no one is going to judge you geometrically) and then put back in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or clean dish towel and let sit in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until the dough doubled in size. When I did this, I made the mistake of leaving the window closest to the kitchen open so after about 45 minutes and not seeing the dough rise, I put the bowl in the oven (turned off). Make sure it’s on the middle rack and then there’s another rack below it. On the bottom rack, put a shallow dish (casserole dish works great for this) with hot water. Then, close the oven. This is to mimic proofing boxes that bakeries have. Remember: doughs rise in hot, humid environment. Just like hot air balloon. Or is that dry heat? I’m not sure…
- After the dough has risen, take it out on a floured surface. Flatten it into a disc and divide into five equal parts. Roll each of the part into a dough ball and then set aside, cover with plastic wrap or clean dish towel and let it rest for 15 minutes.
- While waiting for the dough to rest, take a round 8-inch (20-21cm) cake pan and butter the insides.
- After 15 minutes, while keeping the other dough balls covered, roll out each dough one at a time into a rough sandal shape. If that sounds weird, it’s because I can’t think of any other thing that resembles this shape. It’s not quite oval because you want the top part to be wider. Maybe upside down egg-shape? Anyhoo, after rolling out the dough, take your bench scraper and cut the dough about halfway lengthwise into strips about 0.5-inch (1 cm) width.
- On the half that is not cut into strips, spread a heaping tablespoon of pizza sauce. Sprinkle with pepperoni strips and shredded cheese. Fold the sides, then roll from the bottom (uncut portion of the dough) towards the top. Make sure to roll it rather tightly, keeping all the strips together. These strips are what will give the wool or yarn-like appearance to your bread. Lay each roll into the prepared cake pan to form a large ring. Cover the pan with plastic wrap or clean dish towel and let rise in a warm spot for one more hour.
- When the dough has risen again, preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Combine the melted butter and minced garlic together, and then brush the dough with this mixture. You should have some leftover, make sure to keep that as we will need it after the bread has baked. Sprinkle the bread with parmesan cheese before putting it in the oven.
- Bake for about 18-20 minutes. Mine didn’t turn out very golden brown, I think it might be because the oven temperature is quite low for this. But it was still fully cooked after that amount of time, so it’s all good. Right after you take the bread out of the oven, add chopped parsley into the garlic butter and then brush the bread once more with this mixture. Let cool for 5 minutes and then run a thin knife along the sides to loosen. After that, it should pop out of the pan pretty easily but be careful as everything is still pretty hot to the touch. Enjoy the pizza wool bread!
A Dash of Yoyo 