This easy cheesy bread recipe uses store-bought dough saving you the trouble of making your own dough. The creamy pumpkin sauce creates an almost, “self-saucing” sort of deal, so you don’t even need to serve the bread with a sauce (though you’re absolutely welcome to!)
I’m not even sure how I came up with this idea, but I now have to make this cheesy bread every year once fall comes around because it’s truly so delicious!
It’s an ideal cold weather appetizer alongside my creamy pumpkin pasta sauce, baked brie with fig jam and egg yolk ravioli (uovo raviolo).
How to Make This Cheesy Bread
The recipe itself is quite easy, but it does have a few different steps for prep.
- Warm your pizza dough up to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, you will roast garlic until it is sweet and caramelized, and then mix the soft, roasted garlic with pumpkin puree and cream.
- Once you have all the components, you’ll build the cheesy bread, starting with a layer of pizza dough, then a layer of sauce, and a final layer of cheese.
- Bake until the cheese is gooey and the dough is cooked through and browned on the bottom. Then slice into pieces and enjoy.
How to Use Leftover Pumpkin Puree
This recipe uses ⅓ cup canned pumpkin puree, so you’ll have some leftover. Leftover pumpkin puree can be used to make a smoothie or milkshake, pancakes, or even mixed into cream cheese to spread on your bagels! Try my creamy pumpkin vodka pasta for a cozy dinner.
Substitutions and Add-Ons
While the roasted garlic adds a nice caramelized, earthy flavor to the cheesy bread, you can skip this step if you’d like. Instead, when making the sauce, mince two garlic cloves and cook in the olive oil before adding the pumpkin puree.
You can add herbs, like chopped rosemary or sage, to the sauce for a more prominent seasonal flavor.
For even more cozy recipes, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter.
Happy eating! Love, Karishma
Garlic Pumpkin Cheesy Bread
Ingredients
- 1 pound store-bought pizza dough, 1 pound store-bought pizza dough
- ½ head of garlic, you can do a full head, or save the other half for another recipe if you'd like
- extra-virgin olive oil
- ⅓ cup canned pumpkin puree, like Libby’s
- ½ cup heavy cream
- Salt and black pepper
- 2 ½ cups shredded low-moisture mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
Instructions
- Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 425F.
- Prep the dough: Take pizza dough out of the fridge and divide into two equal sections. Oil two containers and add each piece of dough to a container, then wrap the container with plastic wrap. Let rest for 1 to 2 hours until the dough comes to room temperature.
- Roast the garlic: Drizzle the ½ head of garlic with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and wrap tightly in some aluminum foil. Place in the oven until garlic is caramelized and cloves are soft, about 45 to 60 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool then squeeze the garlic paste out of the peel.
- Once the dough reaches room temperature, preheat the oven to 500F. Place one rack in the middle of the oven and one rack in the top third of the oven.
- Prep the sauce: Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a small saucepan at medium-low heat. Add the garlic paste and stir for about 1 minute, breaking up the paste into the oil. Add the pumpkin puree and stir for 1 minute, until the garlic paste and puree have come together. Add the heavy cream and let mixture come to a boil, then simmer for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper then take off the heat and let cool. Err on the thicker side here, so the bread isn’t soggy. The sauce should resemble a thick soup, but if it feels watery, continue simmering until thickened or add a bit more puree to thicken.
- Build the cheesy bread: For each cheesy bread, cut out an 8x11 sheet of foil or parchment and place on a small baking sheet. If using foil, drizzle some oil on top of the foil to coat the sheet. Place the dough on top of the foil or parchment. Stretch the dough until it’s ¼” thick (for me, this ended up being about 8” x 6” on the parchment paper). If the dough is resisting stretching, let it rest for 10 minutes and then try again. Add half of the sauce and spread across with the back of the spoon until the entire dough is covered.
- Sprinkle half of the cheese (1 ¼ cups mozzarella and ¼ cup parm) all over the dough — note that any cheesy that ends up on the edge of the dough might caramelize, but you can pretty easily cut this off after baking. Repeat and build the other cheesy bread.
- Bake: Bake cheesy breads in the oven for 8-10 minutes on the middle rack or until the bottom of the dough looks nicely browned. If desired, turn the oven to the broiler setting and move the sheet to the top rack and broil for 1 minute until the top is bubbly and caramelized.
- Serve: Cut into pieces and enjoy!
Abha
This was the hit at my family’s Thanksgiving dinner! Each of the components was so simple to prep and it came together beautifully. The pumpkin cream sauce nicely balances the yeast in the bread - I definitely added too much cheese but no complaints from anyone who ate it!