Garlic Pumpkin Cheesy Bread

5 from 1 vote

This twist on cheesy bread has a creamy bite from the garlic pumpkin cream sauce. As a bonus, it uses store-bought dough saving you the trouble of making your own dough.

Prep Time15

Cook Time1 10

Inactive Time1

Total Time2 25

Servings: Appetizer Servings (2 Pieces Per Person)

Calories: 540kcal

Author: Karishma Pradhan

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 - 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 ⅓ cup canned pumpkin puree and stir for 1 minute, until the garlic paste and puree have come together. Add the ½ cup 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!

Notes

This makes two small cheesy breads, but you can make one larger bread. Just skip the step of dividing the dough into 2 pieces and make one large piece.

This recipe takes a couple of hours from start to finish, but you can easily break it up into a few steps. For example, you can roast the garlic and make the pumpkin sauce while the pizza dough warms up to room temperature. You can even roast the garlic (and make the sauce) the day before so you have less prep to do.

Make sure to use low-moisture mozzarella cheese (or another low-moisture meltable cheese). Mozzarella in liquid will be too wet.

To reheat cheesy bread, wrap in foil and place in the oven at 350F for 5 to 10 minutes until warmed.

Nutrition