Slow Cooker Pizza Pull Apart Bread will call your name and beg you to pull off a big fat roll slathered in pizza sauce. Take a bite, dunk it again and you just can't lose.
Can you believe this beautiful bread was made in a crockpot? I'm telling you that those appliances are amazing.
The bread is made from homemade dough too and it's not hard at all.
There is yeast in the mix but you don't have to go through the rising process. All the action goes in the cooker.
The beginning is on low for an hour and then you turn up the temperature to finish off the bread.
It is important to make this bread in a larger 6-quart slow cooker so that everything is spread out in one layer.
This is an appetizer snack that is perfect on game day or at a BBQ but I can also see it served as a side with something like tofu scramble at lunch or buffalo cauliflower at dinner.
I have another appetizer that is also dunked in pizza sauce and it's Mini Pizza Muffins with Broccoli.
That would be fun to have both of these hardy appetizers at the same time. They'd really compliment each other.
Hints for Making Pull Apart Bread Pizza
There's another hint that I'd like to give you about making this Pull Apart Bread Recipe and that's before you turn the crockpot on.
There is a step as you're laying the dough balls in the slow cooker where you cover the dough with pizza sauce. You can do a light covering, as I did, or lay it on a bit thicker.
You see in the photo when a roll has been pulled off? There's a bit of red showing on the edge and throughout the bread. If you cover the rolls with more sauce then it will also be thicker when finished.
If you do this it will cause more steam on the inside of the crockpot. I would suggest to crack the lid the last 15 minutes and let some of the steam get out.
STORING in the FRIDGE:
After cooling completely, store in a resealable plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
FREEZING:
After cooling completely, freeze in freezer safe bags for up to 3 months. To serve, defrost in the refrigerator for a few hours. The rolls are ready to eat any time after defrosting.
You can reheat on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for 5 minutes too.
So enjoy your pull apart bread because it's super special and a pretty good show stopper too.
📋 Recipe
Slow Cooker Pizza Pull Apart Bread
Ingredients
- 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
- ½ cup warm water (110°F)
- ½ cup dairy free milk
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon chia seed or chia seed ground mixed with 3 tablespoons water as an egg substitute - you can use any egg substitute that you like
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
- ½ cup pizza sauce
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add yeast to the warm water and stir well. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine milk, coconut oil, sugar, salt, and chia seed egg.
- Beat on low speed, stir and pour in yeast mixture. Stir until all is combined, scraping down the sides if as needed.
- Change to a dough hook attachment and add flour. Let mix on low speed for 6 to 8 minutes. The dough will be a little sticky but that should be okay. If you can’t work with it, add a little more flour. Pat into a ball and set aside.
- Line a 6-quart slow cooker with parchment paper. I cut a larger circle so that it would go up the sides by about 3 inches. Then I snip vertically down the sides, all the way to the bottom, in about six places, so that the sides overlap and lay flat.
- Lay in the slow cooker, on the parchment paper, barely touching the sides.
- Place some pizza sauce in a bowl. Cut the ball of dough into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and use your fingers to roll pizza sauce all over the ball.
- Continue with all the balls, to cover the bottom of the slow cooker in one layer. The balls may not touch in places but they will rise nicely and fill in any empty areas.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 1 hour for rising. Then, turn the setting to HIGH and cook for 30 more minutes.
- Brush more sauce, lightly, on the tops of the rolls and cook another 20 minutes.
- Remove the rolls by grabbing the parchment paper by the sides and lifting. Let rest on a wire rack.
- Serve warm or cold and with extra pizza sauce for dipping, if you like.
Daniela
Unfortunately, this recipe didn't work for me. Even after 3 hours the dough was not fully cooked yet, so I resorted to put it in the oven to finish it. Maybe it's because my slow cooker is not that big? I had to squeeze the balls in and they rose very high.
Ginny McMeans
Yes Daniela, you need a larger slow cooker as the instructions say. A 6 quart round or oval is perfect. They bake up perfect every time. I'm glad you were able to complete the recipe in the oven.
Alicia Griffin
These were yummy. The only change I made to the recipe was to add a teaspoon of Italian herbs to the dough.
Mickie
Hello, looks yum. I do not have a mixer. Can it be mixed by hand. Thanks
Ginny McMeans
Yes, you sure can do it by hand Mickie.
Jen
This was a fun dinner! So delicious too. I also added some vegan garlic butter after brushing the extra pizza sauce on. We all wanted more :). I’ll definitely be making this again.