This Jalapeno Popper Pull Apart Bread is delicious jalapeno poppers, in bread form! With a soft, butterflake bread, stuffed with cream cheese, cheddar and roasted jalapenos.
Planning your Super Bowl food yet? We don’t do a big deal spread here, but there needs to be something special in the football food department. This year, I’ll be pairing this fun Jalapeno Popper Pull Apart Bread with a big pot of beef chili.
I’ve played with jalapeno popper bread before, but this time I decided to incorporate a whole jalapeno into the mix (well a half jalapeno, more accurately). I pre-roasted the jalapenos, since experience has shown me that raw jalapeno just doesn’t cook up at all in bread. It also doesn’t bend well and I needed my jalapenos to bend, as you will see in the shaping instructions.
Roasting the jalapenos ahead heightens the jalapeno flavour, but lowers the heat level to perfectly mellow.
Beyond the basic requirements for jalapeno poppers – cream cheese, cheddar cheese and jalapenos – this loaf features a delicious, soft, butterflake bread and a light dusting of panko in the pan and on top.
Cook’s Notes for Jalapeno Popper Pull Apart Bread
I left the jalapeno stem on for fun. You don’t need to if you’d rather not. Obviously, you won’t be eating that part.
I baked my bread as one long loaf, using a 4 1/2 x 12-inch loaf pan. A 4×14 inch loaf pan would work as well. If you don’t have that sized loaf pan, you can bake this bread as two 8×4-inch loaves, using 5 stuffed dough pieces in each pan.
If you happen to have metal English Muffin rings around, they are perfect for cutting the dough circles. If not, use a cookie cutter, jar lid or even a glass with a diameter close to 3 3/4-inches.
Not a bread baker but want to make this bread? No worries. Simply use a thawed piece of store-bought bread dough (or roll dough) and pick up making it at the rolling/shaping stage in the recipe. If you go this route, just aim for creating ten 4-inch-ish circles of dough that are about 1/4-inch thick and proceed to fill and bake per the recipe.
If making the bread dough from scratch, note that it is a super slow riser! It never really doubles. It just gets puffier. Count on 90 minutes to 2 hours for each of the two rises and don’t stress if it doesn’t seem to be expanding very quickly.
Jalapeno Popper Pull Apart Bread
All the great flavours of jalapeno poppers, in yeast bread, pull apart form! Not a bread baker? You can make this with store-bought frozen bread or roll dough, as well!
Ingredients
Bread Dough:
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup butter
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast
- 4 - 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- Optional: 2 Tbsp potato flour or 1/3 cup instant potato flakes, for super soft bread
Jalapeno Popper Filling:
- 8 oz block cream cheese at room temperature
- 2 cups well-packed shredded cheddar cheese DIVIDED
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
For bread:
- 5 whole jalapeno peppers
- Panko bread crumbs for pan and topping
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400F (205C).
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For the bread dough: Combine the milk, butter, sugar, and salt in a glass bowl or measuring cup. Heat in the microwave for 1 - 1 1/2 minutes or in a saucepan until the butter melts. Let the mixture cool to lukewarm.
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Place the milk mixture to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the kneading hook. Add the eggs, yeast, 4 cups of the flour and the potato flour/flakes, if using. Mix to form a shaggy dough. Knead the dough (by hand, with a stand mixer or alternately in your bread machine set on the dough cycle) until it's smooth, adding a bit more flour if needed.
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Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for about 90 minutes - to 2 hours, until it's puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk. *Note that this dough is very slow rising. It won't seem very vigorous and will not really double as usual.
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While the dough is rising:
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Prepare the jalapeno popper filling: Combine the cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups of the grated cheddar cheese in a medium bowl. Stir to combine. Season with a pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper. Set aside.
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Prepare the jalapenos: Prepare jalapeno peppers by cutting in half lengthwise, making sure to cut to one side of the stem, so that the stem is intact on one half and there is no stem on the other half. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and pulp. Place jalapeno halves cut side down on a baking sheet. Roast in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool on baking sheet.
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Grease a 4x12-inch loaf pan or two 8x4-inch loaf pans. Sprinkle a bit of panko in the pans and swirl around to coat the bottom and sides.
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Rolling and Shaping: After the dough has risen, remove it to a lightly floured work surface and gently deflate the dough. Roll the dough into an 11 x 16-inch oval, about 1/4" thick. Cut 3 3/4-inch circles with a cutter, jar lid, glass or English muffin ring. You should have 10 circles. You can discard the remaining dough.
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Scatter 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese over our dough circles. Take a cooled, roasted jalapeno and place it on top of the dough circle, with the pointed bottom of the jalapeno at the 6 o-clock position and the top hanging over the top at the 12 o-clock position. Take a couple tablespoon scoop of your cream cheese filling and place in the top half of the circle. Fold the bottom half of the circle over the top half, pinching it together at the top on either side of the protruding jalapeno top. Place in your prepared loaf pan(s). Repeat with the remaining dough pieces.
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*Note: If using two 8x4 pans, place 5 dough packets in each pan. I alternated my dough pieces between one with stem and one without.
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When your pan(s) are filled, sprinkle remaining 1/4 of shredded cheddar overtop and sprinkle with a bit of panko and some freshly ground black pepper. Cover the pan(s) with greased plastic wrap and let the dough rise for about 90 minutes, until it's puffy and starting to fill the pan.
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Near the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350F. (175C)
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Uncover the loaves, and bake them for 25 to 30 minutes for 8x4 loaves or 35-40 minutes for 4x12 loaf, or until deep golden. If your bread seems to be browning too quickly, you can loosely cover with a sheet of aluminum foil.
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Remove the bread from the oven and allow to sit in pan about 5 minutes. Run knife around edges, then remove bread to a cooling rack. This bread is great warm from the oven or you can re-heat gently by wrapping completely in foil and popping into a 350F oven for 8-10 minutes.
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I love my 4 1/2 x 12-inch loaf pan. It always makes pretty bread, as it’s long and narrow. It’s great for yeast breads, but also nice for quick breads or loaves. Here are some of this size pan on Amazon.
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I made this for the Superbowl and it was a hit with everyone. Awesome recipe will be make this again for future gatherings.
THanks Ashok and so glad to hear you enjoyed this one. We did here, too :)
Half-time report . . . . .the bread was delicious and a huge hit with our super bowl crowd! Now back to the game!
Lol Kristie :) Thanks so much for the report! Enjoy the rest of the game.
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Such an irresistible pull-apart bread – this is carb heaven! :)
Thanks so much, Laura :)
What a decadent recipe! Love the looks of the bread and think it is just perfect with the jalapenos. Great tip about using a bit of potato flour.
Thanks so much, Milena :)
Forget the chili! I’ll just sit right near this delicious looking bread and nibble, nibble, nibble. It sounds fantastic!
Lol Chris! I’m kind of with you there :) Thanks!
Holy yum! That looks delicious, Jennifer! I could seriously have this for dinner and call it a day! Just in time for the weekend too ;)
Thanks Dawn and I think I could do the same ;)
OK, this looks seriously YUMMY! Bread: my biggest crush, my greatest joy, my hips worst enemy. But for this I haven’t got a care. Trying this SOON!
Thanks so much, Celia! You know that everything eaten on Super Bowl Sunday has no calories, right? ;)
WHOA! I better not show my family this – I have a feeling they’d hit the road early enough to be at your house for the big game! This is quite the recipe, my friend! I love it!!!
Thanks so much, Annie :) And we’re all good. I made several ;)
This makes me want to have a party just so I can make this gorgeous bread. No joke, I was just thinking about cheesy jalapeño bread yesterday! You must have known I need this in my life – woohoo!
Thanks so much, Tricia. I think about cheesy bread a lot, too :)
This loaf certainly needs to happen at our house for the Super Bowl Jennifer! I LOVE jalapeno poppers, so I know I’m going to LOVE this. Such a creative idea!
Thanks so much, Mary Ann! It didn’t disappoint. Perfectly “popper” :)
Yikes! Sorry about the typo!! My phone likes to add words where they aren’t needed.. or wanted! ;)
You should see the stuff I type on my phone! Never could type properly on that thing :)
My team lost just lost in the playoffs, but TRUST ME, that won’t stop me from devouring an entire loaf of this bread!! I have an addiction to anything jalapeno popper flavored, so this bread is just screaming my name!! Brilliant, Jennifer!!! Cheers!
Thanks so much, Cheyanne! Seeing as I have more than one jalapeno popper themed recipe here, I think I might have a bit of an addiction, too :)