Pizza Star Bread

Pizza Star Bread is a pizza lover’s dream come true. It’s a stunning recipe that is surprisingly easy to make and is sure to impress anyone who is lucky enough to have a piece. This pull apart Pizza Star Bread features layers of easy to make pizza dough with no-cook pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Don’t be fooled, however by the simple ingredients. This Pizza Star Bread is a true show-stopper.

Susan and I first learned to make star bread a number of years ago when we took a bread making class in Paris. We were both totally impressed with how easy it was to make and how beautiful the finished product was. 

Fast forward to today. Susan suggested trying our hand at making star bread with a pizza theme. I thought – what a great idea! We wanted to keep it simple like our favorite Pizza Margherita. Susan took care of the photography while I made the bread.

If you truly want to impress, you should definitely try your hand at making this Pizza Star Bread.

Making the Pizza Dough

While you could use ready-made pizza dough, I thought – why bother since it’s so simple to make your own. My easy pizza dough used bread flour, granulated sugar, instant yeast, filtered water, Kosher salt and olive oil.

The best part about this pizza dough is that the food processor does most of the work. I added all of the flour, sugar and yeast to the bowl of my food processor fitted with a metal blade. Then, I processed it for about 5 seconds. With machine running, I slowly added water through the feed tube. I processed the mixture until dough was just combined and no dry flour remained. This took about 10 seconds.

I let the dough stand for about 10 minutes. After 10 seconds, I added the olive oil and salt. I processed it for about 45 seconds, until it was satiny and cleared the sides of the bowl.

Next, I removed dough from bowl of the food processor. I kneaded it briefly on lightly oiled piece of parchment paper until it was smooth. This took about 1 minute. Then, I shaped the dough into 3 tight balls. Each one was about 9 ounces each. I lightly oiled each ball and placed each piece in a Ziploc bag. Then, I refrigerated the dough for at least 24 hours and up to 3 days.

Making the Pizza Sauce

Just as you could use ready-made pizza dough, you could also use ready-made pizza sauce. But again, why bother when it’s so simple to make your own. In addition, home-made pizza sauce is so much tastier than anything that you could purchase. 

The pizza sauce uses the following simple ingredients: canned tomatoes, fresh garlic, dried oregano, Kosher salt, black pepper and olive oil.

First, I drained the canned tomatoes in a wire strainer. I took care to remove as many of the seeds as possible.

Then, I added the drained tomatoes and remaining sauce ingredients to the bowl of my food processor fitted with a metal blade and processed the mixture until it was smooth. This took about 30 seconds. Next, I transferred the sauce to a covered container and refrigerated it until it was ready to use. How easy is that?

Ingredients for Pizza Star Bread

With the pizza dough and pizza sauce made, I only needed two additional ingredients for this amazing variation of a pizza: mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.

Putting the Pizza Star Bread Layers Together 

I started by rolling one of the pieces of pizza dough into roughly an 11-inch circle on a floured surface (Photo 1). Then, I transferred the dough to a silicone baking mat (Photo 2). 

Next, used a 10-inch cake pan to mark a 10-inch circle on the pizza dough. After t that, I spread about 1/4 cup of the pizza sauce on the dough, to about 1-inch from the marked circle (Photo 3). Finally, I sprinkled on some shredded mozzarella cheese and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. (Photo 4).

I repeated this for the second layer of the Pizza Star bread and finished it with a final layer of the pizza dough.

With all of the layers finished, I next placed a 10-inch cake pan on top and trimmed the dough to 10-inches. 

Finishing the Pizza Star Bread

To form the star bread, I started by placing an inverted 3-inch bowl in the center of the top layer. Then, starting at the edges of the bowl, I made 16 equal cuts in the pizza bread. I used a sharp knife to make the cuts and made sure that I cut through all of the layers.

Once I had the 16 strips, removed the inverted bowl from the center.

I carefully picked up two of the adjacent strips and twisted them towards each other twice. Then, I pinched the edges together. I repeated this with the remaining strips.

I brushed the Pizza Star Bread with egg wash and sprinkled on some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

I popped the Pizza Star Bread into a preheated 400°F oven for 20 minutes. When I opened the oven after 20 minutes, all I could say was WOW – the Pizza Star Bread was absolutely perfect!

I removed it from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I transferred the pizza bread to a pizza peel.

I served the Pizza Star Bread with some reserved pizza sauce. To say that the Pizza Star Bread was amazing was an understatement. The pull-apart pieces had the perfect amount of pizza sauce and cheeses and were amazingly delicious. Yum!

Chula’s Expert Tips

• I prefer to shred my own mozzarella cheese. The reason is that the pre-shredded mozzarella cheese has a coating on it to prevent caking. This can interfere with both the taste and the texture.
• Pizza dough, like most yeast-based doughs tends to be springy and somewhat difficult to roll at first. If your dough keeps springing back, let it rest for about 10 minutes and try again.
• You want to leave about an inch from the edge of the dough circle free of both pizza sauce and cheese. The reason is that these can interfere with the pinching of the edges together later.
• I like to use an inverted 10-inch cake pan to not only mark the circle, but also trim the pizza bread. However, you could also use a large plate, bowl, etc.
• I use a sharp knife to cut the strips. Generally, I start by making four equal cuts. Then, I cut each of the four pieces into two equal pieces. Finally, I cut each of the eight pieces into two equal pieces for a total of 16 pieces.
• Like regular pizza, the leftovers are amazing!

Other Delicious Pizza Recipes

If you’re a pizza lover like I am, you should check out these other amazing pizza recipes:

• Cast-Iron Skillet Pizza Margherita – Cast-Iron Skillet Pizza Margherita is the ultimate in simplicity and taste. It’s crisp crust is topped with a simple home-made pizza sauce, parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil. One bite of this classic pizza and you’ll never opt for the store-bought pizza again! In fact, you can use the leftover dough trimmings to make a mini cast-iron skillet pizza.
• Halloween Ghose Pizza – Halloween Ghost Pizza is an adaptation of the Cast-Iron Skillet Pizza Margherita that is sure to bring smiles to your little ones.
• Thin Crust Pizza – Brought to you from America’s Test Kitchen, this pizza is simple to make and delicious to eat
• CPK Rosemary Chicken and Potato Pizza – One of Susan’s favorite pizzas is the Rosemary Chicken and Potato Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen.  Unfortunately, this pizza has been discontinued in the restaurants.  Its recipe, however, is in The California Pizza Kitchen Cookbook.

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