Pizza Star Bread

5 from 3 votes

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 and mozzarella cheese. Don't be fooled, however by the simple ingredients. This Pizza Star Bread is a true show-stopper.

Prep Time45

Cook Time20

Dough resting time1

Total Time1 1 5

Course: Bread

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: servings

Calories: 343kcal

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

3 ¼ cups (16.25 ounces) Bread flour
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon instant yeast
1 ¼ cups plus (10 ounces) filtered ice water
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons Kosher salt

Pizza Sauce

28 ounce can whole tomatoes, drained and liquid discarded
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pizza Star Bread

3 pieces pizza dough, 8 to 9 ounces each
½ cup pizza sauce, divided
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided (See Tip 1)
½ cup (2 ounces) fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions

Pizza Dough

In a food processor fitted with metal blade, process flour, sugar, and yeast until combined, about 5 seconds. With machine running, slowly add water through the feed tube; process until dough is just combined and no dry flour remains, about 10 seconds. Let dough stand 10 minutes. Add oil and salt to dough and process until dough forms satiny, sticky ball that clears sides of work bowl, 30 to 60 seconds.
Shape the dough into 3 balls approximately 9.6 ounces each. Lightly oil each ball and place in individual Ziploc sandwich bags. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours and up to 3 days.

Pizza Sauce

Drain the tomatoes in a wire strainer, removing as many of the seeds as possible. Add the tomatoes and remaining sauce ingredients to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until smooth, about 30 seconds. Transfer to medium bowl or container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Pizza Star Bread

Preheat oven to 400°F.
On a floured surface, roll out one of the pieces of pizza dough into roughly an 11-inch circle. (See Tip 2)
Transfer pizza dough to a silicone mat placed on inverted baking sheet. Press an inverted 10-inch cake pan on dough to mark 10-inch circle. Spread ¼ cup of pizza sauce inside of circle to about an inch of the circle mark (See Tip 3)
Sprinkle with 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and top with about 3 tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan cheese. (See Tip 3)
Repeat process with second piece of pizza dough, remaining pizza sauce, remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and 3 tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Finish with final piece of pizza dough.
Trim pizza bread to 10-inch circle. (See Tip 4)
Place 3-inch inverted bowl in center of pizza bread. Starting at edges of bowl, cut pizza bread into 16 even pieces. (See Tip 5)
Carefully pick up two adjacent strips; twist towards each other twice; pinch edges to seal. Repeat with remaining strips.
Brush with egg wash; sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
Bake in a preheated 400°F oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool 10 minutes. Transfer to cutting board or pizza peel. Serve with remaining pizza sauce.
Yield: 8 servings. (See Tip 6)

Notes

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!

Nutrition