Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread

Appetizers, Baby & Toddler Friendly, Pizza, Pork, Tailgating Favorites

Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread

Kids can be frustratingly picky eaters. They can also have highly entertaining quirks. My niece used to ask for pepperoni pizza and then proceed to discard all of the pepperoni. But don’t you dare suggest that she order plain cheese pizza! She did not want plain cheese pizza. She wanted pepperoni pizza. But without the “icky” pepperoni.

Un-Pepperoni Pizza.

Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread

But when you wrap pepperoni pizza into a fun, savory, pull-apart style bread, it’s no longer “icky” pepperoni pizza. And it’s quite difficult to un-pepperoni 🙂

I’ve had these Pizza Bites bookmarked for ages, so when I finally found an excuse to make them, I wanted to take it in a slightly different direction: a savory monkey bread.

A very light coating of garlicky butter-covered pepperoni pizza bites, piled into a bundt cake pan, makes for a very fun Pepperoni Pizza.

Or Pepperoni Un-Pizza.

Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread

Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread

You can take the long route and make your favorite pizza dough and marinara sauce, or the short route and pick up your favorite pizza dough and red sauce from the store.

Ingredients

  • 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 4 Tbsp butter
  • 2 lbs pizza dough (I used this recipe because it makes enough for two pizza)
  • 6 oz mozzarella cheese, cut into small cubes (you'll need ~48 pieces)
  • 48 slices of Turkey pepperoni (from 1 package)
  • 2-3 cups marinara sauce, warmed, for serving

Instructions

  1. Heat garlic and butter over medium heat just until the garlic begins to brown. Remove from heat and let sit.
  2. Lightly brush the inside of a bundt pan (or other oven-safe dish) with garlic butter.
  3. Pull off large marble-sized balls of dough and flatten (~2/3 of an ounce, a kitchen scale makes this very easy). Top with a slice of pepperoni and a cube of mozzarella.
  4. Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread
  5. Wrap the dough around the pepperoni and cheese, pinching well to seal.
  6. Very lightly brush the pizza ball with garlic butter and place into the bundt pan (I dabbed the pizza balls on a butter-dipped silicon brush to keep butter use low - there will be 1+ Tbsp leftover - and my hands butter free. Buttery hands make it hard to get the pizza balls to seal).
  7. Repeat until all of the dough is used.
  8. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes, while preheating the oven to 400.
  9. Bake for ~35 minutes, until the top is very brown.
  10. Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes.
  11. Turn out onto a platter and serve with warmed marinara sauce for dipping.

Notes

Yields: 48 pieces

Adapted from Pizza Bites via Annie's Eats

Estimated time: 1 hour 45 minutes

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