Pizza Party Bread

This is such a fun party food! And it is really good, too-- so good, in fact, that my family ate it last night before I could take a picture to share with you. Sorry. It's also a very versatile dish; here I make the party bread with pizza ingredients, but it could easily be made more grown-up and vegetarian by using blue cheese instead of mozzarella and omitting the pepperoni and sauce.


1 round loaf, crusty bread
1/2 stick butter, softened
3 pencil thin green onions, chopped
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 to 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
2 ounces/55 grams pepperoni, chopped (optional)
4 ounces/110 grams shredded mozzarella

Pizza sauce

1) Preheat oven to 350F/175C degrees. Slice the bread loaf in 1 inch slices, stopping slicing 1 inch from the bottom of the loaf (do NOT slice through), then turn the loaf and slice the same way, making cubes (again, not slicing completely through).

2) Mix the butter with the green onions, garlic powder and Parmesan and spread in between the cubes (using hands works best). Now carefully shove the pepperoni pieces in there, as well, followed by the mozzarella-- although it is good to leave some of the mozzarella cheese on top, too. Tent the stuffed loaf with foil, so that the foil is not touching the top of the loaf (otherwise the cheese will stick to it). Bake like this  on a baking tray for 30 minutes, then raise the temperature to 375F/190C, remove the foil and continue to bake for 15 minutes more, or until the cheese on top is golden.

Serve hot-- people simply pull cubes from the loaf and dip into warm pizza sauce.