Holiday Pull-Apart Bread

Christmas-tree-shaped bread with twists of dough and green sauce. Garnished with cherry tomatoes and parsley sprigs, on a wooden cutting board and light blue table.

There’s something fun and festive about pull-apart bread, and this recipe is sure to bring the “wow” to your holiday spread. Golden crust on the outside, soft and fluffy insides, it’s versatile and easy to put together on the fly. Here we’ve shaped it into a Christmas tree, but the shape is limited only by your imagination.

You can switch things up depending on the dough you have on hand (adjusting baking instructions accordingly) and the filling you’d like. Pesto, zhug and other herb or tomato-based sauces can work as well.

Ingredients

  • 2 8-oz packages crescent roll dough (we used Immaculate brand)
  • Small bit of flour
  • ¾ cup chimichurri sauce
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella
  • ¼ cup grated Parmesan
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbsp water
  • Fresh cherry tomatoes and parsley sprigs for garnish
  • Optional: Marinara sauce for dipping

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375°. Get an edged sheet pan with parchment paper.
  2. Open crescent roll dough and lay on a large, lightly-floured cutting board. Take two of the pre-perforated triangle shapes from the rectangle of dough and reposition them so the shape is now a triangle. Gently push together perforations and roll dough so the triangle is about 15” long. Carefully move to a parchment-lined sheet pan.
  3. Spread sauce evenly over triangle surface, then sprinkle shredded cheese and then Parmesan across the same area. Create the same triangular shape with the other package of dough. Gently place it on top of the first, matching and gently pinching together the edges.
  4. Lay a ruler down the middle of the tree for a visual of the “trunk.” Using a serrated knife, cut inward to the “trunk” so that each “branch” is about 1 inch thick. Repeat top to bottom and on both sides, so there are plenty of tasty branches for folks to enjoy without cutting through the trunk that’ll hold everything together, and a nice, pointed treetop.
  5. Take the two bottom branches and fold them a few times toward the center. This will be the tree trunk. Then, carefully pick each branch up and give it 2-3 evenly-spaced, gentle twists – depending on how long the branch is. Beat egg with water and brush onto tree.
  6. Bake until golden brown, about 15-18 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.
  7. Garnish with several cherry tomatoes and parsley sprigs arranged like holly sprigs. Serve with marinara sauce for dipping.