Mushroom (Bacon) Pull Apart Bread

Ingredients

1 package of Frozen Yeast Rolls - the kind that must rise before you bake them - not the frozen oven ready type.

2 tbs olive oil

2 ½ Cups mushrooms – thinly sliced (button, cremini, baby bella)

2 cloves garlic - minced

Salt to taste

¼ Cup Butter – melted – plus more solid butter for greasing the dish

4 strips bacon – cooked crispy (optional) and crumbled

2 Cups Mozzarella Cheese – Shredded

2 Tbs Chives – chopped

1 tsp dried Thyme

¼ Parmesan cheese – freshly grated

Fresh cracked pepper and kosher for garnish

Preparation

Lay the yeast rolls out on the counter until they become soft and are completely thawed (about an hour or two). In the meantime, heavily grease a 9x9 casserole dish with butter.

In a skillet over medium heat – heat the olive oil. When hot, sauté the mushrooms until soft. Add the garlic for the last 2 minutes. Salt the mushrooms to taste.

Once the yeast rolls are thawed, cut each one in half with a knife and make a layer of these half yeast rolls in the bottom of your casserole dish. Using a pastry brush, brush with melted butter.

Sprinkle the yeast rolls with half of the crumbled bacon, half of the mozzarella Cheese, half of the chives and half of the thyme. Add the remainder of the yeast rolls to the top of this mixture and repeat. Top with the parmesan cheese.

Set the rolls aside to rise until doubled – about an hour-2 hours.

When doubled, preheat the oven to 375 and then bake for 12-15 minutes. (Place a sheet pan beneath these while they bake in case that any fall over the edges).

Gently remove from the oven and serve once cooled slightly – use care as these will deflate easily. Garnish with fresh cracked pepper and kosher salt.