- Welcome back to "The Baking Journal."

Today we are making this stunning and delicious pull apart bread wreath.

It is homemade bread, filled with prosciutto and Gruyère cheese and some basil pesto.

It is delicious and is a showstopper that will totally impress your friends and family.

(mellow music) This pull apart bread wreath is the perfect combination of flavors.

You have the saltiness of the prosciutto, and the creaminess of the Gruyère, and then the wonderful aromatic smells of the basil pesto.

It is truly a winner.

Let's get started.

To get our bread started, we need to scoop one cup of the bread flour into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.

Add two thirds cup, plus three tablespoons of warm milk.

Then add two teaspoons of instant yeast, and one teaspoon of sugar, and mix everything together.

I always like to give it an extra stir by hand just to make sure all of the flour has been mixed in together with the yeast mixture.

Now cover the yeast flour mixture and let the yeast do its thing for about 20 minutes.

Can you see how foamy and puffy looking our yeast mixture has become?

That is exactly what you're looking for.

Into the bowl add the rest of the bread, flour and egg, three tablespoons of olive oil, one teaspoon of salt, and one teaspoon of granulated garlic.

Switching over to the dough hook, mix everything together on medium speed until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl onto your dough hook.

That should take about five minutes.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, and flip the dough over to make sure it gets coated with the oil.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough have a nice long nap in the refrigerator overnight.

Look at how much that dough has risen.

Lightly flour your work surface and coax the dough out of the bowl.

Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough, and roll the dough out to a rectangle that measures approximately 25 by eight inches.

This is such an awesome dough to roll.

Keep throwing a little flour down to keep the dough from sticking to your counter, and keep rolling.

I've got my ruler out to measure the dough, but if you're eyeballing it, it's fine.

You just wanna be sure you have a nice long rectangle to shape the wreath, and wide enough to hold your delicious prosciutto and Gruyère filling.

Starting with the basil pesto, I dumped the entire six ounces of pesto on the dough and spread it out as evenly as possible while leaving a one inch border on the two short sides and the one long side.

Next, cover the pesto with six ounces of grated Gruyère cheese.

Spread that out as evenly as you can, and then layer the prosciutto over the top.

I've used about four ounces of the prosciutto to cover the dough.

Okay, now bring this all together.

Start rolling up the long end of the dough.

I'm just slightly rolling inward along the length of the dough, and then you can roll and press together gently as you go.

Try to roll the dough as evenly as possible, stretching it out to about 26 inches, and then make sure the seam side is facing downward.

Lift the dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet and shape the dough into a circle.

Attach the two open ends together by gently pushing one end into the other and pinching the dough together.

Don't worry if the dough looks a little uneven at this point.

It will still bake up nice and full.

Grease a bowl or a small cake pan and place it in the center of the dough to help keep our wreath shape.

Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 45 minutes.

Before shaping the wreath, lightly brush the surface with an egg wash. Then, using kitchen shears, start cutting through the dough at 45 degree angles, leaving about a half inch attached.

Make the cuts about two inches apart, and then take each section and pull out gently while twisting the dough upward to expose the filling.

You may need to reshape it as you twist.

It's okay if the pieces aren't all equal in size.

It just means that a lucky someone is gonna pull off a nice big piece.

Repeat that same gentle pull twist motion with all of your slices.

Oh my gosh, look at that yummy cheese and prosciutto peeking out.

Cover the bread wreath loosely, and let it rise for a half an hour.

While we're waiting for the dough to have its last rise, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit with a large baking steel inside the oven.

The baking steel will help the dough to bake a little more evenly, but if you don't have one, that's okay.

If you're using the baking steel, transfer the bread while still on the parchment paper to the hot steel.

Be really careful, it's super hot.

And oh, by the way, I'm not sure if you noticed, but I have a baking sheet with sides under the baking steel to catch any runaway grease from the filling as it bakes.

The bread wreath is going to need anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes to bake all the way through.

And here it is out of the oven, the pull apart bread wreath.

Doesn't it look gorgeous?

It smells wonderful.

I can't wait to give it a try.

(mellow music continues) Mm, if you guys could smell this, it is divine.

So let me dig in.

Wow, you get that salty hit of prosciutto along with the creamy texture of the melted Gruyère, and then the basil flavor with the garlic and the pine nuts.

Oh my gosh, you have got to try this.

It will be perfect any time of day, any meal.

Your family and friends will totally be impressed.

If you enjoyed watching and learning how to make this recipe and wanna see more, don't forget to Subscribe and hit that Like button.

Thanks for watching, and I'll see you again soon on the next episode of "The Baking Journal."

(mellow music continues)