Vegetarian Pizza Monkey Bread

When I was searching for a third dish to make for our friends this past Saturday, I immediately thought of my friend Elina's blog post about Pizza Monkey Bread.  I adapted the recipe by replacing the pepperoni with chopped basil to make this a vegetarian-friendly dish for our friends.

First, I gathered my ingredients:

• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 pounds pizza dough (I used pre-made dough from Whole Foods when I discovered too late that I had thrown out my frozen pizza dough when we lost power during the storm last month)
• 6 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into small cubes
• Handful of basil, chopped
• 2-3 cups of marinara sauce, warmed, for serving

We got to working prepping our ingredients.  First, I let the pizza dough rest on a cutting board.

Meanwhile, Bret cut the mozzarella cheese into cubes.

I thinly sliced the garlic and chopped up the basil.

I then warmed the garlic and butter over medium heat until the garlic began to brown.  I poured the garlic butter into a bowl and let it sit.

The next steps were easy.  I lightly brushed the inside of a bundt pan with garlic butter. (Thanks Mom for letting me borrow the bundt pan!)  Bret and I then had fun putting the monkey bread together.  We took off chunks of dough (probably the size of two large marble-sized balls) and flattened them.  We stuffed the dough with chopped basil and a cube of mozzarella cheese.  We wrapped the dough up into a bowl and pinched the edges tightly to seal.  The final step was to brush the dough ball with garlic bread before putting it in the bundt pan. 

The basil stuck to our hands and the dough a bit because of the garlic butter but I thought this made the monkey bread look more colorful.  I let the monkey bread dough rest for about an hour before baking it at 400 degrees for thirty-five minutes.  I only let the dough rest for so long to time it with the arrival of our guests.

When I took it out, the monkey bread looked fabulous!  Some of the balls had opened up a little bit for some beautiful baked cheese bits.  I let the monkey bread rest in the bundt pan for about ten minutes before flipping it onto a platter.

The monkey bread was a big hit!  Everyone kept going back for more and it was so fun to pull pieces of the monkey bread and dip it into the marinara sauce.  This was so easy to make and I can't wait to make this again!

What are some of your fun and favorite appetizer dishes?