Holiday pull-apart bread is a fun and easy dish to prepare during the holidays; it’s also delicious, and you’ll find yourself preparing it all year long. I like to start with a brioche dough, rich in butter and eggs, that I developed for the automatic bread machine. This attractive loaf is great with soup when it’s cold outside, or as a bread offering as part of a holiday brunch. Since it contains ham, cheese, and vegetables, it can also be served as a main dish.
 
Most brioche dough recipes that I have seen require a sit overnight in the refrigerator after lots of hands-on work; this recipe eliminates not only the sit in the fridge, but also the tedious hands-on work that would be required if you were making the dough according to the traditional method. By using your automatic bread machine, you can dump the ingredients into the baking pan of the machine (about 5 minutes hands-on time), set the machine to the dough cycle, and let the machine do its magic on the dough while you do other important things like relax or watch a good television program!

When the machine beeps to let you know that the dough is finished, you will need about 15 minutes to assemble the bread, then you can either put it in the fridge and let it rise slowly overnight, or put it on the counter to rise for about an hour. You don’t have to be there while the dough rises, but you’ll want to be there while your loaf is baking and filling your home with the wonderful aroma of baking bread!

Dough:
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water
3 1/2 tablespoons powdered milk
3 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons yeast

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1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1 cup ham, diced
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Place all of the dough ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. Turn the machine to the dough setting and turn on. Check during the first few minutes to make sure the ingredients are mixing properly into a soft dough. If necessary, add more flour or more liquid.
 
When the cycle is finished, turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat the dough down into a rectangle and with a pizza cutter, cut into 36 pieces. They don’t have to be uniform and they don’t need to be rolled into balls; the rising takes care of the shape. Brush the inside of a 10-inch bundt pan evenly with some of the melted butter.  Dip 12 pieces into the butter, then layer evenly in the pan, making sure the pieces don't touch each other so that they have room to rise. Sprinkle with red and green pepper, then ham. Make another layer, sprinkling with red and green pepper, then ham, then cheese (cheese doesn't go on the first layer because it gets too brown and doesn't look very pretty when baked). When all the pieces have been dipped and layered, cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk. If you are making this the night before baking, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate; it will rise slowly in the refrigerator and should be about ready to bake in the morning.
 
 Place the loaf into a preheated 350° oven. Bake until lightly browned 25 to 30 minutes. Invert onto a platter and serve immediately.
 
 
Amount Per Serving
Calories 256 Calories from Fat 152
Percent Total Calories From:
Fat 59% Protein 13% Carb. 28%
 
Nutrient Amount per
Serving
Total Fat 17 g
Saturated Fat 10 g
Cholesterol 89 mg
Sodium 398 mg
Total Carbohydrate 18 g
Dietary Fiber 0 g
Sugars 0 g
Protein 8 g
 
Vitamin A 15% Vitamin C 11% Calcium 0% Iron 3%