Buttery, Crunchy Cheesy Garlic Bubble-Up Bread

This buttery, crunchy Cheesy Garlic Bubble-Up bread is not only delicious, it’s easy!  Just put frozen dinner rolls in your refrigerator to thaw overnight and you’ll be enjoying it in no time.  The Parmesan cheese forms a wonderful crunchy crust and the top is basted with garlic butter.  What’s not to love?  This quick, easy and delicious cheesy bubble-up bread has only 4 ingredients, 15 active minutes prep time and is irresistible!  See how good it looks in the pictures?  It tastes even better.

Have you ever noticed how the smell of yeasty, delicious baking bread locks in to some primitive settings in your brain to produce feelings of safety and comfort and home?   I was in getting my annual mammogram this morning (if you’re a gal, have you gotten yours lately?  If not, please stop right now and call to make an appointment.  It’s important to squeeze in a little time.) and the imaging center is located adjacent to the hospital in one of the campus buildings – where, apparently, they bake the bread for the hospital cafeteria.  I don’t particularly enjoy getting mammograms (who does?), but that smell fills me with a sense of peace and comfort every year I go in there.   I find I don’t mind it nearly so much…

That wonderful smell inspired me to create this delightful Cheesy Garlic Bread Bubble-Up recipe.  I’ve been wanting to update my bread recipe on the Large Group Lunch menu section of AlohaDreams for some time.  And man, was it worth the wait.  I served a similar bread and salad combo to a local ladies networking lunch and it was gone in seconds. This one’s even better.

It’s easy too, using frozen roll dough.  Just let the rolls thaw overnight in the refrigerator, give them a quick bath in some butter and garlic salt, followed by a quick spin in the Parmesan, then set them aside in a skillet to rise.  Your bread will look like this before it rises.

When it’s ready to go in the oven It should look like this.  See all that wonderful Parmesan cheese goodness on those rolls?  Well, when it’s done baking that Parmesan cheesy goodness gets wonderfully crunchy and delicious around the bottom and edges.

Like this.

Combined with a nice salad, it’s a terrific large group lunch recipe for girls camp or for a ladies event.  It will produce 24 rolls, although I guarantee you that many people will want seconds, so I’d plan on it serving 20.  You can assign it out to volunteers to make in advance and re-heat it, wrapped in aluminum foil, for 10-15 minutes in a 200 degree oven at the event and it’s just as good.  The handy recipe’s at the end of the post.

Mixed Salad for a Crowd

And speaking of salads, here’s everything you need to know to pull together a great mixed salad for a large group!

Serving Size for Salad as one of your Main Dishes

Lettuce seems like such an easy ingredient.  But when you’re cooking for a crowd, the question is more one of ‘how much’ than ‘how to’.  (In the midst of planning a meal for a large group, that question has kept me awake at night.) (Yeah, I know, I need a vacation!)  But seriously, it helps to know.  So here you go.  When serving salad as one of your main dishes, plan on 2.5 – 3 ounces of lettuce per person if you’re going to also have add-ins, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. (which you totally should!).  Here is 2.5 ounces of lettuce.

A standard serving of salad dressing is 2 tablespoons, which equals 1 ounce.

1 (2 pack – 40 ounce each (80 ounces total)) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing SERVES 85 – 100.  (I have actually SERVED 120 with 80 ounces since, on average, the guests (an even mix of men, women, teens and children) really only took approximately .75 ounce per person.)   For faster serving, mix dressing with milk,until it’s reached a thinner consistency of your liking, then pour thinned dressing into 2-4 squeeze bottles or pour it back into the original dressing bottles.

1 (2 pack – 20 ounce each (40 ounces total) Olive Garden Italian Dressing = 40 – 50 (2 tablespoon) SERVINGS.   

Croutons

1 (32 ounce) bag Olive Garden Seasoned Croutons will serve about 35 people.  Not every one will take some, an average serving is about (1 ounce) .   That’s this much.

Veggies

NOTE: You can probably find folks who have an abundance of vegetables and would be happy to provide them at no cost (trust me, toward mid-summer they are looking for someone to take their extras).

Tomatoes

15 (medium tomatoes), sliced or chopped, mixed in with the tossed lettuce = approximately 150 servings.

Cucumbers

6 (sliced cucumbers) mixed in with the tossed lettuce = approximately 150 servings

Carrots

10 (carrots, sliced) mixed in with the tossed lettuce = 150 servings

Bell Peppers

20 (bell peppers, sliced) mixed in with the tossed lettuce = 150 servings

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