Cheesy Garlic Mozzarella Swirl Rolls

These Cheesy Garlic Mozzarella Swirl Rolls are melty, buttery, savory bliss and the perfect thing to go with all the soup that you are going to be serving this winter!

You know how last week I posted about the delicious awesomeness that is One Pot Lasagna Soup?  Well you can’t have lasagna without garlic bread, and I’m here to tell you that if you are going to have lasagna soup you are definitely going to want to have some cheesy, savory, garlicky carb-loaded wonderfulness to go with it.  Like these Cheesy Garlic Mozzarella Swirl Rolls.

I’m a sucker for cheesy garlic bread or mozzarella breadsticks.  If we are out to eat somewhere and the restaurant has something along those lines on the menu, I’m done for.  I don’t even need an entree – just all the carbs and possibly a salad to assuage my guilt. It’s seriously a problem and I ought to seek help but I’m not going to because my world would be so much darker without all the bread and cheese and garlicky, buttery deliciousness.  And my heart just can’t take that.

These rolls are relatively quick to throw together too, aside from the rising time.  It’s just like making any old batch of yeast bread dough – some mixing of ingredients, a little kneading, and then a nice rise to let the dough double in volume.  Then the rolls get their star treatment by rolling them out, slathering them with a garlic butter spread and sprinkling mozzarella cheese over it all before rolling them up, cinnamon roll style, slicing them into individual rolls, and stuffing them into the individual cups of a muffin pan to give them some shape.  Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom, these are simple enough to throw together on a cold, rainy afternoon, then start a pot of soup and have them together for a perfectly comforting and soul-satisfying dinner.  Plus, if you pair these cheesy garlic mozzarella swirl rolls with a lighter soup like vegetable or maybe even Chicken Avocado Lime Soup, then you don’t have to feel as guilty about having a second roll.  Just saying.

And here’s a pro tip for leftover rolls: you can warm them up in the microwave for 10-15 seconds the next day and they will taste like they just came out of the oven again.  Then slice one of these rolls in half and use it to make a seriously off-the-hook ham sandwich.  Yummy.

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Cheesy Garlic Mozzarella Swirl Rolls

Ingredients

Roll dough

• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg yolk
• 4-5 cups all-purpose flour

Cheesy garlic filling

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic bread seasoning
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine the yeast, warm water, and sugar and allow to proof for 10 minutes or until foamy. Add the salt, vegetable oil, and egg yolk and stir to combine. Add in 3 cups of the flour and mix well, then add enough remaining flour, half a cup at a time, to make a soft dough that barely sticks to your finger (I'm usually right around the 4 1/2 cup mark but you might need a little more or a little less). Knead the dough using a dough hook attachment on a standing mixer or by hand for 3-4 minutes, or until satiny and smooth. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled ball, cover lightly with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for 1 hour.
2. While the dough is rising, combine the softened butter and garlic bread seasoning in a small bowl and stir together. Set aside. Prepare a muffin pan by spraying each cup with cooking spray.
3. When the dough is fully risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into an 6x18-inch rectangle. Spread the garlic butter over the dough, all the way to the edges, and then sprinkle the mozzarella cheese evenly over the butter.
4. Working from the long edge, roll up the dough tightly just like you would with cinnamon rolls, pinching the edges when done. Using a long piece of thread or dental floss, cut the rolled dough into 12 equal slices by sliding the thread under the roll, pulling both ends of the string up and crossing them over each other, then pulling tight to create the slice. Place each sliced roll into the individual cups of a prepared muffin pan (mine often seem too big for each muffin cup but I just squish them in as best I can - the pan is just meant to help give some shape to the muffins instead of baking them with their sides touching like cinnamon rolls in a rectangular baking dish) and cover with a clean cloth. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. and allow the rolls to rise while the oven is heating.
5. Once the oven reaches 350 degrees, bake the rolls for 18-22 minutes. Check the rolls during the last 10 minutes of baking to see whether the cheese is getting too brown. If so, just loosely place a sheet of aluminum foil over the rolls to prevent the cheese from burning.
6. Once the rolls are cooked through and no longer doughy in the center, remove them from the oven and serve warm.

Recipe Notes

Recipe lightly adapted from Our Best Bites.