Ham & Swiss Pull-Apart Bread with Thyme Honey Mustard

This Ham & Swiss Pull-Apart Bread with Thyme Honey Mustard recipe combines the flavors of a classic ham and cheese sandwich with our favorite thyme honey mustard, all in a fun pull-apart loaf. It’s great for sharing or eating by yourself!

The Ham & Swiss Bread Basics

A basic bread loaf contains flour, yeast, water, and salt. An enriched dough includes some form of fat, sugar, and dairy. We’ve gone with an enriched dough here to add extra softness and richness to this loaf. This is a fantastic base dough for any kind of filling you want to use, in case ham & cheese isn’t your thing.

We like using milk for this recipe since it brings a softer, more pillowy texture to the bread with a richer flavor. Using milk in bread will enrich the dough with a little milkfat and sweetness from the lactose. We use 2% typically when cooking or baking, then measure it out and heat it on the stove or pop it in the microwave to warm it up.

Just like the milk, adding butter and an egg to this dough brings extra richness and flavor. If you don’t have milk on hand or don’t consume dairy, you can definitely replace it with water in this recipe. Excluding the egg here for non-dairy eaters will still give you a nice loaf, you may just need to add a little more liquid to balance things out without the egg.

The Dough

Here is everything you need to make the dough for this pull-apart bread:

• All-purpose flour, measured using spoon & level method – this is how we measure all of our flour in baked goods, and it’s the most accurate way of measuring it. Instead of scooping out flour from a bag/container, which can give you a ton more flour than a recipe actually calls for, use a spoon to scoop flour into a measuring cup. Don’t press down on the flour or shake it into place as both methods can compact it more. To level it, use the back of a knife.
• Salt – all dough needs salt. The salt can inhibit yeast activity, however, so make sure to put the salt and yeast in different places in the bowl.
• Instant yeast – we use SAF instant yeast. You can use active dry yeast instead, but you’ll need to bloom it in warm water before adding it to the rest of the dough ingredients.
• Sugar – yeast needs sugar to grow. This amount won’t make your bread sweet.
• Warm milk – you need warm enough milk to encourage yeast activity but not hot enough that it kills the yeast.
• Butter – we use salted butter in most of our recipes. We think it adds more flavor and richness, but if you are watching your salt intake, you can use unsalted.
• Beaten egg – beating it ahead of time will allow it to incorporate more easily and quickly into the dough.

Thyme Honey Mustard

This Thyme Honey Mustard is a simple combination of 4 ingredients: spicy brown mustard, honey, fresh thyme, and a little bit of mayo. We’ve been making this honey mustard for years. It comes together quickly and easily and tastes great with the ham, cheese, and soft bread (it’s also a perfect dip for pigs in a blanket!). This dip gets even more flavorful as it sits in the fridge, so feel free to make it a couple of hours ahead of time and chill it until you’re ready to assemble the bread loaf.

Here’s what you need:

• Mayonnaise – use your preferred brand here (as long as it’s not sweet like Miracle Whip).
• Spicy brown mustard – spicy brown is our favorite mustard for sauces and dressings. Yellow mustard is too briny and Dijon and whole grain are a bit too overpowering.
• Honey – any variety of honey is fine.
• Fresh thyme – fresh thyme is really necessary here. You won’t get the same flavor from dried. The flavor of the fresh thyme will also deepen the longer this dip sits in the fridge.

Additional Ingredients

Now that you’ve got your dough and your honey mustard ingredients, here is everything else you’ll need to make this bread come together:

• Swiss cheese – If you’re not a fan of Swiss cheese then use any kind you’d like here! Something stretchy is nice so you get that extra long cheese pull when you yank of a chunk of bread!
• Sliced ham – We like the combination of ham with the Swiss cheese in this, but feel free to mix it up! Turkey and gouda maybe, or make it all cheese and go with cheddar and jalapeños.
• Grated parmesan, for topping – just for an extra little something! Plus, it makes parm crispies on top.
• Melted butter, for topping – shine it all up with a touch of melted butter at the end, which also helps the parmesan stick.

To Make the Ham & Swiss Pull-Apart Bread

Kneading the Dough & First Rise

Add flour, yeast, salt, & sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. With the mixer running, slowly add the milk, egg, and melted butter. Knead in the mixer for 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the mixer and knead on a lightly floured surface for another 1-2 minutes. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can do this whole process by hand. You’ll just need a little more elbow grease and more time to knead the dough. You will know it’s ready if after several minutes of kneading you press your finger into the dough and the indentation springs back. If it doesn’t spring back, then keep kneading a bit longer.

Shape dough into a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl (this helps to not inhibit the dough from rising), and cover with a lid, a kitchen towel, or plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for 60-90 minutes or until it has doubled in size. This time may change depending on several factors (how hot it is that day, the humidity, etc.), so looking for that “doubled-in-size” indication is the best way to monitor this.

Thyme Honey Mustard

Whisk together mayo, mustard, honey, and thyme in a small bowl and place in the refrigerator until ready to use. You can make this sauce ahead of time, even overnight, and chill it until your dough is ready.

Assembly & Second Rise

Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down (this is the fun part!), and remove it from the bowl. It may seem like you’re getting rid of all of those beautiful air bubbles that will make your dough fluffy, but don’t worry about it! It’ll rise a second time, and what you’ve just done is allow the dough to develop all of that bready flavor. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Shape it into a ball, cover it with a towel, and let it rest for about 15 minutes so the gluten can relax.

Spray a 9x 5 inch loaf pan by spraying it with nonstick spray and lining it with parchment paper. This will make for easy removal once the bread is baked.

After resting for 15 minutes, roll out the dough to a 16×10 inch rectangle with the longer side parallel to the counter edge. If it’s not exact, that’s okay! It’ll still turn out great because this is your own homemade pull-apart loaf after all! Spread thyme honey mustard on the dough with the back of a spoon or a pastry brush. Place 4 slices of cheese along the top side of the dough and 4 along the side closest to you (creating 8 total sections). Cover each slice of cheese with slices of ham.

Cut around each cheese and ham section, creating 8 squares. Fold each square in half with the cheese and ham on the inside, dough on the outside, and open side facing up (like a doughy ham and cheese taco). Place each folded square, open side up, into the loaf pan, one after the other so they’re pressed together. Cover with towel & let rise for 45 minutes. This will allow those bubbles to form again so that you get that great spongey bread texture.

While the bread is rising this final time, preheat your oven to 375F.

Time to Bake

After the 45-minute rise, brush the ham and Swiss loaf with melted butter & top with grated parmesan cheese. Bake for 60-75 minutes (cover with foil halfway through the baking if it’s starting to look a little dark). We realize this may seem like a big range, but bread will bake differently in different ovens. You’ll know the loaf is done when an instant read thermometer inserted into the middle reads 190F.