French Bread Pizza is a cheat way to make pizza using bread. Think of it as oven-baked pizza toast (easy bread pizza recipe), using any bread you have on hand for a quick meal. It’s so handy when you’re not sure what to make for dinner!
French Bread Pizza is a popular pizza if you use homemade French Bread and go through the extra step of making garlic butter and pre-baking bread. These tend to get made last minute, so the toppings are basic. You will love this pizza bread recipe! I share a kitchen hack to get crispy bread in one shot!
Bread pizza is an easy meal to throw together if you cook from scratch. You can open a jar of homemade marinara sauce, top it over leftover baked bread, and add homemade cheese (if you’re adventurous)!
French Bread Pizza Recipe
It’s silly of me to make a recipe for something as easy as pizza bread, but the fact that these have been made countless times tells me it’s a staple meal that can be thrown together quickly, especially when you don’t have time to make pizza dough.
These days, I’ve been making them healthier using Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread.
The Italian herb blend and cheeses make this extra special and so flavorful!
Even if you don’t have homemade bread, this recipe works with Naan and Focaccia, and I’ve even made Pizza Roll-Ups using flour Tortillas.
All are easy dinner ideas when you’re not sure what to make. Having a bread pizza recipe can save you the stress of what to make for busy weeknight dinners, lunch, or even snacks! I love that you can control what carbs to use to improve it!
I highly recommend having a few dinner-ready sandwiches up your sleeve for easy dinners to make now!
French Bread Pizza Variations:
Like traditional pizza, the toppings for pizza bread can seem endless. Here are popular toppings for pizza bread at home.
- BBQ Chicken bread pizza- open a can of chicken and top bread slices with BBQ sauce, purple onions, and cheese.
- Buffalo Chicken: Drizzle ranch dressing and hot sauce over the bread slices and top with cheese and canned chicken. Chicken Bacon and Ranch are easy, too: just do Ranch, chicken, and bacon bits.
- Vegetables: Top bread with roasted vegetables or sauteed of your choice (I like bell peppers, zucchini, onion, and garlic), marinara sauce, Mozzarella cheese, Parmesan, and Italian seasoning.
- Meats: Pepperoni, sausage, ham, leftover deli meat, kielbasa, and bacon are convenient.
Mise en Place
Equipment:
- Large 18x13 baking sheet
- One sheet of parchment paper
- Small mixing bowl for Italian Herb Seasoning
Watch How to Make French Bread Pizza!
Ingredients for French Bread Pizza
- Bread—French or Italian bread is best. Sandwich bread, bagels, Pita bread, and Naan are also excellent choices for bread pizza! Use whatever bread you have on hand, even if it’s tortillas!
- Cheese—Mozzarella and freshly grated parmesan or Asiago cheese make a pizzeria-style cheese topping, but I often get by with mozzarella or Monterey jack cheese. I like to grate a block on my box grater so the cheese gets melty and gooey.
- Tomato Sauce—I use jarred pasta sauce or homemade marinara sauce. If you have the time to make it, there are many quick recipes for pizza sauce using canned tomato sauce. Use any favorite pasta sauce on hand.
- Italian Herb Seasoning: is a blend of garlic powder, garlic salt, and Italian seasoning.
- Mini pepperonis are the perfect size for Individual-sized bread pizzas. You can still use regular pepperoni slices, but they’ll cover the tops too much.
How To Make French Bread Pizza:
- Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
- Cut a loaf of French bread in half, lengthwise. Then, cut each half into 4-inch squares. You can trim off the edges to square up the pizza slices.
- Arrange bread pieces over a parchment paper lined 18x13 baking sheet.
- Make the Italian Herb blend by mixing the garlic powder, garlic salt, and Italian seasonings in a small bowl.
- Top slices with pizza sauce, grated cheese, Italian herb seasoning, and pepperoni slices.
- Bake until the bottoms have toasted, and the cheese melts. The edges should be golden brown, and the pepperoni should be sizzling.
Pro Chef Tip
Pro Tip: Bread pizza tends to get soggy; don’t overload it with sauce and pizza toppings. Pre-baking the bread slices is unnecessary if you bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. The low and longer oven temperature will dry out the bread and make it super crisp.
What To Serve With Pizza Bread:
Stretch pizza bread by adding some sides for a complete meal.
- It goes fantastic with a fresh, green garden salad. To make a quick salad with Romaine lettuce, use Italian or Creamy ranch dressing with croutons, cheese, or tomatoes.
- This is when frozen vegetables come in handy: steam or throw a bag of frozen veggies into a saucepan with a splash of water, then heat and serve.
- Add a side of baby carrots or sliced vegetables as a veggie side.
More Pizza Bread Ideas and Tips:
- A couple of days old stale bread works better for crispy bread pizza.
- If using fresh bread, slice it and leave it overnight to dry out a little, or pop it into the oven for a few minutes. This makes a crisper and toastier bread pizza.
- Buttering and toasting the tops before adding the toppings helps insulate the bread from the pizza sauce when toasted.
- Don’t overload the bread slices with too many toppings or sauce.
- Grate a block of mozzarella cheese and a parmesan wedge for the best pizza melt.
- Oven-baked pizza toast is even better with homemade garlic butter spread over the tops. Toast the bread first so that it doesn’t get soggy. Then top with the pizza toppings and bake.
- Don’t want to run an oven? Pizza bread can be toasted in the air fryer or on the stovetop in a buttered skillet. It’s basically a pizza toast recipe.
- Need an easy Breakfast idea? Top bread slices with leftover scrambled eggs, sausage or gravy, American cheese singles, or whatever else you have on hand to make a breakfast version.
- Make sure your meats are fully cooked, as these cook quickly.
- Want to meal-prep? Assemble uncooked pizza breads on a large cookie sheet and flash freeze. Then, transfer to a freezer bag and keep it frozen for quick meals. Bake frozen at 400°F for 12-14 minutes.
Pizza Bread Recipe
Equipment
- 1 large baking sheet
- 1 sheet of parchment paper
- 1 small mixing bowl
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 oz freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 5 oz grated mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup mini pepperoni slices
Italian Herb Seasoning:
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp garlic salt
- 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F (204°C). Cut a loaf of French bread in half, lengthwise. Then, cut each half into 4-inch squares. You can trim off the edges to square up the pizza slices.- Make the Italian Herb blend by mixing the garlic powder, garlic salt, and Italian seasonings in a small bowl.
- Top each bread slice with one tablespoon of pizza sauce, and evenly sprinkle the grated parmesan, mozzarella cheese, Italian herb seasoning, and mini pepperoni slices.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the bottoms have toasted and the cheese melts. The edges should be golden brown, and the pepperoni should be sizzling.
Notes
- You can use halves of hamburger buns, ciabatta rolls, bagels, or sliced French Bread slices.
- Season to taste with the Italian herb seasoning. The thicker the bread, the more seasoning you'd want to use.
- Don't overload the bread slices with sauce and toppings. It will make the bread pizza soggy.
- Meal prep and freeze these uncooked on a tray, then transfer them into a freezer bag for convenience meals. Bake frozen at 400°F for 12-14 minutes.
- The hack for making French bread pizza without pre-baking is to bake at a lower oven temperature of 350°F to dry the bread. This takes a little longer in the oven (up to 20 minutes) but shortens prep.
Nutrition per serving
