French bread pizza is a simple, quick, and delicious take on pizza.
Crusty French bread is topped with garlic butter, pizza sauce, oregano, and two kinds of cheese before baking to melty perfection, perfect for busy weeknights.
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights
- Flavor: Thick slices of crusty bread combined with melty, salty cheese, and finished off with your favorite toppings, make the perfect flavor combo.
- Skill Level: Easy to make, this recipe is so much faster than delivery. No pizza dough needed, no rolling, no rising, just top and bake.
- Swaps: Replace the French bread with hoagie rolls, ciabatta, or gluten-free bread if needed.
- Serving Suggestions: Cut portions any size you like to feed a few or feed a crowd. French bread pizzas are great for sleepovers and movie nights.
Ingredient Tips for French Bread Pizza
- French Bread: Pick up a large loaf of French bread at the market or make homemade French bread. Top it with garlic butter for an extra layer of flavor.
- Sauce: Either buy a jar or make some homemade pizza sauce. Change it up by stirring in some BBQ sauce or a couple of tablespoons of pesto. You can also use marinara sauce with a sprinkle of Italian seasoning.
- Toppings: Start with mozzarella cheese and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Then add pepperoni, Homemade Italian sausage, leftover shredded chicken, or ham. Toppings can be any assortment of onions, olives, red peppers, artichokes, chopped spinach, diced zucchini, sliced mushrooms, or jalapenos.
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Did you enjoy this French Bread Pizza? Leave a rating and comment below!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 loaf French bread
- ¼ cup salted butter softened
- 1 clove garlic minced, or ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 ½ cups pizza sauce
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- toppings as desired pepperoni, ham, sausage, mushrooms, peppers, pineapple, etc.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Cut the loaf of bread in half lengthwise.
- Combine butter and garlic in a small bowl. Spread over the bread. Place on a baking sheet, cut side up, and bake 5 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp on top.
- Remove from the oven and spread pizza sauce on the top. Sprinkle with oregano.
- Top with cheeses and toppings as desired. Bake 12-15 minutes or until browned and bubbly. Broil for 1-2 minutes if desired.
- Cool 5 minutes before slicing.
Video
Notes
- Cooking the bread with garlic butter adds a crisp topping and keeps the bread from getting soggy.
- If you don’t have garlic butter, brush the bread with olive oil or melted butter and sprinkle with garlic powder or a few cloves of minced garlic.
- Ensure meat is cooked before adding. If your toppings have a lot of moisture, cook them first (like mushrooms) or lightly squeeze them dry (like pineapple).
- Place finished French bread halves under the broiler to make the cheese and toppings extra crispy!
Nutrition Information
Calories: 607 | Carbohydrates: 63g | Protein: 28g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 79mg | Sodium: 1547mg | Potassium: 490mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 1184IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 422mg | Iron: 5mg
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Appetizer, Pizza
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
I used my own measurements and ingredients based on what I had on hand, but I followed your instructions and it came out perfectly crunchy and delicious!
Thank you!
Perfect! Precooking the bread before adding toppings keeps it from being too soft so you have the delicious, crispy “crust” that everyone loves.
This was amazing!!! I used sausage onion and mushrooms. I did sauté the mushrooms as suggested and they were perfect. Will definitely make again.
Can I freeze the cooked pizza bread for later?
I have never tried freezing leftovers but that should work well.
This was delicious! I used Helaine’s suggestions on temperature and minutes. My husband and three teenagers loved it! Thanks for a great recipe.
Such and easy, delicious recipe!
You have to grab the pizza sauce pepperoni and mozzarella from Trader Joe’s. Had Kroger slice the loaf and bought a small tub of garlic butter. Follow the instructions. BAM!
Excellent! Made as written, with the exception of broiling the garlic butter step – couldn’t get mine to brown with just the oven. Loved, loved, loved the crispiness of the exterior of the bread. So easy and economical. Will certainly be making again!
Amazing! Crust was crispy delicious this is a must make again. Recipe saved ❤️
Used a loaf of french bread from our local Walmart. Cut the ends off and split the loaf in half lengthwise. Followed directions baking at 425 degrees F. instead of 450 for 5 minutes with butter garlic mixture; 12 minutes after topping with Rao’s pizza sauce, oregano, mozzarella and parmesan cheese, and under broiler for 1 to 2 minutes, leaving rack in baking position. Used Rao’s pizza sauce. PERFECT!!
So glad you enjoyed it, Helaine!
We made this tonight using your temp and minutes suggestions. It turned out perfect!
very good, easy to prepare.
Thank you so much! It’s absolutely delicious
Tried this recipe today. 450° is way too hot for this. My pizza was burnt and I had it on the middle rack. Will do this again but not at 450° and not for so long.
Cooking at 450°F helps to make the french bread pizza nice and crispy. You will want to keep an eye on it closer to the end of the bake time because they crisp up quickly though.
Thanks for the recipe! It was delicious and easy! Will definitely make this again. Pinterest has turned off the comments for this pin so I’m leaving one here.
These came out black and burnt to a crisp on the bottom. We couldn’t event eat them. I followed the recipe to a T and baked on the middle rack for 12 minutes. I’m seeing other comments saying the same thing, maybe the recipe could be modified?
I’ve made this countless time and haven’t had this problem so I’m not sure what happened for you. May I ask what type of pan you used (was it a dark pan?).
The best pizza recipe! Will definitely make this many more times!
Delicious! Came out perfect.
I liked it it was good.
Delicious!!! I had not made French bread pizza’s in years. Came across your recipe and so glad I did! That garlic butter makes all the difference! I topped with sauce, sausage, green peppers and mushrooms. I sometimes do jalapenos too. I left one as a white pizza, both were really good! Thanks for the recipe!
Aww thank you so much for the comment, Robin! Glad you enjoyed it
Yuck. Burnt on the bottom
Oh no Megan, we haven’t had that problem. I use the middle rack in our oven, I hope that helps!
I made half the loaf with sautéed arugula, caramelized onions, dry sautéed wild mushrooms topped with Alfredo sauce and Parmesan. The other half had a red sauce with turkey pepperoni, capers, anchovies, mozzarella, Datil peppers and Parmesan.
Perfection.
That sounds delicious, Michael! Thanks for leaving a comment!
Delicious pizza! Love the taste
So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Monica! :)