Why not Zoidberg?

While reading through a bunch of blogs I like, I found a so delicious sounding recipe on That's so Michelle that I simply had to try it myself.
I mean, read through the original recipe guys. It combines cheese, crab meat and fresh bread (and some garlic, naturally).

But here in Germany (or more precise in Bavaria) it's kinda difficult and expensive to get crab meat. You can't buy it canned and you rarely find frozen crab in your average supermarket.

So I decided to go with shrimp.

The next obstacle to recreate Michelle's recipe was to get a hand on the Old Bay seasoning.
I didn't want to order some via the Internet and you can't find American seasonings in your average German grocery store.

So I asked my old buddy wikipedia and voilà, all the ingredients neatly listed unfolded befor my eyes.
With a little imagination and luck I tried to blend a seasoning I never tasted in my life.
So naturally I can't say for sure if it was in any way akin the Old Bay seasoning but it tasted delicious.
And that's good enough for me.

For the seasoning I used

• 1 Tsp salt
• 1 Tsp freshly grounded black pepper
• 1/2 Tsp paprika
• 1/2 Tsp grounded cayenne pepper
• 1 pinch grounded nutmeg
• 1 pinch grounded clover
• 1 pinch grounded ginger

As you can see I didn't use mustard, cardamom, bay leaf and allspice mostly because I haven't had them grounded. Except the allspice, it's kinda impossible to get a hold on that in Germany.

For the Pull Apart Bread you'll need

• 1 loaf of French bread
• about 200 gr shredded cheese
• about 250 gr shrimp
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1-2 green onions (chopped)
• 100 gr butter
• 50 gr creme cheese
• Old Bay Seasoning (or the one I created)

First of all you have to cut your loaf diagonally in botch directions, to create little rhombuses.
Try to cut down as deep as you can but don't cut trough the bread.

Be careful when you get to the second direction, because the bread tends to rip apart if you don't cut slowly.
I only used about half the recipe for half a loaf of bread.

First of all you'll have to fill the gaps in the loaf with half of the shredded cheese.

Then mince the pack of shrimp and press it onto the cheese. Try to push them as deep into the gaps as possible.


After the shrimp, add the remaining shredded cheese.
Now layer the green onions and the creme cheese on top of it.
Melt the butter, add the seasoning (1-2 Tsp) and the crushed garlic to it and then pour it over your prepared loaf.

Cover the loaf in foil (one layer beneath and one on top of it) and put it into the preheated oven for about 15 minutes on 180 °C.
Then remove the top layer of foil and bake for another 15 minutes until the cheese is melting.

I hope you'll enjoy your very own Pull Apart Bread as much as my girl and I did.
Also special thanks to Michelle for the delicious inspiration.