The Best Cheese Stuffed Bread Balls Recipe with Fresh Oregano Leaves, inspired by Palestinian Zaatar Bread. This easy herbed dough ball recipe is filled with Mozzarella, made with olive oil into a soft golden ball.
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Stuffed Cheese Bread Rolls with Oregano – My take on Palestinian Zaatar Rolls
These Cheese Stuffed Oregano Bread Rolls are a great easy appetizer, or a side dish, or a great addition to your afternoon tea menu.
When you bite into these bread balls, you will taste the aromatic, warm herb flavor from the oregano, and get a surprise of gooey Mozzarella cheese in the center.
Herbs, Cheese and Bread
If you love bread, herbs and cheese, you will love these easy Cheese Stuffed Bread Balls. These Herb Bread Rolls are stuffed with mozzarella, then baked to perfection.
They make an amazing appetizer, snack, or side.
Palestinian Zaatar Bread
This recipe is inspired by the traditional Palestinian “Khobz bzaatar” (Arabic: خبز بزعتر), which means bread with Zaatar or Thyme.
In the traditional recipe in Palestine, local sheep milk white cheese is used to stuff the bread rolls. I replaced it with mozzarella. It tastes great and it looks very pleasing when it stretches.
Wild local thyme leaves are traditionally incorporated within the bread, which i substituted for oregano leaves (more on that below).
Easy Cheese Stuffed Oregano Rolls
Who doesn’t love warm bread and melty cheese? Add to it the delicious herb flavor from the oregano, and you have a perfect side dish. They also freeze very well, so you can make a big batch and freeze all or some of it.
These stuffed cheese dinner rolls are great for sharing with the family. If you love herbs, your family will love these herbed bread rolls. They are super easy to make, double or triple this recipe to feed a small army!
Greek Oregano or Wild Zaatar?
As I have mentioned, this recipe is my take on the traditional Zaatar bread rolls. So I needed an herb that will give me the taste and the aromas of fresh Palestinian wild Zaatar. I found a wonderful Greek Oregano plant (like this one).
The texture of the leaves, and the smell of the plant is very similar to the local Palestinian Zaatar plant.
I am very pleased with the aromas and flavors when I cook with it. I always enjoy cooking with ingredients that I grew in my garden.
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How to make Cheese Stuffed Oregano Bread Balls
These Zaatar Bread Rolls are easy to make, but they require time for the bread to rise.
Step by Step Instructions:
- Start by making the dough: activate the yeast with warm water and sugar. Make sure that the water is not too hot, or it will kill the yeast. Mix the dry ingredients with the chopped oregano leaves. Then, add the activated yeast and the wet ingredients: olive oil, and yogurt.
- Mix everything together, then transfer to a surface and knead the dough until it forms a smooth nice dough.
- Cover the dough and place it in a warm location and allow to rise. It will rise within 30 minutes if you placed it in a warm enough spot, or you can leave it for an hour or some as needed.
- Get a block of Mozzarella cheese, or any cheese you like. I like the way Mozzarella tastes, melts and stretches, so it’s my choice. Cut up the cheese into 1-inch cubes.
- After the dough has doubled in size, cut it up into balls. I usually just use my hands to form small dough balls, and I don’t worry too much about them being equal. You can use a kitchen scale to get uniform dough balls.
- Stuff each ball with one or two cheese cubes.
- Bake in an oven preheated to 400 F (200 C) for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. You can also turn on the broil for a couple of minutes for more color.
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Cheese Stuffed Oregano Bread Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- ½ tbsp sugar
- 1 cup warm water (230 ml)
- 4 cups all-purpose flour (500 g)
- ⅓ cup fresh oregano leaves roughly chopped
- 1½ tsp salt or to taste
- a pinch turmeric powder optional for color
- ½ cup olive oil (118 ml)
- 2½ tbsp plain whole milk yogurt
- 8 oz package of mozzarella cubed
Instructions
Make the dough
- In a small bowl, mix the yeast, sugar and water. Set the yeast aside for 10 minutes to activate.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, salt, and oregano leaves, and mix until the leaves are well-incorporated and coated with flour.
- Add the activated yeast, oil, and yogurt to the bowl with the dry ingredients, and mix everything with a spoon until it's all combined.
- Transfer to a surface and knead the dough by hand for about 10 minutes.
- Coat a bowl with oil and place the dough in it, and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm spot to rise for about 30-45 minutes or until doubled in size.
Assemble and Bake
- Preheat the oven to 400 C, and line a baking sheet with parchement paper, or grease with some olive oil.
- Cut up the dough into balls of the desired size. Stuff each ball with one or two cheese cubes, and place on the baking sheet.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. You can broil for 2 minutes to get more color.
These looks so delicious ! I’m very sad I actually cannot eat cheese. But my family would love it and I will show this to them:) I love how you really broke down the recipe and explained it well.
My grandmother used to make them without cheese all the time. She added way more Oregano (or Zaatar) leaves. She served them with mint tea. Thank you for stopping by Lori! 🙂
This looks divine! The combination of cheese and herbs looks so delicious. I would love to try making a gluten free version.
Thank you! Let me know how it turns out!
WOWOWOW! These looks so incredible, I have to try!