Garlic Parmesan Bread Bites Recipe From Scratch

Pull these garlic parmesan bread bites out of the oven warm, brush them with garlic butter, and shower them with parmesan. Then try to stop eating them. Good luck with that.

Made from scratch with a simple yeasted dough, these soft little bites come together with basic pantry ingredients and very little fuss. They work as a party appetizer, a side dish for pasta night, or an after-school snack that disappears fast.

Start with Pizza Dough

Sure a person can buy dough to make these but that is never my style. I started with my homemade pizza dough and found it to be the perfect no fuss way to get an amazing end result.

I do use ’00’ flour in my pizza dough but you can easily substitute with all-purpose flour for equally tasty parmesan bites.

Experience Level: Beginner

This homemade dough is super easy recipe to make. The basic ingredients are likely on hand in most everyone’s kitchen making it simple to pull together as well. It’s a great project for beginners in that it’s not at all fancy. The topping, too, is easy to pull together for even the most novice cook.

The Garlic Topping

The garlic-herb butter is a very simple combination of fresh garlic, dried herbs, and melted salted butter. I purposely kept it simple so that it would appeal to most people.

However, you are not locked into this recipe, options abound.

Add a pinch of red pepper flakes for some heat if you desire.

A pinch of cracked black pepper is also quite nice.

The Cheese

You’ll want a generous shower of parmesan cheese on these bites.

I prefer to use a wedge of cheese grated finely on a microplane zester, but there’s no right or wrong way to do the grating. A finer grate will melt and adhere better to the final bites.

Feel free to use a blend of parmesan, with something like asiago cheese, or anything you desire truly.

How to Serve

Use this as an easy appetizer for parties of all kinds, serve with your favorite marinara sauce or pizza sauce for dipping.

Serve a few with a small plate of pepperoni for a perfect snack after school or work. My pepperoni bread is another great option if you’re feeding a crowd.

Simply, break apart the bites when they’re still warm and put them into a basket or bowl for serving. They truly are best served warm.

You could definitely serve these addictive garlic bites as part of homemade pizza night with a salad.

Use them as a perfect side dish for soup – they’re great for dipping in flavorful broth.

It’s a perfect compliment to dishes like chicken parmesan or eggplant parmesan at the dinner table. They’d be great alongside most any pasta dish as well.

How to Store

Put any left overs in an airtight container and keep at room temperature. They should last a couple of days but are definitely best when they are first fresh from the oven.

Troubleshooting

The dough didn’t rise. Check your yeast first. Active dry yeast needs to foam up in the warm water before you add the flour. If it doesn’t foam after 10 minutes, the yeast is likely old or the water was too hot or too cold. Aim for water that feels comfortably warm on your wrist, around 100 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

The bites are dense instead of soft. This usually means the dough wasn’t kneaded enough or didn’t get a full rise. The dough should feel smooth and elastic after kneading, and it should noticeably puff during both rise periods.

The garlic butter isn’t sticking to the bites. Brush the bites immediately after they come out of the oven while they’re still hot. The butter absorbs best into a warm surface. Brushing on cold bites results in butter pooling rather than soaking in.

The parmesan isn’t melting onto the bites. A finer grate melts and adheres better than coarser shreds. A microplane or the fine side of a box grater gives the best results here.

The bites are browning too fast on the bottom. Try lining your baking sheet with parchment paper rather than greasing it directly. If they’re still browning too fast, move the pan up a rack in the oven.