Parmesan Bread Bites
Have pizza dough? You can whip up these savory Parmesan Bread Bites with simple pizza dough, parmesan, and garlic butter! Your crowd will go wild over this easy appetizer!
My best friend and I always joke that we have a true love for “doughy foods” like cinnamon rolls and now these we have a doughy recipe to love. Made with store-bought pizza dough (you can also make your own pizza dough), these parmesan bread bites are the perfect soft, doughy appetizer brushed with the most amazing garlic herb butter and generously sprinkled with parmesan cheese.
I mean… just LOOK at that bite sized little bread bite?! Soft and tender on the inside, perfectly golden brown on the outside and ready to be dunked into marinara sauce or pizza sauce as a fun dipping sauce! The perfect appetizer if I do say so myself.
How to Make Parmesan Bread Bites
These bread bites can’t get much easier than a few simple steps. Follow along and then you’ll also find the full, printable recipe card (as always) at the bottom of the post! And if you love this recipe, I’d LOVE for you to pin it, save it, share it with friends!
What’s the best Pizza Dough for Bread Bites?
For the pizza dough, I used simple store-bought refrigerated pizza dough. It works perfectly every time. However, if you want to make your own pizza dough, that’s wonderful! Go for it! So make your own favorite pizza dough recipe or grab store-bought, either way works.
Cut Pizza Dough into 1-Inch Bites
- I shaped the pizza dough into a long, breadstick shape and used a pizza cutter to cut 1-inch bite-sized pieces to make my bread bites.
- You can make them larger or smaller, but I find 1-inch to be the perfect bite sized appetizer.
- Place your 1-inch bread bites on a baking sheet sprayed generously with nonstick cooking spray. Now is where we start infusing that delicious garlic butter flavor!
- Brush each unbaked bread bite with garlic butter and sprinkle with parmesan cheese (use any type of parmesan, the green bottle or a fancy version, it’s all delish on these). They’ll get more of both when they are done baking.
- Bake the parmesan bread bites at 375 degrees F. for about 15 minutes. This might vary between 12-17 minutes, so *watch oven carefully*. You don’t want to over-bake these bread bites or they’ll be hard. Baked soft? YES. Hard? No thanks! So watch the oven. You want them lightly golden brown.
Garlic Butter & Parmesan Cheese
While still hot, brush each baked parmesan bread bite with another coating of garlic butter (the good stuff!!) and generously top each bite with grated parmesan cheese.
Handy Bread Bites Recipe Tip
To help the grated parmesan cheese stay put on the bread bite, add the grated parmesan right after you brush it with garlic butter. The warm butter helps the parmesan cheese stick to the bread bite. Work in batches, brush a few, top with cheese, repeat!
Now that each delicious bread bite is coated in garlic butter and LOTS of grated parmesan cheese, it’s time to ENJOY! Serve up these parmesan bread bites the next time you need a crowd-pleasing snack or a quick side dish to a main course!
What to Serve with Parmesan Bread Bites
While these little bread bites are perfect just popped right into your mouth, on their own, I like to serve them with a bowl of marina sauce or pizza sauce for dunking! They’re also delicious with extra virgin olive oil. You could truly serve them with any of your favorite dipping sauces (try this sriracha sauce if you like spicy!)
If you want to serve them at a meal rather than as an appetizer, these simple parmesan bread bites would be delicious as a side dish for pizza night, lasagna, spaghetti, chicken parmesan, or anytime you’d traditionally serve garlic bread.
Ingredient & Recipe Notes
Parmesan Cheese – You can use any parmesan you like! Sometimes I use grated and sometimes shredded, they’ll be parmesan bread bites either way! Can you use the green bottle of grated parmesan cheese? Yes. Absolutely!
Garlic Butter – Use my recipe or jazz this up with red pepper flakes for heat, add in fresh herbs if you have them, or skip the butter altogether and make a garlic oil by substituting your favorite olive oil for the butter.
Love garlic? Add lots of garlic or stick to 2 cloves. Use fresh garlic or store-bought pre-minced garlic. I mean, between us, one can never have enough garlic, right?! (You could even shake a little garlic salt on top)
Pizza Dough – Make homemade dough or buy store-bought refrigerated dough. Both work well. I just tend to have store-bought on hand because for some reason, having to pull out the dough hook is just too much for a simple appetizer, ha!
–>> If you love this recipe, you MUST try my Cheesy Stuffed Garlic Bread!
Want More Bite-Sized Appetizers?
Hosting a party and want a full spread of delicious bite-sized appetizers? I’ve got you covered! Here are a few more of my personal favorites…
- Toast Bread Cups (fill these little toasted cups up with just about *anything* from spinach artichoke dip to pimento cheese)
- Spinach Cheese Squares (SO easy and delish)
- Sausage & Rotel Phyllo Cups (always a hit!)
I hope you’ll give these parmesan bread bites a try! Between the herbed garlic butter and the generous coating of grated parmesan cheese, these nuggets might win for most delicious finger food!
If you love this recipe for Parmesan Bread Bites, I would LOVE for you to leave a star rating below! And share with your friends who love appetizers too!
Parmesan Bread Bites
Ingredients
- 1 refrigerated pizza dough ((store bought or homemade pizza dough))
- 1/3 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
Garlic Butter
- 5 tbsp butter (melted)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder))
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp dried parsley (chopped)
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning ((or dried oregano) )
Instructions
To make the bread bites:
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Prep a cookie sheet or baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
- On a clean surface, roll the pizza dough into a long rope shape. You want it to be about 1-inch thick all the way around. Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut the dough into 1-inch bite sized pieces. You can make them smaller or larger if you like (just adjust baking time).
To Make the Garlic Butter:
- Make the garlic butter by whisking together melted butter, garlic, salt, parsley and Italian seasoning in a mixing bowl. Using a pastry brush, brush each bread bite with the garlic butter and sprinkle with grated parmesan. You'll do this again after they're baked, so use about half of each (butter and parmesan).
- Bake the parmesan bread bites for 13-15 minutes or until the bread bites are lightly golden brown. Be sure not to over-bake.
- Remove from the oven and brush each bread bite again with the garlic butter mixture and add a generous coating of parmesan cheese on top. If the butter cooled down while baking, melt it in a microwave safe bowl for about 25 seconds or until fully melted.
- Serve with your favorite marinara sauce or other dipping sauce or enjoy on their own! Store leftovers in an airtight container (if you even HAVE leftovers).
These are amazing!
Love these ,as good as or better than Dominos!
Can you be more specific on how much pizza dough? Or which brand you are buying? I want to make these but I don’t know if my dough recipe makes the same as yours. Thank you!
I buy premade pizza dough in the refrigerated biscuit dough section of the grocery store. There are usually a few brands, all will work just fine. Sometimes it’s a pack of 2 pizza doughs or just 1.
I just used 1 in my recipe.
Love this! I make them with my homemade pizza dough. They are a hit and way cheaper than dominos to make
Have you frozen the leftovers? This recipe is awesome! I’m surprised we had any leftovers but I made a large batch 😁
I have not frozen the leftovers, I imagine it would work fine, but personally have never had any as they get gobbled up quickly! 🙂
I made these tonight with my pasta and meatballs and it was absolutely delicious and very quick and easy to make
Thanks Toni! I’m so glad you liked them!