sourdough bites with roasted red pepper and feta
Sourdough bites with roasted red pepper and feta are sweet and savory and salty and cozy. The flavors are a simple + heartwarming combination that can be enjoyed as a snack or elevated into a meal. The dough’s multi-dimensional flavor develops over an extended bulk fermentation which allows the sourdough depth to slowly develop is really when and where the magic happens.
Make these sourdough bites for a crowd when entertaining or freeze them between sheets of parchment paper and bake one off at a time for a quick and delicious, real-food snack. The dough takes a full 14 hours to ferment, so make the dough the day before you intend to bake the bites.
makes about 24 bites
ingredients
for the dough
- 50g butter
- 150g water
- 100g sourdough starter 100% hydration
- 50g sugar
- 350g all-purpose flour
- 18g salt
for the toppings and assembly
- ½ cup / 100g feta, crumbled
- 4 ounces roasted red pepper, chopped
- 1 tablespoon / 18 grams freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 teaspoons / 11 grams salt
dough steps
The day before you want to bake the bites, mix together the butter and water then add the starter into a large bowl and mix until combined. Add in the sugar and mix, then add in the flour and salt and mix until the dough is evenly combined. It will be shaggy at first but become blended and somewhat sticky as you mix. With wet hands, pinch and press the dough until it is smooth then cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 2 hours.
After the dough has rested for 2 hours, stretch the top of it up and fold it over itself. Turn the bowl 90° to the right and pull the top of the dough up and over. Repeat this 8 times total. Let the dough sit for another hour then repeat the folding process 8 more times. Let the dough sit for one more hour then repeat the series of folds one last time, for a total of three stretch and fold sequences.
Let the dough rest for about 14 hours overnight until it has doubled in size. After this bulk fermentation, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and cut it into squares. I used a 2 ¾ x 2 ¾-inch square cutter, but you can just as easily use a knife or bench scraper.
Let the squares rest for 1-2 hours until they puff up. After this final rest, preheat the oven to 375°F.
assembly steps
Distribute about 1 teaspoon of feta on each square then layer with about 1 tablespoon of roasted red pepper. Top each square with cracked black pepper and a pinch of salt.
Bake for 20 minutes at 375°F, then turn the oven up to 450°F and bake for 10 more minutes.