Cheese Breadsticks

Since I’ve become quite comfortable making pizza at home, I decided it was high time I try to recreate one of our favorite pizza treats- the cheesy garlic breadsticks.

Here 2 versions: A quick with can / tube pizza dough
and the other with a recipe for the dough, and I love, love, LOVE this dough recipe. It really is fool-proof and makes for great breadsticks, pizza, and pepperoni rolls.

A quick

Ingredients

• 1 Can/Tube of Pizza Dough
• 2 tables of softened butter or margarine
• 2 tsp of pre-minced garlic in a jar (about 2 cloves of the real stuff)
• 1 bag of pizza cheese (provolone, mozzarella and parmesan)
• Grated Parmesan Cheese
• Salt, Pepper, Dried Oregano

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Mix your butter and garlic together in a bowl. Roll out your pizza dough on a pizza stone (I used my Pampered Chef Cookie Sheet).
3. Cover the dough with the butter/garlic mixture. I used my hands, you can be dainty and use a spatula or something.
4. Cover that with the cheese (as much as you’d like, it’s going to melt pretty deliciously) and then sprinkle some of the parmesan on top.
5. Top with salt, pepper and oregano to your heart’s content. I like using Oregano because it makes things look fancy.
6. Bake for about 1o minutes until it looks amazing and let it cool a minute.
7. Slice it up and enjoy!

Basic Pizza Dough
Yield: 2-12 inch pizzas, approximately 1 lb. of dough

Ingredients:

• 1 cup warm water
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cups bread flour (I’ve also used all purpose flour with success)

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, preferably that of a stand mixer, stir yeast and honey into warm water. Sit for 5-10 minutes or until bubbles form and mixture starts to foam. This tells you that the yeast is alive and kicking. Pour in salt, oil and half the flour and mix. Once that flour is incorporated, start adding flour in bit by bit until you get the pizza dough to the consistency you want: slightly tacky, but when you touch it it doesn’t stick to your hands. Once you reach this stage, turn the mixer on high to knead for 6 minutes. Turn a timer on and walk away! Resist the temptation to stop earlier than 6 minutes! The dough should be smooth and easy to work with. And the bowl should be clean! Lightly grease the bowl & the dough so it doesn’t dry out, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 1-2 hours.

Cheese and Bacon Breadsticks