Garlic Cheese Sticks

One of my favorite places to go to lunch with my mom is Francesco's. I grew up going there. We always get the same thing. I order a chicken caesar salad and my mom orders a green salad with their house italian and ranch dressing (They are really delicious when you mix them together). The salads are great but the real reason we go there? Garlic Cheese Sticks. They bring you out a complimentary order of cheese sticks when you sit down and are ordering. Then, we ask that instead of garlic bread with our salads that they please replace it with garlic cheese sticks. Seriously folks, it is the best garlic cheese sticks, ever. The other night I was craving it and decided I would experiment and try to make my own version of it. UM.... amazing. It was a hit with the hubby and he doesn't really like pizza of any kind. It was even yummy to eat it cold the next day. I used fresh basil which gave it even more flavor. And homemade pizza dough is always  better. If I am going to eat pizza I would rather eat homemade any day over restaurant pizza.

Glad it was a success so that I didn't have to drive 20 minutes to get my Garlic Cheese Stick Fix!

XOXO,
Whitney

Here is the recipe:

Garlic Cheese Bread

Ingredients:

For the Dough:
½  T yeast
¾  C warm water
½ tsp salt
½ T honey
1 ½ -2 C flour

 For the topping:

4 garlic cloves

1 1/2 C shredded parmesan cheese
¼ C EVOO
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 C mozzarella cheese
½ C Fresh basil, chiffonade cut

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 425° F.

In a large bowl dissolve yeast into warm water. Add salt and honey. Mix well. With a wooden spoon stir in flour. Knead dough until smooth. Separate dough into 2 halves. On a floured surface roll out the dough until desired thickness of crust is reached. No raising is necessary for the dough.  Lightly slater dough with EVOO and bake pizza dough for 4 minutes. Remove from oven.

Combine garlic, 1 C of parmesan cheese , EVOO, and salt & pepper into a food processor. Pulse until all combined. Spread mixture onto pizza dough. Add mozzarella cheese, remaining parmesan and top with fresh basil. Bake in the oven for approximately 12 minutes or until golden.