Stuffed Crust Pizza & Cheese Filled Buttery Garlic Dippers

So last night I was in the mood for some homemade, legit stuffed crust pizza and bread sticks and didn't have all night to spend making something. In my mind, I wanted a soft, slightly chewy middle with a kind of crisp and flaky outside that would just melt into a wonder piece of deliciousness. Beginning with the fundamentals of Chef Rider’s recipe at All Recipes  I tweaked it to meet the pizza and bread sticks I had mentally envisioned.  This recipe makes approximately 1-12 inch stuffed pizza and 12 bread sticks or dippers. 

Pizza Crust

2 packages active dry yeast

2 teaspoons white sugar

2 cups warm water (110 degrees F)

5 cups flour

1/4 olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

Mixture of Mozzarella and Colby cheeses

1 jar of your favorite pasta or pizza sauce

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 5-10min. Stir in flour and salt. Once flour is worked in, add oil and knead mixture until smooth (about 2 min). Let rest for 5 minutes and cover with saran wrap. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Use 1/3 of the dough for the bread sticks and the rest for the pizza crust. Using your pizza pan for measurement, stretch dough onto a lightly oiled pan until 2 inches of dough drapes off the sides. Sprinkle cheese along the edge of the pizza pan and fold dough over the cheese sealing to ensure that the cheese does not leak. 

*We like our crust on the crisper side so will pre-bake it for about 7 min. After crust has pre-baked, spread sauce, toppings and cheese over middle and bake at 450 degrees F until cheese is a golden brown. 

Spreading sauce on my pre-baked crust

Complete Pizza

Bread sticks
Divide remaining dough into 12 pieces. To make cheese filled sticks, flatten each piece into a small rectangle (the length should measure a little short of what you want the final stick length to be. Place your cheese pieces down the middle of the dough and then fold the dough over lengthwise to seal. Pinch the ends and then place in a lightly oiled pan. Continue until all dough has been used.

Garlic Butter

3 Tablespoons butter

½ teaspoon or more of garlic powder

Melt butter and garlic together in the microwave, pour over breadsticks before baking and turn to coat. Bake in a preheated oven at 450F for 10-15min or until golden brown.

Bread sticks ready to bake

Completed