Recipes: Mozzarella Sticks

So. What I've learned is cheese sticks are the devil. And that the egg dip is really, really important.

I got a craving for cheese sticks the other night and thought I'd give it a try sans recipe. I made them ages ago and figured it would be easy. Got everything ready then realized the house was egg free. So I attempted without egg. It was....unfortunate. I figured I could use water or oil and the breadcrumbs would stick to that and everything would turn out fine in the end. Well. I got a nice melted lump of cheese without even the teeny little bit of breadcrumbs attached. 

Attempt 2 went much better and I've been playing around with them since. One nice little time saver was the cheese itself. At first I used a chunk of mozzarella that had to be sliced up. It worked fine but shape varied a good deal. What I finally landed on was using string cheese. Just cut a stick in half and you have two very nice looking cheese sticks in the end (picture above). Everyone is nice and uniform and you can't tell after they're cooked that they started life as string cheese. The other thing I changed was the cornstarch. I honestly couldn't tell a difference with it included or left out so I don't bother with adding it. 

Makes 8 serving, Total time less than 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2t garlic salt
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cornstarch 
• 1 quart oil for deep frying
• 16 oz package of mozzarella cheese sticks

Directions

-In small bowl mix eggs and water

-In medium bowl mix bread crumbs and garlic salt

-In medium bowl mix flour and cornstarch

-In heavy saucepan heat oil to 365 degrees

-Cut mozzarella sticks in two then dip each piece into flour mix, then egg mixture and finally in bread crumbs

-Fry until golden brown, around 30 seconds

-Drain and serve with marinara sauce