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I have a slight addiction to cheese sticks/mozzarella sticks/those ooey-gooey luscious sticks of cheese that are crispy on the outside and all melty inside. No people you don’t understand. I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE them. Like obsessed love.
However…cause there is always a however with me, my thighs love them even more. *hangs head in sorrow*. See traditional cheese sticks are breaded and deep fried to a golden brown with just a teensy hint of cheese starting to show.
But… deep fried is something I avoid at all costs. Sure there are ‘healthier’ oils but the vast majorities of restaurants out there don’t use the healthier oils to fry in. It’s not cost effective for them.
Now I’ve made them baked a bajillion times and they are truly awesome but I wanted to mix it up. Mostly because I wanted pepperoni with them. See when my family owned a pizza shop we used to get these things called ‘Pizza Sticks’ in that were cheese sticks but had chunks of pepperoni and stuff in them. They were as sinful as sinful could get. I wanted THOSE! Now with baking them with a traditional breadcrumb breading it’s pretty difficult to get it to work. I have done it but honestly it’s time consuming and a veritable P.I.T.A. So as I was rummaging in the fridge I found a package of egg roll wrappers. And since you all know how much I LOVE those little things based on the number of ‘egg roll’ recipes I have on here I decided to give it a shot.
Honestly, these went together really easy and were baked in no time. So let’s get to the good stuff… TASTE!
Seriously there were really, REALLY good! Like I preferred the super crispy ‘shell’ of the egg roll over traditional bread crumbs. Plus it allowed me to incorporate pepperoni in it (BONUS!). The cheese was all ooey gooey inside, the pepperoni hot and the shell was super crunchy! I literally made these 4 days in a row! Plus the best part, they are WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY less fattening than traditional ones. You can leave out the pepperoni or use a turkey lower fat one if you wish. All I know is right now my stomach is growling and I’m off to make me a few of these puppies!
Baked Pepperoni Pizza Egg Roll Cheese Sticks
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Ingredients
- 4 low fat mozzarella string cheeses, cut in half, width-wise
- 8 slices of sandwich pepperoni
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pizza sauce
- 8 Egg roll wrappers
- Cooking Spray
- Additional pizza sauce for dipping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Place a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet and spray with cooking spray.
- Next lay an egg roll wrapper down to where it is in a diamond shape and lightly brush both sides with water. These are often a bit dry so if you do not moisten it, they will crack when you try to roll them.
- Lay down a slice of pepperoni not quite in the middle of the wrapper but rather in the lower third of the wrapper.
- Next top with a slice of cheese.
- Spoon on a 1/2 teaspoon of pizza sauce over top the cheese.
- Begin rolling by taking the bottom and ‘tucking’ under the mixture.
- Bring in the sides and then continue rolling. I tend to take a dab more water to ‘seal’ the edges when I get to the end.
- Set aside and repeat for the remaining wrappers.
- Lightly spray the entire egg roll with cooking spray and set on the cooling rack.
- Bake for 6 minutes (or until the top is lightly golden brown), flip, spray again and bake for another 5-8 minutes until golden brown and crispy. The trick is to get them crispy right before the cheese starts to melt out.
- Transfer to a plate and serve with warmed pizza sauce.
Jquinn says
maybe before or after they are baked could you brush them with melted butter and sprinkle a little bit of salt on them to make them into a pretzel roll up?
TKWAdmin says
Ohhhhhhhhhhh I like the way you think! I’d brush them with butter and pretzel salt before baking.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
angelica says
this is now my goto recipe when I want something delicious and relatively quick. however I never have put pepperoni in it and I use any kind of cheese I can find I have been using ham and cheese with some onions and jalapenos really good. I also make a apple filling with honey and cinnamon and little brandy and put them with the wraps for a sweet change up. thanks for giving me this idea I’m going to be using these raps a lot .
TKWAdmin says
Oh wow I LOVE how you use this in so many ways! I do as well – it’s just so versatile! Try them with a little bit of sweetened cream cheese and maybe raspberry filling. Then bake them/roll in cinnamon sugar. It’s like a crispy little cheesecake stick!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Brandy says
Could these be baked, frozen and then reheated in a toaster oven? Am trying to come up with fun ideas for my husband for supper.
TKWAdmin says
Hi Brandy!
I’d actually make them (roll them) and then flash freeze them (meaning place them on a parchment lined pan with say 1/2″ in between and freeze unbaked. Then when your husband wants some, he can pop ’em in the toaster oven or regular oven and heat them up himself.
I haven’t tried making them fully (baking them) and then freezing/reheating. Actually no, I take that back, yes I have (sort of). What we didn’t eat, I would put the rest in the fridge and then the next day just re-heat them in the toaster oven. You could try that if you wanted.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
margaret says
this was awesome! my kids loved it!
TKWAdmin says
Margaret
Thank you so much! When a recipe is Kid-Approved you know it has to be amazing! What I love about this recipe is you can mix up the ingredients! Try it with cooked chicken, just veggies or just cheese! LOVE IT!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Phô mai que says
They look so yummy. I can not wait to try.
TKWAdmin says
Phô mai que,
Thank you 🙂 I love these! I don’t feel guilty when I crave those crunchy cheese sticks!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Phô mai que says
I kind of like your blog. I think it would be better if you set your own picture instead of a pig in “About me”, haha (just a suggestion). Anyway, I’ll comeback for more recipes. Wish you all the best!
TKWAdmin says
HAHA, yeah I’ve gotten that a lot but honestly, I just love pigs and when I found this picture years ago it was just “so me”. 🙂
Best Kitchen Wishes!