Rediculously Easy Soft Bread Sticks

On pizza night I usually make thin crust pizza to save on calories, but right before the end of the year I made regular crust pizza, and OH MAN was that good! It was thick and bready without being chewy and done all the way through and was just yummy.

Then of course we went back on our diets. No more thick crust. But for Superbowl we were doing wings and veggies and I thought maybe I could turn that wonderful crust into breadsticks.

I started with the KitchenAid Crusty Pizza Crust recipe.  They say it makes one 12" pizza crust, but we make it into two thin-crust pizzas.  This is (mostly) out of the manual that came with my KitchenAid mixer; I add a little sugar to the yeast because I think it rises a bit more:

KitchenAid Crusty Pizza Crust

1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 - 2 tablespoons of cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in warm (105 - 115 F) water in warmed bowl.Add salt, sugar olive oil, and 2 1/2 cup flour. Attach bowl and dough hook, turn to speed 2 and mix 1 minute. Continuing on speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough clings to dough hook and cleans sides of bowl. Knead on speed 2 for 2 minutes.

Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top.Cover, let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour). Punch dough down. If you want to make two thin crusts you can divide your crust now. Brush 12 inch pizza pan with oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. Shape your dough (I roll mine) so it covers the bottom of pan and forms collar around edge to hold filling.

Protip: before adding toppings, cook your crust for five minutes and it will be firm on the bottom instead of floppy! Remember to coopk the topped pizza for less time when you do this.  Top with fillings and bake at 450°F for 15 to 20 minutes total time.

I made that but didn't bother making a collar, I just rolled until it fit the pan nicely.  Okay, there's the bread, but bread by itself is boring. So I made some garlic herb spread from this Food.com recipe. For one batch of dough I cut this recipe in half and had some leftover:

Anytime Garlic Butter

1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup olive oil
2 -4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano

In a small bowl melt butter in microwave. Using a garlic press, or food processor, mince and pulp garlic. You can use more or less garlic according to taste. Combine melted butter, basil, oregano, and garlic. Whisk in 1/3 cup olive oil. Brush or spoon on to your favorite bread, bake to re-heat bread.

I scored the bread with my pizza cutter to make breadsticks that would separate easily and spread the garlic butter on top. After about 12 minutes (it was cooking with the wings) it was toasty brown.

Enjoy!