Saltcraft / Recipes / East Coast
No. 23East Coast · Snack

Stupid-Simple East Coast Garlic Cheese Fingers

For when the craving hits and you're in a hurry. Store-bought dough, ready-made garlic butter and a frankly unreasonable amount of mozzarella, cut into fingers and put in the middle of the table. Yes, there are more sophisticated ways to do this. I'll tell you one of these days.

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Garlic cheese fingers with browned, bubbling mozzarella cut into strips on a wooden board, one lifted away
Shot on my phone. Gone in four minutes.No. 23
Makes
1 large tray
Total
30 min
Hands-on
10 min
Season
Year-round

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Lightly grease a large metal baking sheet.
  2. Let the dough soften enough to stretch easily, then stretch it into a large rectangle or round, about ¼ inch thick. If it keeps springing back, leave it alone for 10 minutes and try again.
  3. Spread the garlic butter right across the dough, leaving a small border. Cover generously with mozzarella.
  4. Bake for 12–16 minutes, until the underside is golden and the cheese is bubbling with a few browned spots.
  5. Rest for 2 minutes, then cut into long fingers, with a cut across the middle if needed.

From my kitchen

  • That's it. The prepared butter does all the seasoning. No extra garlic, no herbs, no salt.
  • Let the dough rest if it fights you. Cold dough springs back. Ten minutes on the counter and it stretches without a fight.
  • A metal pan, not glass or stoneware. Metal gets the bottom golden before the cheese overbrowns.
  • The full East Coast treatment: donair sauce alongside for dipping.

For the kids

Cheese, bread and butter, cut into fingers. This is the easiest dinner win of the week.

To drink

Easy An ice-cold Alpine Lager. It's the East Coast way.

A step further A Nova Scotia Tidal Bay: crisp, salty-fresh white wine made for exactly this kind of food.

Zero proof A Propeller root beer, brewed in Halifax.

Richly yours, H

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