Baked Mozzarella Sticks

Back in the day when I was a nerve-wracked obsessive compulsive little kid I would ONLY order mozzarella sticks when I went out to eat with my family.  I would also attempt to get to a certain destination - say the bathroom- in a certain amount of strides.  I have become less weird over the years.  I still really like mozz sticks.

I've attempted to make my own before, but I made a few mistakes.  I have since then altered my method and this is a fail-proof way to make delicious cheese sticks.  For loyalty reasons I used Crystal Farms Wisconsin Mozzarella Cheese sticks (since Minnesota isn't cool enough to have their own) which worked quite well, but I'll be trying out different cheese varieties in the future to see if I can find the perfect type.

This is a plan-ahead kind of snack since you need to freeze the sticks.  I usually am an instant gratification kind of person when it comes to food, but it was nice to be able to get back from doing stinky horse chores, preheat the oven, hop in the shower, throw cheese sticks in, do my hair and in ten minutes have lunch.

Cheesey goodness

Ingredients

• 10 mozzarella cheese sticks 
• 1/2 cup flour 
• 2 eggs- lightly whisked until homogenous
• ~2 cups Italian style bread crumbs

*The process is simplified if you put the flour, egg, and bread crumbs in their own bowl that is wider than the cheese stick.

1. Roll each cheese stick in flour until the entire surface has been thinly coated
2. Dunk the cheese in egg- make sure to get the ends!
3. Gently bury the cheese in the breadcrumbs
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3
5. Freeze the cheese sticks- this is a crucial step and must be done for at least a couple of hours 
6. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
7. Place the cheese sticks on a pan lined with tin foil and bake 5 minutes on each side
8. Eat immediately- mozzarella cheese sticks are not meant to be slowly savored!