Mozzarella Sticks

By Addie

MY NOTES: Made these yesterday and we sure enjoyed them! They are SO ridiculously expensive at restaurants and not all that hard to make at home. TIP: After breading the stringsters, roll them on the counter under the palm of your hand a few times....this smoothes out the breading beautifully and helps it adhere well.....and makes them look terrific!

Ingredients

• 1 pkg. Sorrento Stringsters (16 oz)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups Italian bread crumbs (or plain if you prefer)
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cornstarch

Preparation

Step 1

Remove the stringers from the package and unwrap. Cut each one in half. Beat the eggs with the water and set aside.
Mix the flour and cornstarch; set aside.
Put the bread crumbs in a bowl; add the spices.

Dips cheese sticks in the flour mixture, then in the egg, and finally in the bread crumbs. (I doubled-dipped them in the egg and crumbs one more time.) Set them on a flat plate in the refrigerator to let the coating "set"....

NOTE - At this point, I FROZE them instead for at least an hour or two. If the cheese is frozen, they melt more slowly when deep-frying and don't ooze all out. I LEARNED THIS THE HARD way with my first-ever batch - they oozed out into the oil, making a mess and I wound up with crispy but absolutely EMPTY bread crumb shells, ha ha! After freezing them, this didn't happen again.

Deep-fry (in several batches)in vegetable oil heated to 375 degrees for only 1-2 minutes....just until golden brown, so the cheese doesn't get a chance to melt too much! Drain on paper towels.
Makes 32

I bought a jar of marinara sauce and warmed some in the microwave to dip these in - YUMMY!

The original recipe says to use a fresh mozzarells cheese block, cut into trianges or sticks but I like using the round Stringsters for dipping! I save coupons for them to keep the price down.