Baked Mozzarella Sticks

Beat egg with water in a small bowl. Set aside. Place flour and breadcrumbs in two separate dishes. Roll each mozzarella stick first in flour. Next, dip each mozzarella stick entirely in egg. Finally, roll each stick in breadcrumbs, gently pressing crumbs into the mozzarella stick. Once done breading the mozzarella sticks, wrap each stick individually and place in the freezer for 4 hours or overnight.

(Option: Pepperoni stuffed mozzarella sticks are also really good! To do this, carefully cut a slit ¾ of the way deep along the length of the stick. Slice each piece of pepperoni into 4 slivers, and carefully place the slivers in the opening in the mozzarella stick. Then, continue to bread and freeze mozzarella sticks as indicated above.)

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with foil and place each mozzarella stick on the baking sheet. Spray the top of each stick with cooking spray as this helps it brown. Place in the preheated oven and bake 5–7 minutes. (I recommend keeping an eye on the mozzarella sticks while they bake. The first time I tried it mine were melted at 6 minutes! Watch them to make sure they don’t melt.)

Remove baked mozzarella sticks from the oven and allow to sit 3 minutes. Serve sticks with marinara sauce of choice.

Note: In order to cut back on dishes, I lay out foil to place the flour and breadcrumbs in. It saves dishes and works just as well!