High Protein Pizza Sticks (Yeast Recipe)
Same day pizza sticks baked upside down in a hot dog bun pan with Italian sausage, pepperoni, and mozzarella. Sixteen grams of protein per stick from a Greek yogurt dough, ready in about 2 hours.
Servings: 10 pizza sticks
Calories: 275kcal
Equipment
- - Stand mixer with dough hook your hands
- kitchen scale
- USA Pan New England Hot Dog Bun Pan, 15 by 6 inches
- Skillet
- Instant read thermometer
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 325 grams bread flour 2 and 3/4 cups
- 170 grams nonfat Greek yogurt 3/4 cup
- 100 grams water warm at 100 to 110 degrees F (scant 1/2 cup)
- 17 grams olive oil 1 and 1/4 tablespoons
- 5 grams active dry yeast 1 and 1/2 teaspoons
- 6 grams fine sea salt 1 teaspoon
- 4 grams sugar 1 teaspoon
For the Filling
- 340 grams mild Italian sausage pork or chicken (12 ounces)
- 150 grams pizza sauce scant 2/3 cup
- 140 grams shredded low moisture mozzarella 1 and 1/4 cups
- 60 grams mini pepperoni generous 1/2 cup
- Butter softened, for the pan
Instructions
- Warm the yogurt in the microwave for 30 seconds.
- Combine the warm water, sugar, and active dry yeast in a small bowl and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes until foamy. If it does not foam, your yeast is no longer active and you should start over with a fresh packet.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the bread flour and salt and mix briefly on low to distribute. In a separate bowl whisk together the Greek yogurt, the bloomed yeast mixture, and the olive oil until smooth, then pour the wet ingredients into the flour.
- Mix on low speed until a shaggy dough forms, about 2 minutes, then increase to medium speed and knead for 6 to 8 minutes until the dough is smooth, pulls away cleanly from the sides of the bowl, it may stick to the bottom a little. Because this is an enriched dough you are looking for dough that stretches without immediately tearing. It should feel tacky but not sticky. It will not behave the same way as a traditonal pizza dough.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and rise at room temperature for 1 to 1.5 hours until visibly puffy and increased in size. You do not need it to fully double.
- Remove the sausage from its casings if you are using links, then brown it in a skillet over medium heat, breaking it into small crumbles as it cooks. Drain thoroughly on paper towels if you are using pork.
- Butter the wells of the hot dog bun pan generously, taking the butter all the way up the sides to the rim. If you used a lean chicken sausage, butter the bottoms of the wells as well.
- Divide the mini pepperoni and the cooked sausage evenly among the ten wells, pushing everything all the way into the corners so the end sticks are not left bare. Pipe about half the pizza sauce over the meat, scatter the mozzarella evenly over the top, then pipe the remaining sauce over the cheese. Keep the filling pulled in slightly from the edges of each well so the cheese does not run up the sides.
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle about 15 by 6 inches, matching the baking surface of the pan. Lay it over the filled pan in one motion and leave it where it lands. Do not slide or press it around, which drags the filling out of position. Ease the edges gently into the corners with your fingertips.
- Dock the dough all over with a fork, the same way you would dock a pizza crust. This keeps large bubbles from lifting the dough away from the filling underneath.
- Bake at 425 degrees F for 18 to 22 minutes, until the top is firm with no give in the center and the internal temperature reads around 190 degrees F. Start checking at 18 minutes if your oven runs hot, since the cheese is against the hot metal on the bottom where you cannot see it.
- Let the pan rest on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then invert onto the rack so the filling side faces up. Cool for another 10 minutes before slicing.
- Slice down the ridge lines the pan pressed into the bread to get ten even sticks. Serve warm with extra pizza sauce for dipping.
Notes
Instant Yeast
If you have instant yeast rather than active dry, use 4 grams and add it straight to the dry ingredients with no blooming step. Add the warm water and sugar with the rest of the wet ingredients.
Sausage
Mild Italian sausage works in either pork or chicken, and a mix of the two is great if that is what you have. Chicken keeps the sticks leaner while giving you nearly the same protein. If you are using pork, drain it well before it goes into the pan, because rendered fat left behind will pool under the filling and fry the bottom of your dough instead of baking it. Hot Italian is an easy swap if your family likes heat.
The Filling Is Yours
These amounts are a guide, not a rule. Sausage and roasted peppers, buffalo chicken, pesto with fresh mozzarella, or plain cheese for the selective eaters all work exactly the same way. As long as each well keeps its own filling roughly contained, the slab will slice cleanly.
Pepperoni
Mini pepperoni sits flat in a well this narrow and crisps at the edges. Regular slices torn into quarters work just as well, so use whichever you have.
Second Proof
There is no real second proof in this recipe and the bread still bakes up tall and soft. If your kitchen runs cold you can let the assembled pan sit for 15-30 minutes before baking, but it is not a required step.
Storage
Store cooled sticks in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, or at room temperature for up to 2 days. Because there is cooked meat and cheese in these, anything beyond 2 days should be refrigerated.
Freezing and Reheating
Cool completely, then freeze the sticks in a single layer on a sheet pan for about an hour until solid before transferring them to a freezer safe bag. They keep for up to 3 months. Reheat on a sheet pan at 375 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes from the refrigerator or 12 to 15 minutes from frozen. An air fryer at 350 degrees F for about 5 minutes crisps the cheese back up beautifully. Skip the microwave.
Troubleshooting
If the dough springs back while rolling, let it rest for 10 minutes and try again. If the sticks come out more bread than filling, the culprit is almost always the end wells, so push the filling all the way into the corners next time. If the filling stuck to the pan, the cheese most likely crept up the well walls, so keep it pulled in slightly from the edges.
Protein
Each stick carries approximately 16 grams of protein, close to 6 of which come from the dough itself before any filling goes in. Bread flour and nonfat Greek yogurt do that work with no protein powder anywhere in the recipe.
