Little Caesar's Italian Cheese Bread is one of our favorites! This is my copycat version of it! Made from scratch and ready in under an hour! This cheesy garlic bread will have you ditching the take out and making it yourself!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Less expensive and more servings than Little Caesars pizza sells!
- If you love those pizza kit fundraisers from little Caesars you'll love this easy recipe!
- Compliments any Italian dish like Pizza Rolls or Three Cheese Manicotti!
- Better than Crazy Bread!
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Olive Oil - vegetable, canola or coconut oils work great too!
- Butter - Either salted or unsalted butter is fine.
- Flour - All purpose, not self rising
- Italian Cheese Blend - This blend of cheese comes in most brands and is available in most grocery stores. It usually contains shredded Romano, parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese and provolone cheeses.
- Italian Seasoning - is a blend of italian spices like basil, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, and thyme.
Step by Step Instructions
- Measure the yeast, sugar and warm water into the base of stand mixer, or a regular mixing bowl to start the pizza dough for the cheese bread base.
- Let it stand for a 3-5 minutes and allow to get foamy.
- Add the salt, olive oil and flour to the foamy yeast.
- Mix until a very sticky dough comes together.
- Add enough additional flour for the dough while kneading to make a very soft ball of dough that it still sticky to the touch after being kneaded.
- Kneading in the additional flour should only take a minute or so.
- Cover dough with a clean dish towel and let rise for 20 minutes.
- Press risen dough into a 9x13 baking dish that has been lined with foil and sprayed with non-stick spray. Lining with foil allows you to lift the cheese bread out of the pan to cut it into sticks.
- NOTE- I find that a cookie sheet is not quite deep enough.
- YES! This is enough dough to cover the bottom of the baking dish. Once pressed out it will only be ¼ to ½ inch thick. About the same as when you roll out cookie dough.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and let the dough rise while your oven preheats.
- Once the oven is preheated sprinkle 2 cups of an Italian blend of pre-shredded cheese over the top of the dough.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. The top of the cheese should be golden brown especially on the edges of the crust.
- Melt 3 Tbs. butter in a microwave safe container.
- Pour the melted butter over the top of the cheese bread while brushing it around with a pastry brush.
- Sprinkle garlic salt and Italian seasoning blend over the top of the cheese bread.
- Lift the hot Italian cheese bread out of the baking dish and set it on a cutting board.
- Cut into 12 cheese sticks with a pizza cutter. Serve!
Recipe FAQs and Expert Tips
Yes, absolutely! I use a stand mixer because I'm a bit on the un-muscular side but you can make this recipe by hand too!
Yes, trust me, there is enough dough. When pressed out into the bottom of the baking dish it's only ¼-1/2 inch thick. About the same as when you roll out cookie dough.
We like to eat these breadsticks with some homemade Pizza Sauce or, fresh Alfredo Sauce or some Lasagna cooked in my crockpot. If you want to go for a bit lighter meal try this Layered Green Salad or this Chicken Pasta Caesar Salad.
It's best to consume this cheese bread within 2 days.
Yes, please refrigerate any leftovers. Reheat carefully in the microwave.
Have you tried this recipe? If so, leave me a rating and a comment below! And don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter to get my latest recipes sent right to your email! You can also follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram!
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Copycat Italian Cheese Bread Recipe
- Prep Time: 35 minutes (includes rising time)
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 12 pieces 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Little Caesar's Italian Cheese Bread is one of our favorites! This is my copycat version of it! Made from scratch and ready in under an hour! This cheesy garlic bread will have you ditching the take out and making it yourself!
Ingredients
- 1 package (2 ¼ tsp) Active Dry Yeast
- 2 tsp Sugar
- 1 cup Warm Water
- 2 Tbs. Olive Oil
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 cups Flour
- 2 cups of pre-shredded Italian Blend Cheese
- 3 Tbs. Butter
- Garlic Salt
- Italian Seasoning blend
Instructions
- Dissolve the yeast with the warm water and sugar in your mixing bowl. Let stand to activate for 5 minutes.
- Add the olive oil, salt and 2 cups of flour.
- Mix together and knead until a sticky dough forms. It will be a softer dough and won't come together in a firm ball. Add more flour if you need.
- Cover the dough and let rise until doubled, about 20 to 30 minutes.
- Line a 9x13 baking dish with tin foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- Lightly press the risen dough into the prepared baking dish and cover to let rise for 10-15 minutes while your oven preheats.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Once your oven is preheated sprinkle the 2 cups of italian cheese blend evenly over the dough.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. The cheese will be mostly golden brown.
- Melt the butter and brush it across the top of the hot cheese bread.
- Sprinkle garlic salt across the top. We like a generous amount.
- Sprinkle the italian seasoning across the top.
- Lift the hot cheese bread out of the baking dish and place it on a cutting board.
- Slice into 12 pieces with a pizza cutter.
- Serve.
Notes
- You might think there isn't enough dough to cover the bottom of the pan but yes, trust me, there is enough dough. When pressed out into the bottom of the baking dish it's only ¼-1/2 inch thick. About the same as when you roll out cookie dough.
Keywords: Copycat Little Caesar's Italian Cheese Bread, Italian Cheese Bread, Cheese Bread, Breadsticks
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Landon
What if I just used regular ingredients instead of the italian kind? Would it change the taste a lot?
Mindee
Which ingredients are you referring to?
Hannah
Love this recipe! Been making it for several years since I first discovered it. How do you get your cheese so brown??
★★★★★
Mindee
I'm not sure. My cheese always just browns well. I usually use the walmart brand italian cheese blend.
Kyra Robertson
I always add a little too much salt.... any recommendations to help me out
Mindee
Cut down the amount of salt by half 🙂
Adil
Do you think you could leave this to ferment for a couple days for when you have to rise it?
Mindee
No, I don't recommend doing that.
John
May I ask why?
Mindee
Of course! Just to clarify... I found the above question a little confusing. I took the question to mean allowing the the unrisen dough to sit in the fridge for a couple days until being ready to use. In that case, I don't recommend doing so because in that time the yeast would over inflate and the dough would over-rise, collapse and not rise again when baked. If that's not how you understood the question feel free to re-state the question you have and I'd be happy to answer it!
Barbara A Mason
I loved this recipe! It was exactly like Lite Caesar's!! The only thing I did was put too much cheese. It will take away from the taste. That was totally on me.
★★★★★
judith judge
how does this freeze
★★★★★
Mindee
I haven't tried freezing it because I don't think the cheese would thaw out well.
Trish
Thank you thank you thank you for this recipe! The closest copycat italian cheese bread that I found. A lot of recipes show skimpy skinny breadsticks, but this one is VERY similar to Little Caesars and also easy to make. I did cut the dough in half and used a square baking dish instead, and turned the other half into crazy bread and both came out wonderful. I also used a combination of mozzerella and colby jack cheese since that was what I had on hand. Great job!
★★★★★
Mindee
Thank You!!!
Luis Alonso
Hi, I'm assuming you are using Farenheit and not Celsius, right?
Mindee
Yes, Fahrenheit.
FIsh
Just so you know, Little Caesars uses a 1 part muenster and 2 part mozzarella mix. While your mix is good, its not at all little caesars. Worked there for 7 years.
★★★★
Karis
Great recipe! I made balls from the dough and stuffed em with mozzarella and pepperoni! Let it rise for over an hour, I didn’t like how the first batch came out after the short rise time.
★★★★★
Deborah Hook
will this dough work for pizza also?
Mindee
It should 🙂