Try this Cheesy Taco Sticks recipe, or contribute your own.
- Carbohydrate 3.10530170000146 g
- Cholesterol 43.0455311652324 mg
- Fat 11.411221051974 g
- Fiber 1.00228395980835 g
- Protein 8.53876965832069 g
- Saturated Fat 5.57634234367013 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (56g)
- Sodium 474.633936434018 mg
- Sugar 2.10301774019311 g
- Trans Fat 1.29703831852818 g
- Calories 149 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Lightly coat a large baking sheet with non-stick spray and set aside.
- Cook the ground beef in a skillet, breaking up with a wooden spoon until fully browned and crumbled. Drain any fat and return skillet to stove top. Mix in the taco seasoning packet (but no water), and stir until fully coated. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.*
- Spread the pizza dough out until it's flat and cut in half lengthwise and then 4 cuts up and down, creating a total of 10 small rectangles. Place about a tablespoon or more of the taco meat in the center of each pizza dough, top with a halved cheese stick and then carefully roll up the pizza stick, making sure to pinch all seams closed.
- Combine the melted butter, garlic powder and parsley in a small bowl and brush it on the tops of the cheesy taco sticks. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown on top. Serve hot with your favorite taco toppings!
Replacing the ground beef with finely minced mushrooms alters the moisture profile significantly, requiring a longer sauté to evaporate excess water before seasoning. Understanding how these ingredients interact during baking explains why this snack-style format succeeds structurally. Starch molecules in commercial pizza dough undergo gelatinization as internal moisture turns to steam, creating an expandable matrix that traps released fats from the beef and melting cheese. Spices inside commercial taco seasoning blends contain fat-soluble compounds like capsanthin from chili peppers and piperine from black pepper. When combined with the melted butter brushed onto the exterior, these compounds dissolve into the surface lipids, driving flavor distribution directly to the tongue upon contact. Ground beef provides primary umami through glutamates, while colby jack and cheddar cheeses supply casein proteins that stretch under thermal influence rather than breaking down into an oily separation.
Dough Mechanics and Browning
Baking at 425 degrees F ensures that the exterior starches brown rapidly through the Maillard reaction before the internal cheese overheats and leaks through the seams. Pinching every dough seam tightly is vital because pressurized steam inside the pocket requires a fully sealed enclosure to puff properly. If a seam opens, internal moisture escapes prematurely, resulting in a dry interior and burnt cheese on the baking sheet. Brushing the shaped logs with a mixture of melted butter, garlic powder, and dried parsley adds exogenous fat that promotes uniform golden coloration across the wheat crust within the 10 to 12 minute cooking window.Storage and Reheating
Refrigeration halts bacterial growth for up to three days when baked items are sealed in airtight containers. Subsequent re-crisping requires dry heat rather than microwave energy to avoid softening the crust via steam condensation. Placing stored portions into an oven preheated to 350 degrees F for five minutes restores the original textural contrast between the crackling exterior and the fluid cheese core.
