Baked Cheesy Garlic Fingers with Beer Pizza Dough
by Olivia Biermann
on January 20, 2021
Welcome to comfort food at its finest: Baked Cheesy Garlic Fingers with Beer Pizza Dough. You know back in middle school when you went to a pizza party and there was always a box of garlic fingers on the table? Google says garlic fingers are an Atlantic Canadian thing. So maybe you haven’t actually experienced this pizza party scenario. But trust me- the garlic fingers were always the first thing gone off the table. Its like a pizza with garlic butter and cheese. We couldn’t have invented something so great haha!
If you’re a garlic finger fan, you’ll love this. And if you’ve never had them, you’ll LOVE this recipe. The dough has a not-so-secret ingredient- beer. It helps it rise and become suuuuper fluffy. You can’t really taste the beer after its baked, so definitely serve these with your favourite beer if you’re craving it! If you don’t have beer or don’t want to use it, simply sub 330 mL of room temp/warm water. Easy!
Also, if you want to cut down on prep time, you can easily use store-bought dough. I love to serve these fingers with a side of marinara for dipping, but the traditional dip is donair sauce. Donair’s are for sure a Halifax thing, so I won’t get into that today. But if you know what it is, you’ll know the magic that is garlic fingers dipped in Donair sauce. Sadly, its really hard to make good vegan donair sauce, so I always opt for the marinara.
Baked Cheesy Garlic Fingers with Beer Pizza Dough
- Prep Time: 10 mins + 1 hour to rise
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 mins
- Yield: 4 servings
Description
Homemade fluffy beer dough, smothered in garlic butter and vegan cheese.
Ingredients
Beer Dough:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 330 mL (1 bottle) room temperature mild beer like a pale ale or lager
- 1 tbsp oil
Garlic Fingers:
- 1 batch beer dough, or ball of store-bought dough
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp vegan butter (I use Becel sticks)
- 1 1/2 cups shredded vegan cheese (I use either Daiya cutting board collection or Earth Island shreds, or a mix!)
- 1/2 tsp dried parsley
- marinara sauce for dipping, optional
Instructions
- For the beer dough: in a mixing bowl, combine the flour, yeast and salt and whisk until combined. Add the beer and oil and mix to form a smooth dough ball. Cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft-free area for 1 hour to rise.
- Preheat oven to 450 F. Shape the dough into a pizza shape about 10-12 inches in diameter. Place on a Parc ament-lined baking tray or pizza stone.
- In a small pot on medium heat, combine the garlic and vegan butter and heat until melted. Spread evenly over crust, then add vegan cheese shreds in an even layer, followed by the parsley.
- Bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown on the bottom and bubbling on top. Slice into “fingers” then dip in desired sauce. Enjoy!
Do not sleep on this recipe, especially if you’re from the East Coast! One of the best vegan substitutes I’ve ever had/made. I’m going to go over some of the things I tweaked … I used a can of beer (355mL), adding it to the bowl first followed by the yeast, salt and oil (in that order) and then three cups of flour. Once combined, I let the dough rise in an oiled bowl for 4+ hours with a lid loosely laid over the top. I rolled it out on a floured surface before transferring to a parchment lined baking sheet. I cut the butter down to 2 tbsp instead of 3 and cooked the garlic fingers on convection for 14 minutes. This recipe also takes very little active prep. I’ve already made it twice and can’t wait to make it for friends and family. My non-vegan boyfriend was shocked it was vegan. 10/5 stars. This is my new holy grail pizza dough recipe.