Canned Pizza Dough Is The Key To Cheap And Easy Garlic Bread

A side of cheesy garlic bread can turn a simple soup into a feast. However, preparing a yeasted dough from scratch is a time-consuming process. When you want to save both time and money, canned pizza dough is the answer to making the easiest garlic bread ever.

As canned pizza dough is already shaped into a rectangle, you won't need to bust out your rolling pin or get the counter dirty with flour. Simply lay the dough out on a lined baking sheet and spread a liberal amount of store-bought garlic butter over the surface. Alternatively, make your own aromatic topping by adding dried garlic, herbs, and seasonings to half a stick of melted butter. Top your dough with the shredded cheese of your choice (cheddar is fine, but a little extra dusting of Parmesan will lend your bread a rich, umami flavor and a golden color). Bake your cheese-topped bread at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until the pizza dough is risen and the cheese is melty and bubbly. 

Cut your finished garlic bread into even smaller, cuter little rectangles with a pizza wheel and dig in. Perfect for serving with baked lasagna or a chicken parmesan, these garlicky guys are also incredible dunked into a hearty chili. Better yet, as a can of pizza dough costs under $4, it's a cheap way to stretch a meal further. The only extras you need are ingredients you likely already have in the pantry anyway.

While you can top and bake your canned pizza dough in one move, par-baking the crust before adding the garlic butter will produce a crispier result. Baking the pizza dough sans toppings gives it a little extra time to color on the bottom and develop a hardier structure. It also means it can finish rising quickly during the second bake before the cheese burns. All you have to do is prick the dough with a fork (to allow the air to escape as it rises) and bake for an initial eight minutes. At this point it should be slightly risen with a few golden areas. Slather over your garlic butter and cheese and finish baking for a final 6-10 minutes for the ultimate cheese pull.

Got leftovers? Drizzle some marinara over the top of any additional slices before reheating, and you've essentially made a New York-style garlicky pizza. You can also repurpose pizza dough, whether it be freshly made or popped out of a can, into old-fashioned cinnamon rolls, naan bread, and croissants with a little ingenuity and a few extra ingredients. As canned pizza dough is simply a basic mixture of flour, yeast, and water, it can moonlight as garlic knots, scallion pancakes, and even donuts.