My Canadiana: The Savory Version
Last month I participated in Sugar High Friday, the monthly blogger event where people from around the globe post up some sugary treat or another, based on a theme. This month’s theme? Mmm… Canada! And to make things even more fun, they added a savory edition this month, hosted by Jasmine at Confessions of a Cardamom Addict. With a theme like that, how could I not participate?
I had some trouble deciding exactly what I wanted to do this time around. Usually you have to bake or cook something yourself, but because the theme isn’t ingredient-based, they allowed entries to be about anything food related, as long as it says ‘Mmm… Canada!’ to you. Then today it hit me – why not make some of my old Maritime favourites, the stuff I can’t find here in Ontario?
When I moved to Ottawa back in 1997, I was shocked to find that no one seemed to know what a garlic finger was. Garlic bread, garlic cheese sticks, and various other garlic-and-dough-concoctions were easy to find, but my old childhood favourite was not. When I relayed this information to my high school friends still living in Nova Scotia, they were shocked. “How can you live without garlic fingers?” they asked, eyes wide, as if I were saying Ottawa had no water.
What’s so special about these garlic fingers as compared to other garlic-dough recipes? Well, they’re essentially garlic bread pizza: pizza dough, garlic butter, mozzarella, and sometimes bacon bits. Dipped into donair sauce (not to be confused with doner sauce). We’d usually order them from one of our favourite pizza places on a Friday night and eat them while watching some silly movie.
These days most Canadians can find garlic fingers in the freezer section next to the pizzas. McCain, a well-known Maritime food company, now produces them and sells them outside the Maritimes. Even so, the frozen ones are just not the same, and they don’t come with any donair sauce. So when I get a craving for these, I just make my own.
Garlic Fingers:
Pizza dough to make one large pizza (recipe below if you need one!)
1/4 cup garlic butter
1/2 cup to 1 cup mozzarella cheese (depends on how cheesy you like them; I used 1 cup)
Prepare dough as needed. When ready to bake, spread out on a pizza stone or round pizza pan. Cover with garlic butter and top with cheese. Bake in 425F oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is browned. Then put under the broiler for 2-5 minutes to brown the cheese. Watch carefully, as it browns quickly! Cut into fingers and eat dipped in donair sauce.
Donair Sauce:
2/3 cup canned sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tsp garlic powder
Combine all ingredients and stir well until fully combined. Makes a thick, sweet, garlicky sauce.
Pizza Dough:
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp quick rise yeast
1 tsp sugar
2.5 – 3 cups all purpose flour
olive oil for the bowl
Put water into a large bowl and sprinkle in sugar, then add yeast. Allow to sit 10 minutes so yeast can start to bloom.
Mix in 2.5 to 3 cups flour, until dough has a smooth, even texture and is no longer sticky. Cover with a bit of olive oil and then leave in a warm place to rise, about 30 minutes or until the dough doubles in volume. Dough is then ready to use as needed. This is enough for one thick crust pizza or two thin crust pizzas. For garlic fingers, I recommend you use the whole thing on a single pan.
Tomorrow: another Maritime treat, but this time, a sweet one!
These look amazing. We’ve a pretty big Newfoundland contingent down here…I wonder if the local chippie would have this..
Thanks so much for participating!
j
We made garlic fingers all the time when I worked at Chuck E Cheese. We just did not have your vinegar sauce. :)
Jasmine: That would be great if someone did! Occasionally I do come across a restaurant that has Maritime owners and they offer them.
Carrie: That’s really interesting, and somewhat surprising. They aren’t exactly a hard food to make, but most places have no idea what they are! The sauce, however, is certainly a Maritime thing, and an acquired taste. I fully admit it’s pretty gross, but for me it’s the childhood memories that make it good. Rich mentioned he’d had donair sauce before, but when he tasted this stuff, he said it wasn’t quite the same as he was used to. That’s because the places he had it were not Maritime donair shops. ;)
Wow, I love the whole pizza dough garlic combination! Now I’m curious about the donair sauce! Thanks for posting!
Wow, I’m intrigued – looks delicious – thanks for showing something I didn’t know about :)
Thanks for this! I have been somewhat craving a donair .. I haven’t had one in years and I had been looking for a sauce recipe! Thank you!
Hurray for Garlic Fingers…I am a New Brunswicker living in Montreal and I know when I go home to visit I try and stop at Pizza Delight…there just simply ins’t anyone here(or in Ontario) who truly know the beauty of garlicky garlic fingers…with of course the donair sauce!
You know, I live in downtown Toronto and I am eating Pizza Delight right now – they are here in Ontario! Not only that but they sell donair sauce in tubs! It’s awesome!
bentley: You are, of course, correct that there are Pizza Delight locations in Ontario. However, all of them are in small towns: http://www.pizzadelight.ca/locations?id=9
If you’re in downtown TO, where did you get yours?
Also: Good to know they sell their donair sauce in tubs! :)
as far as i know there are no Pizza Delights in Toronto unfortunately
Thank You.. I too am a New Brunswicker living in Montreal and was amazed that no pizza shops had garlic fingers! I always make a visit to Pizza Delight within a day or 2 of arriving for a visit back home! I can’t wait to try your recipe!! Thanks….
k i know you wrote this last year, but OMG!! i made the sauce today and it was amazing!!!!!! i live in alberta and its very hard to find a pizza delight, my sister couldn’t believe it tasted the same, i am going to tell all my friends about this!!!!!!!!
hi….from NB here…real simple donair sauce recipe is 1 cup of Mayo, 1 cup of Sour Cream, 1 cup of Sugar….whisk together…DONE…..and if like a garlicy taste…add a tsp of garlic powder…too easy and all martime flavour ..enjoy
i live in downtown toronto, and i see all the time people saying they sell donairs, if anyone here is a maritimer u know the specific taste that were looking for, and UNFORTUNATELY your not gonna find it here.
We made both of the sauce recipes to see which we liked best. Hubby prefers the one with sweetened condensed milk and I like the evap milk sauce better. We made some fantastic donairs today! No more take out donairs needed.
to all the new brunswickers .. next time your in saint john, new brunswick.. go to Julius Pizza , the have the best garlic fingers and donair sauce its amazing !!
Awesome! I’m a displaced Nova Scotian (in Ontario), and I’ve had a craving for these for months. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m going to try this recipe. I’m from Nova Scotia but live in Alberta. The closest Pizza Delight is in Fort Saskatchewan 2 and a half hours away. Every time I go back home it’s either Momma Sophia’s garlic fingers or Pizza delight garlic fingers!
Trouble finding the “genuine” thing outside the Maritimes then you should finding them down here in Australia…absolutely non-existent. I always make my own, but rather than Mozzarella I use Parmesan. Maybe not genuine but my Newfie wife loves them! And let’s face it b’yes…hers is the only opinion that matters