Breakfast Pizza

First, some VINews : Another season for Arrested Development? Oooohhh, exciting!

Now then...

Cracking an egg over a bed of rosemary-sweet potato-hash browns laid out on a whole wheat biscuit and then sprinkling it with hearty pieces of maple syrup-glazed bacon is a pretty rewarding feeling. Never mind actually eating it. Just doing it. (Also, please consider a bed of sweet potatoes for a moment.)

That feeling just grows as the aroma of the different flavors baking together in the oven fills the air.

Maybe you're drinking a Bloody Mary that is garnished with yet another piece of bacon and maybe some avocado. And maybe that's what feels so rewarding. Or maybe you're not, but you should be. And I should be too. Hell, everyone should be drinking a Bloody Mary with bacon and avocado right now.

All of these things have you feeling pretty great. But now I'm going to lay it on you. The most rewarding thing about this breakfast pizza, I mean. Get your head out of the gutter.

Eating it. Duh. I'm sure you saw that coming...

Here's the deal. This is fairly easy to assemble. Takes a little time in the oven. Perfect for brunch guests because you can put it together and then let it bake, while you sip your Bloody Mary and chat. I made my own biscuit "crust" because I love an opportunity to make anything healthier and homemade (I was also slightly less hungover today than I could have been, so there's that too..). You don't have to. You can skip that part and just top any biscuit dough you like!

Soundtrack: Aeroplane - September 2011 Mix! Check DPC for a review!

Aeroplane September 2011 Mix by Aeroplane (Official)

Breakfast Pizza
Serves 3-4


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


Biscuit Dough


1 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 1/3 tbsp cold butter
1 c. greek yogurt


In the bowl of a food processor, add both flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pulse for a few seconds until combined. (Alternately, in the absence of a food processor, whisk the dry together in a large bowl.) Add butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces and pulse for 15 seconds at a time, until dough resembles tiny crumbs (3-4 times). (Alternately, cut butter into dry mixture using 2 knives or a pastry cutter. This takes forever. Buy a food processor.) 


Transfer dough to a large bowl. Using a fork, stir yogurt into the dough. Once combined, use your hands to knead dough until it forms a ball.


Breakfast Pizza


Biscuit Dough
1 large sweet potato, shredded
1 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
4 large eggs
5-6 pieces of your favorite bacon
1 tbsp real maple syrup


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet in a piece of parchment paper. Roll biscuit dough out in a circle until it is about 1/4 in. thick. Set aside.


Heat canola oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add shredded sweet potato and season with salt, pepper, rosemary & thyme. Fry in the oil for about 5 minutes, moving the potatoes every so often.


Meanwhile, microwave bacon for 1 minute between 2 paper towels to begin the cooking process. Remove from microwave and brush with maple syrup. Chop bacon into large, yet bite sized pieces. Set aside.


Once sweet potatoes are begin to soften (about 5 minutes) remove from heat and set aside. 


Place biscuit in the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce temp to 350.


Cover biscuit dough in sweet potatoes. Crack each egg separately into a small bowl or ramekin, then pour (more like a slide) over the pizza, taking care not to break the yoke. (It's ok if you do though, they will just cook harder!). Dot the pizza with pieces of bacon.


Return the pizza to the oven once the temperature has reduced. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the whites of the eggs are no longer runny. 

La guillotine.

Crumb-like texture, goopy yogurt.

Dough ball

Holy artery clogging...

Looks a little less than appetizing here..

Much more like it!

Grilled Eggplant Flatbread Pizza

One of my favorite things about this blog is the way in which I can often use it to procrastinate, operating under the pretense that I am still doing something pretty productive. This works to my advantage in a lot of situations; dishes, dog walks, ironing my granny panties. (Just kidding on that last one.. I don't iron them.) 


My favorite though, is blogging instead of putting my clean laundry to put away. I don't know what it is about laundry; I have NO problem getting it to the point of being a clean pile on my bed, but I just have the hardest time motivating to actually put. it. away. It usually takes me rounds and rounds of complaining and Jagger making a bed or two out of my clothes before I finally move it. This is probably one of the main reasons I should never live alone. No accountability. There would be clean laundry everywhere and I would just cook/bake myself into oblivion and have no one to feed.


I also make up some pretty embarrassing dance moves when I'm alone. And god forbid one of those was to get too much practice and somehow slip its way into my repetoire. No no, it's better I let other people keep me in check.

Pizza Pizza!

Anyway. I love flatbreads. So much so, that every once in a while at work, I find myself typing flatbread, instead of flatbed (that's right, I type "flatbed" at work. A lot.). Roll instead of role. Hunger for Hunter (it's a gentleman's name; it comes up frequently as well). This leads me to a whole 'nother set of issues. We'll save that for a different posting shall we?


This flatbread pizza is definitely the type of thing that, among those that I live with, only I will eat. It's totally Meghan-food. Goat cheese (adorable!), grilled eggplant, fresh basil. I also don't know if I've told you this before, but I'm obsessed with arugula. So it's the perfect thing to make when you are on your own for dinner (or lunch!). Or if you've got a buddy or two who also appreciate fresh vegetables and goats (so cute!), more power to ya. Just double or triple the recipe and you're there! And if you're not into goats as much as I am, you could probably sub out the cheese; just don't skimp on the fresh basil. 


Sountrack: This is quick, not a lot of time for a full soundtrack. But here are some of my Jimkata favorites, just to be inspiring:


Devil's In The Details by Jimkatamusic Ghosts And Killers by Jimkatamusic




Grilled Eggplant Flatbread Pizza


3-1/4 inch thick slices of eggplant (medallions, if you will)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 personal sized flatbread, for example 
2 tbsp pizza sauce (or pasta sauce will do if you've got a jar open)
1 tbsp goat cheese, crumbled
3-4 leaves fresh basil, coarsely chopped
1 handful fresh baby arugula
EVOO
salt & pepper


Preheat a toaster oven (or regular oven) to 350.


Drizzle balsamic vinegar over the eggplant slices and season with salt and pepper. Make sure eggplant slices are thoroughly coated in vinegar (I stacked them and moved them around a little) and give them a minute to soak it up. Meanwhile, drizzle a little EVOO in a grill pan (just enough to grease) and heat over medium flame. Once pan is heated, place eggplant onto the pan. Cook 4 minutes on each side, until the center of the vegetable begins to appear translucent. Remove the eggplant from the heat and cut into smaller than 1 inch pieces.


Place flatbread on foil (or small cookie sheet). Cover in sauce. Top flatbread with eggplant, goat cheese and fresh basil. Place in the oven for 4-5 minutes, until cheese begins to melt. Remove from heat and top with arugula. Serve!

Tres Amigos!

Tres grilled Amigos!

Toasty

Ready for it's close-up

Caramelized Onion & BBQ Chicken Pizza

Let's talk Philadelphia. It's not known for it's pizza. While it has its merits, cheesesteaks, water ice, pretzels, I don't find many of them very enticing. Fortunately we've got one really go to pizza spot, but other than I'll make my own. Thank you very much.

Oh, hello. Yum!

One of the fun things about homemade pizza is that depending on how much time you have to spare (or are willing to spare) you can vary which components you spend time making (dough, sauce, toppings) to make it just as homemade as you'd like. If you're like me and you go home early from work on a day when it's 100 degrees outside (but feels like 1,000,000), then you make everything from the crust to the caramelized onions. Or you can buy everything (Trader Joe's has a great pizza dough and sauce) and it's just simple assembly from there. Or something in between, which is normally more my style.


I must confess, this caramelized onion and bbq chicken pizza comes from the menu of an ex-employer of mine. I used to eat it on the reg until we went our separate ways. The combo of sweet and spicy on this pizza is lit-er-a-ly to die for. The balance is really... um... magical? Can I say that without sounding really ostentatious? (Can I also just go off on a tangent here and mention that ostentatious is on of my favorite words, because it's well... ostentatious?) And then cheese. And cheese is good.


One note about the chicken: I used a breast because that's what I had sitting in the fridge. You could use leftover chicken or anything else you like. As long as it's cooked and tossed in Stubb's spicy bbq sauce and shredded. Ok fine, you can use whatever bbq sauce you like. One more note about the pictures: I didn't get that many of the actual pizza (ok, just one). Sorry, I was hungry. I hope you are still enticed. You should be.


So, let's begin.


Soundtrack: Gigawatt

Caramelized Onion & BBQ Chicken Pizza


1 med. onion, sliced lengthwise
1 tbsp EVOO
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 chicken breast, cooked and cubed

1/2 c bbq sauce (I suggest Stubb's Hickory Bourbon spicy or sweet)

1 pizza dough (store bought &prepper according to package directions or make your own! I used this recipe here and it was really good; chewy and soft, great flavor)
1 jar or 2 c. Pizza Sauce (see recipe below)
1-2 c. mozzarella cheese (depending on the size of your dough)
6 oz. ricotta cheese
salt & pepper


To make the onions: Heat EVOO in a frying pan over med heat. Add onions. Cook onions at med heat for about 15 mins, stirring every so often. The goal is to let them sit, so that they caramelize, but not long enough so that they burn. (Here is a good tutorial if you need it!) Lower the heat to low, add salt and pepper and the sugar. Cook another 20 mins, stirring every so often. Toss with balsamic vinegar and set aside.


To make the chicken: If you are starting with a raw chicken breast then cube, salt and pepper, and cook in a frying pan in some EVOO. Cook just until no pink remains. Take cooked chicken and toss in the bbq sauce. Use 2 forks to shred chicken. Set aside


The rest is just assembly! Preheat oven according to the directions on or with your dough. Flattened out the dough to make a large circle (or semicircle..). (Depending on your method of baking, you may want to bake the crust for 10 minutes before adding toppings so that the cheese doesn't burn. I use a cookie sheet and would highly recommend this. If using a preheated pizza stone, I don't believe it's necessary, but don't quote me) Cover in sauce, then sprinkle on mozzarella. Add ricotta in blobs, spreading them fairly evenly. Add chicken and onions. Bake for 20 minutes or until dough is cooked through. 

I was literally sobbing right about now!

Starting to cook...

So good. Literally a challenge not to eat them all RIGHT. NOW.

Best. BBQ. Sauce EVAAA. Except when I make my own,
then I win.

Oooo sauceeyy

Cheesey!

Pizza Sauce (use fresh herbs where possible)


1 can tomato paste
2 c. water
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp rosemary
1 tsp  ground fennel seed
2 cloves garlic


Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, then simmer until thickened. Yep, that easy. :)

Pieceout ya'll!! (get eat... b/c it's pizza!? heeheehee)