Breakfast Pizza from The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook

I brought this book home from the library earlier this week...it has some really wonderful recipes and stories...and beautiful food photography. The breakfast pizza (shown below) is a recipe I'm going to try out tomorrow morning after my daughter competes in her first 5K race.

If you are already a 'doughmaker' this recipe is pretty easy. If you don't make your own bread, a loaf of frozen dough would be a good stand in. I'm going to make the dough this evening.

Here's the recipe for Breakfast Pizza:

Bread flour or all-purpose flour, for dusting

6 bacon strips

Your favorite pizza dough recipe, shaped into 2 balls

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups grated mozzarella

6 eggs

Kosher salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons minced chives

2 whole scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced

1 shallot, minced

At least 1 hour before you start baking, adjust the oven rack to the lowest position, put a baking stone on it and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Generously dust the surface of a pizza peel (a flat wooden or metal shovel with a long handle) with flour.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add the bacon strips and pan-fry until crisp. Put the bacon on a plate lined with paper towels, let it cool and then chop into bite-size pieces.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour. Working with one ball of pizza dough, dip your hands and the dough in the flour to make them less sticky, and pat the dough down into a disk shape with the tips of your fingers. Once the disk is large enough, drape the dough over your fists and carefully start stretching and expanding the dough from underneath it to form a round that is 10 to 12 inches in diameter. (If you’re feeling lucky, try tossing the dough over your head in a circular motion to stretch it.)

Place the dough on the prepared peel. Sprinkle it with half of the Parmesan, mozzarella and bacon, and crack 3 eggs over the top. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Before you put the pizza in the oven, do the “stick test”: Shake the peel slightly to make sure the pizza is not sticking (if it is, carefully lift the section that is sticking and sprinkle a bit more flour underneath). Then slide the pizza directly onto the baking stone and bake it for 8 to 12 minutes, checking it after 5 minutes and rotating it if necessary to ensure that it’s baking evenly.

When the crust is golden, the cheese is melted and the egg yolks are cooked to medium, use the peel to remove the pizza from the oven and transfer it to a cutting board. Let it cool for 2 minutes and sprinkle with half of the parsley, chives, scallions and shallots. Slice and serve immediately.

Prepare your second pizza the same way.
Makes 2 pizzas (2-4 servings).
Adapted from “The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook: A Year in the Life of a Restaurant” by Michelle and Philip Wojtowicz and Michael Gilson with Catherine Price