Breakfast Pizza

A large, one-tray dish, like this pizza, is an excellent way to feed a crowd who’ve gathered for a breakfast or brunch. We replace pizza’s traditional pepperoni, marinara, and mozzarella, with eggs, scallions, bacon, and a cream based sauce that would please anyone. Enjoy with a Bloody Mary or Mimosa.

FOR THE DOUGH:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon instant/rapid rise yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt

FOR THE SAUCE & TOPPINGS:

• 3 cups cottage cheese
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 6 scallions divided into their dark green and white/light green parts
• 6-8 eggs
• 2 cups shredded cheese
  • We used a combination of gruyere and gouda, but use any cheese you like.
• Bacon, precooked 80% (optional)
• Sausage, precooked 100% (optional)

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GET CHEFFY TIP!– The scallions and bacon are mere beginnings. Create a smoked salmon pizza by adding softened cream cheese to the cottage cheese mixture, and adding red onions, capers; add smoked salmon and dill after the bake. Create a vegetarian “everything bagel” and sprinkle your pizza with toasted sesame seeds, dried onion, poppy seeds, and kosher salt. Get Cheffy with other breakfast friendly topping like Canadian bacon, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, ham, avocado, and even thinly sliced potatoes.

1. Begin by making your dough one day ahead. If using a standing mixer, combine all ingredients together in the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with a dough hook. Turn your mixer on low/medium speed for 10 minutes until your dough forms a satiny ball that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If not using a standing mixer, add all ingredients together in a bowl and fold together to combine. Dump out onto a floured work surface and knead together for 5-7 minutes (add additional flour as needed). Once you, or your standing mixer, have kneaded your dough, place into a large, lightly oiled bowl, and tightly cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 24 hours, or up to 3 days.
2. Remove your dough from the fridge one hour before you’re ready to begin baking. Once you’ve removed your dough from the fridge, dump your dough onto one 13×18 sheet tray or, divide the dough in half, and dump onto two 9×13 sheet trays. ensure you’ve added at least a tablespoon of vegetable oil to your sheet tray(s) to coat them before dumping out your dough. Using slightly oiled hands, begin to stretch, and shape your dough into the shape of the sheet tray(s). Don’t pull, or force the dough anywhere it doesn’t want to go; as it heats up with the warmth of your hands, the dough will naturally become more pliable (5-7 minutes). After you’ve achieved the general shape of your sheet pan, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to sit in a room temperature for 1 hour. If your dough hasn’t reached the edges of the tray, don’t fret….you’ll get another chance to stretch the dough out before you bake.
3. While your dough rests under plastic wrap, prepare your toppings. We did a half bacon and half sausage pizza (shown in photos), but have done an all bacon, and no-meat/vegetarian breakfast pizza before as well. If you are using any meats, precook before baking them to drain them of their fat. Meats will crisp up in the oven, but won’t fully cook; cook your bacon on a stovetop until it’s about 80% of the way done to where you like it, and cook any sausage 100% of the way done. Once you’ve prepared any meat toppings, combine your cottage cheese, olive oil, red pepper flakes, and ground black pepper into a bowl. Stir to combine and set aside. Finally, mince your scallion whites/light green parts and set aside followed by your dark green scallion parts (keep the white/light green parts separate from your dark green scallion parts).
4. Once your dough has been out of the fridge for an hour, place one oven rack on the lowest possible position, and one oven rack on the second highest position before turning your oven to 500 degrees. While your oven heats up, remove the plastic wrap from your dough, and take another moment to stretch out the dough into the corners of your pan (if need be). Dock your crust with a fork (view our Get Cheffy St. Louis Style Pizza instructions for a tutorial on docking), to ensure the middle of the dough doesn’t bubble up too much while baking. Once your oven is at 500 degrees, place your crust (with no toppings) into the oven to bake on the lowest rack, for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, remove the crust from the oven, and begin to add toppings. Begin by dolloping your cottage cheese mixture. Smooth out with the back of a spoon brining the mixture almost to the edge of the crust. Top with your minced white/light green scallions. Add 1 1/2 cups of your shredded cheese (reserving 1/2 cup), and then begin to add your eggs. Make a “well” with the back of a spoon into the cheese mixture; your goal is to make a little “nest” where the eggs can be contained. Make as many wells as you see fit (we did 8 eggs for our 13×18 pizza). Gently crack each egg into a bowl or, if you’re feeling extra Cheffy, crack directly into the well you’ve created for it (if doing this method, get your egg very close to the crust when you crack it open…you don’t want the egg to drop from a tall height onto the pizza). Top with bacon, sausage, or other meat toppings, and the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese. Place back into the 500 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. This will give you a set, but still soft, egg yolk. If you’re after a more “done” egg, cook for 12-14 minutes; if you’d like a slightly runnier egg, bake for 8-10 minutes. Once you’ve reached your desired degree of doneness, remove your pizza from the oven, and immediately top with your minced dark green scallions. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan before slicing and serving.

GET CHEFFY TIP!– Put another twist on this, and make it a biscuits and gravy pizza (we did half bacon and cheese and half biscuits and gravy) Replace the bacon with sausage and, after cooking the sausage, create a gravy by adding flour, milk, and black pepper. Use this gravy mixture as your sauce.