Egg & Bacon Breakfast Pizza

While pizza is traditionally confined to lunch or dinner, this pizza is perfect to serve for breakfast. With a homemade pizza dough, scrambled eggs, bacon, white cheese sauce, and more cheese on top, it’s everything desirable for a morning recipe. This is a Midwestern staple that’s super popular, and it’s sure to be in your home once you make it!

Why this recipe works.

If you are from the midwest, specifically Iowa, you know there is a tradition of gas stations making pizza. Sometimes it’s the best pizza in the area. One option at these gas stations is always breakfast pizza. This is a tailgate staple, and it’s honestly addictive. The crust is the same homemade pizza crust that I always use in between thick and thin crusts. The sauce is a quick cheese sauce made with a roux. The pizza is topped with eggs, bacon, cheese, and a bit of scallion. Once it bakes, the result is a pizza that is a great breakfast for dinner or a brunch meal.

Everything you’ll need to make this recipe.

• Bacon gives a smokey flavor in two ways. The grease is used as the oil for making the roux and the meat is sprinkled on top of the pizza.
• Eggs are used as a topping on the pizza. The eggs give the instant appeal of breakfast and are a perfect topping.
• greek yogurt is mixed with the eggs before cooking. The yogurt adds a subtle flavor and a but of creaminess to the eggs.
• Monterey jack cheese has a slight sharpness in flavor and melts easily into the sauce and on top of the pizza.
• Instant yeast can be added with the flour and does not need to be proofed first in water.

Here’s how to make this recipe.

1. Prepare the pizza dough. In a large bowl, combine the warm water, salt, and sugar. Mix those ingredients together to dissolve the salt and sugar. Then add the olive oil, flour, and yeast. Use a fork or dough whisk to mix everything together. When the dough begins to pull away from the side of the bowl, sprinkle some flour on your work surface, place your dough on top, and knead it by hand. Once the dough has been kneaded, add some olive oil to the same bowl in which the dough was mixed. Roll the dough around in the bowl to cover the entire surface, then place a towel on top. Let the dough rise in a warm spot for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

2. Cook the bacon. In a skillet, place the strips of bacon. Let the bacon cook on one side, then flip it over to brown on the other side. Once all of the bacon is crisp, remove it from the skillet and place it on a paper towel-lined plate or pan. Remove the bacon grease from the pan, pouring it into a separate bowl. Leave the browned bits on the bottom of the skillet.

3. Prepare the sauce. In the same skillet in which the bacon was cooked, add the bacon grease and the chopped garlic. Return the skillet to the heat and allow it to heat up, cooking the garlic. When the grease is sizzling, add the flour, stirring for about 30 seconds until it is foaming. Then slowly add in the milk, stirring between each addition. When all of the milk has been added, add the black pepper and salt, and stir. Turn the heat down and add the cheese. Stir everything together to melt the cheese. Once melted, remove the skillet from the heat, pour the sauce into a bowl, and set aside.

4. Cook the eggs. In a bowl, beat the eggs, then mix in the Greek yogurt. In the same skillet that the sauce was prepared, add the eggs and cook at low heat. While cooking, pull the eggs in toward the center of the pan from the edges of the skillet. Add in salt and black pepper and mix into the eggs. Once the eggs are fluffy, remove them from the heat.

5. Press out the dough and assemble. Once the dough has risen, remove it from the bowl and place it on a baking pan drizzled with olive oil. Press it out by hand, creating a small crust around the rim of the circle. Dock the dough with a fork. On top of the crust, add the cheese sauce, eggs, chopped bacon, chopped scallion, and shredded cheese.

6. Bake the pizza. Place the baking pan on a low rack in the preheated 375°F oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cheese has melted and the dough is baked. Once baked, cut into slices and serve immediately.

These pro tips will make this recipe a success.

• When preparing the dough, make sure to use warm water. The warmth will spur the yeast to wake up quicker.
• The dough will be ready to rise after kneading when it sticks to the work surface just slightly but pulls away easily. The dough should have a bit of tackiness but not so much that it clings to the work surface when kneaded.
• When cooking the white sauce, it’s important to let the flour cook for the prescribed amount of time. The heat will remove the raw flour flavor and create a delicious, thick sauce. Additionally, add the milk slowly so that no clumps form. If all of the milk is added at once, the mixture of the flour and milk can seize up and will not have the time it needs to create the desired texture.
• The key to procuring fluffy scrambled eggs is cooking them at a low temperature. When eggs are watery, the likely culprit is that they were cooked at too high of heat too quickly.
• When pressing out the pizza dough, if it bounces back or won’t seem to stay in place, let it rest for about five minutes. Then try pressing it out again.

You’ll love these other breakfast recipes.

• Lemon raspberry cinnamon rolls
• French toast muffins
• Ham and cheese croissant egg casserole
• Herb and cheese popovers
• Potato and asparagus quiche
• Overnight blueberry French toast
• Baked oatmeal
• Brioche cinnamon rolls
• Classic blueberry coffee cake