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Breakfast Pizza
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by Jeff, August 10, 2009
Filed Under Recipes | 58 Comments
We had friends for brunch this past Sunday, and I decided to try something I’ve been meaning to do for a while: Breakfast Pizza. It’s basically a pizza dough base, topped with egg, cheese, and whatever meat you like, if you’re a meat eater (we are). In order to contain the egg, which might otherwise run off the pizza, I baked this pizza in an unfinished, plain black 12-inch cast iron pan. The result is closely related to the Italian frittata.
Use any non-enriched dough you like; either the basic master, or a rye dough (without caraway or other flavorings), as I did here, or even whole wheat.
First, preheat your oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for 20 minutes, with the cast-iron pan on a middle shelf. There’s no need for a baking stone in this situation. Roll out a piece of dough to a thickness of 1/8-inch, into a 12-inch diameter circle (so that it will fit into the bottom of the hot pan).
Open the oven and get the pan into position so you can drop in the dough (it’s much easier to handle the hot cast iron pan with a handle-covering potholder). Then, “dock” (puncture) the dough all over with a fork:
Now bake the crust “blind” (without toppings) for a while, about 5 minutes. Check midway to see if you need to poke any new air bubbles with the fork.
Season four lightly-beaten eggs with salt and pepper, and pour over the dough. It will distribute unevenly over the uneven surface, which is fine. Top with about a quarter pound of grated cheddar, mozzarella, colby, or gruyere, then a tablespoon of grated parmigiano-reggianno cheese (or other Italian-style grating cheese). That grated hard-cheese topping really helps this dish to brown. If you like, use some thinly-sliced prosciutto or other Italian-style ham.
Bake for 5 to 10 minutes– all depends on your oven and how thin you actually rolled your dough. I finished the pizza under the broiler to get beautiful browning and finish cooking the eggs. Make sure they’re not too runny, but don’t overbake.
I promise you, this is one of the simplest brunch dishes you can make, and the result is absolutely delicious. Vary the toppings however you like– everything seems to work.
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Comments
Lynn said...
August 10, 2009 at 1:18 pm
This looks so good. I am going to have to give it a try.
CJ said...
August 10, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Oh my gosh that looks fabulous! I will definitely have to try that. Thank you for sharing!
Danielle said...
August 10, 2009 at 4:51 pm
oooh…I wanted to make a breakfast pizza yesterday with some leftover dough I had but I didn’t know how to keep the egg from running off. DUH a pan!! silly me (I ended up making a calzone with mine instead)
Tracy said...
August 11, 2009 at 5:42 am
That looks delicious, and easy!
Karen said...
August 11, 2009 at 9:07 am
Just got your book and want to try your recipes. I have a Kitchenaide
Steam Assist Oven. This cycle is especially used for “crisping” items
that are baked or roasted. It is recommended for baking crispy breads
as bursts of steam are dispensed and the oven door is not to be
opened. Do you know what temp setting and timing I would use with
this oven for your basic recipe? Should I just follow the recommended
suggestions from the instruction bullet from Kitchenaide? I assume
your degrees and times are based on non convection oven settings.
Have you ever used Convection Bake for your breads and what
adjustments would you suggest? When converting normally I set the
degrees to 25 lower when using convection baking.
Mila said...
August 11, 2009 at 10:17 am
Thanks – that looks so good I plan to make it tomorrow. Am I correct that you do not need the 40 minute rest before baking?
I actually have another question that I wanted to ask. I have been making the bread for several weeks now and we love it (I bought the book on Kindle and in paper too)! At first, I was using a cast iron pan in the oven with steam and while delicious, the bread doesn’t sing or have that shiny crust when I remove it from the oven. I also do not have huge air holes inside but have a very good custard texture.
I next got a baking stone that fits exactly on one rack in the oven but had much the same result. I am using a convection oven with the master recipe. I know my oven is running a little cool but the bread bakes up well. Any thoughts?
Pam B said...
August 11, 2009 at 11:58 am
I love your book! I use it constantly and it has really gotten me back into bread baking. However, i want to use a sourdough starter in the recipes. How do I do this? Do I just substitute 1 cup starter for all of the yeast? Or do I still add the yeast? I realize this is a very fundamental question, but having never used a starter before I need the most basic help. Also, do you have a favorite starter recipe? Thanks!!!
jeff said...
August 11, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Karen: Convection’s great, just adjust the temp 25 degrees downward (use an oven thermometer to check this). As for the steam assist, I haven’t used it, but that’s the way it works in pro ovens– I think it will be great. Just follow KitchenAid’s directions and let us know how it goes. Jeff
jeff said...
August 11, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Mila: See my comments to Karen re: convection here. But in your case, it may be that convection is dissipating the steam. Try no-convect and let us know if that solves the problem. Jeff
jeff said...
August 11, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Pam: Use about 1.5 cups of active starter in place of an equivalent amount of water and flour in our recipes, to produce a final consistency like in our videos (see the “videos” tab on this website). You can try omitting all the packaged yeast, but I’ve had better results decreasing (to, let’s say, one-quarter the usual dose). At some point we’ll publish our starter recipe….
Jeff
Pam said...
August 11, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Thanks, Jeff! That is very helpful. I’ve had the book for about 2 months now and my husband jokes that our house is like a boulangerie! I have tried the basic boule recipe. Portugese Broa, bagels, pretzels, light whole wheat… we love them all! I was never much into baking so this book has really changed my life. Now I bake homemade, artisan bread 3-4 times per week. I am truly looking forward to “Healthy Bread” coming out in October!
jeff said...
August 12, 2009 at 8:29 am
Thanks for the kind words, Pam. “Healthy Bread’s” available in Pre-Order right now, on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/pe8yr9.
Jenny said...
August 13, 2009 at 5:24 am
Can you use liquids other than water to add to the dough? What should we stay away from? I had a bunch of tomatos about to go and so I made salsa. To make a non-watery salsa, I drained the tomatoes. But I had all this wonderful left over juice. So I did the light wheat recipe and used the “tomato juice” and water and added the yeast to that. I was worried that the acid would kill the yeast, but I got TONS of rise from it. The bread turned this lovely wheaty red gold. But, the bread didn’t come out tasting of tomato at all. So I would like to try again, but with all of the juice being tomato.
But it set me to thinking what other juices or liquids could we use???
jeff said...
August 13, 2009 at 7:38 am
Jenny: Yes, you can use other liquids, and their all over our second book, which is available for pre-order on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/qukupq. Acid, within limits, does not hurt yeast growth– for example, ascorbic acid is used as a yeast enhancer (we don’t go in for additives though).
I’ve used sweet juices, about half and half with water and the result is terrific. You may have to turn down oven heat though— sugar can burn in the crust. Jeff
C. Beth said...
August 13, 2009 at 8:15 am
Mmm, sounds delicious and economical. I’m making a meal plan right now, and this is going on it.
Rayna Shilling said...
August 13, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Hi Jeff, I just bought your book Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day. I’ve read it and I’m really excited about trying the recipes. I do have one question. I always use King Arthur Flour when I bake. As per your book, using this may not be the best choice as it is a little high in protein. After reading the chapter on ingredients, I ran to the grocery store to buy flour. There was only one besides King Arthur that was unbleached. I think it was Gold Medal, but it was presifted. Is presifted OK? What do you use? Many thanks for great book and what I know will be a fun time baking. Thanks, -Rayna
jeff said...
August 13, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Rayna: King Arthur’s a great flour, it just takes a little more water; take a look at our post on this at http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=140. Gold Medal unbleached all-purpose is fine, it’s OK that it’s labeled pre-sifted. You never have to sift, whether or not a flour is labeled that way.
I use GM AP, and Zoe uses KAF AP! Jeff
kathie said...
August 13, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Am going to make this for breakfast tomorrow. Just wanted to let you know that i’m a convert….your recipes take all the hard work out of breadmaking and make it doable every day. My only problem is we have a tiny fridge and I have to take my dough bucket to work to put in the fridge there and then bring it home again to use. AND i want to have more than one dough going at once….
Bob said...
August 13, 2009 at 11:00 pm
I’m about to make my first master recipe. I grabbed a big Costco sack of AP flour. When I got home over an hour later, I found out it was bleached. It has 10% protein. If I mix 3/4 AP with 1/4 12.9% bread flour I have, that comes to 10.7% Should I use the AP alone or mix it or what? The next Costco trip is about a month away. Thanks!
jeff said...
August 14, 2009 at 5:54 am
Kathie: I once knew a guy who was anti-refrigeration (there was a movement afoot!). He refused to refrigerate our dough, finding cool spaces around his house. In the Minnesota winter, that’s actually not too hard. BUT… the dough generally ill only last a couple of days before going soupy and overly fermented. Just a thought. Jeff
Bob: I think you should be good to mix the AP with the bread flour, sounds like a good idea. You may have to play with those proportions to get a consistency that looks like what we have in our videos, see http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?page_id=63. Jeff
Caroline said...
August 14, 2009 at 10:19 am
Love the breakfast idea.
One unrelated question. My boyfriend loves the bread I made from your book (I’m hooked by the way), but he prefers “sandwich loaf” size loaves, so slightly taller than the round loaf. Can I make any of the bread recipes in a loaf pan? Or does one recipe over another work best for that?
Thanks!
Bob said...
August 14, 2009 at 12:16 pm
For convenience sake I made ahalf batch, 2 1/4 cup AP bleached and 1 cup bread flour. I added a little less tan 2 oz extra water. The dough is sticky, but doen’t flow to asume the shape of the container – at least not initially. I could only watch the Chi Trib video and it looks like that dough stayed heaped up on the side. Should it flow like molasses or fill the container but retain an uneven top or something else?
Elizabeth said...
August 14, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I finally read my June 16th Womans Day magazine and saw your web site listed, checked it out and am now waiting for my copy of your book. Looks really good.
Bob said...
August 14, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Well I wanted toget started so I baked n over sized dinner roll. It came out great! Very crusty. I’m trying a few trick loaves – variations on the parmesan-chard bread with the basic recipe, since it’s what I have. I’ll wait a few days and see how the flavor evolves in the basic dough. I’m really looking forward to the brioche when I’ve finished the basic batch. This is great! Thanks to both of you for the book and videos. I’ve sent one as a birthday present and recommended it to many friends. I’m looking forward to the next book!
mila said...
August 15, 2009 at 5:18 am
The breakfast pizza was great! I have already made it twice with rave reviews from the kids. I have another question, I have made bagels twice – once with the bagel dough and the other time with the Master Recipe. Both times the bagels were delicious but incredibly flat. I am using all purpose unbleached flour and/or KA unbleached. I did not use bread flour, is this why?
Thanks and I love the book 
I am a working mom of four kids and everyone is amazed that I am baking delicious bread too.
jeff said...
August 15, 2009 at 7:29 am
Caroline: Most all of the recipes work well in a loaf pan, yes. We recommend non-stick loaf pans, but grease them anyway because wet dough sticks.
Bob: Well, thicker than molasses, for sure. It should slowly fill the container; yes, the top will be uneven. Don’t sweat about this, there’s a pretty wide acceptable range. Glad your dinner roll experiment worked well.
Elizabeth: That Woman’s Day article was a hit for us, glad you saw it… Online at http://tinyurl.com/nz3286
Mila: This recipe definitely works better with bread flour, yes. Or let it sit longer before boiling, that might make some difference for you.
Jeff
Carol said...
August 16, 2009 at 9:00 am
A local restaurant in Phoenix serves these on their breakfast menu and call them Bressias. Thanks for showing me how to make them at home!
jeff said...
August 16, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Excellent, to Phoenix this February for TV appearance…
Carol said...
August 16, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I made a mistake on the name of the breakfast pizzas. They are called Brizzas. The name of the restaurant is scramble. The c is backwards and the am is in red.
oneshotbeyond said...
August 18, 2009 at 9:14 am
truly good looking breakfast here! Your friends must’ve been happy!
jeff said...
August 18, 2009 at 10:01 am
They were… very easy thing to make, basically a frittata with a bread base… Jeff
Shelley said...
August 26, 2009 at 11:04 am
I have made many batches bread from your book, however I’d like to have a more air holes throughout the crumb. A lighter taste. Any suggestions. Love the book, can’t wait for the next!
zoe said...
August 26, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Hi Shelley,
Here is a post about bread that has a dense crumb: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=141. Read through it and let me know if this answers some of the issues you are having.
Thanks, Zoë
Ellen said...
October 12, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I want to incorporate tomato sauce and jalapeno’s into one of your pizza dough recipes. Does it matter how much sauce I use? I am not asking about toppings (just to clarify). Hope to get a response
Thanks- Ellen
zoe said...
October 13, 2009 at 5:41 am
Hi Ellen,
Are you talking about replacing the water with tomato sauce? Sounds quite interesting, but I’ve never done this so I’m afraid I don’t have a concrete answer for you. It will somewhat depend on the thickness of the sauce, but I would start with maybe a cup of sauce to replace the water??? You can add the jalapenos to the dough as well.
Let us know how it goes! Zoë
sarah said...
October 15, 2009 at 11:50 am
hi guys, LOVE the book. I make a batch of the light whole wheat every week and use it for the thin-crust pizzas. So good.
I just bought a cast-iron skillet and would like to try a deep-dish pizza recipe I found on Cooking Light. Would the dough work in this case? I’m guessing I’ll need to use 2x the amount (2 “grapefruits”) to get the thick, chewy crust of a traditional deep dish. Just wondering if you’ve tried deep dish pizza and maybe how much of your 4-serving dough you used?
Thanks, keep up the amazing work!
zoe said...
October 15, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Hi Sarah,
Yes, I think it will be wonderful and tasty. Hmmm, I’m not sure how much dough to tell you to use? How big is your pan? 2x our recipe will probably result in too much dough. Given that the pan is probably not as wide as your typical rolled out pizza you may only need one 1-pound piece of dough, slightly more if it is a big pan. You may need to do some tasty experiments and let us know what you come up with! 
Thanks, Zoë
Ellen said...
October 15, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I never would have thought of substituting the sauce for water, I’m glad I asked! That makes good sense. I have been buying tomato jalapeno crusts at my local farmers market and I can’t get enough of them. When I bought your book, I got inspired to make my own. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Thanks Zoe,
Ellen
sarah said...
October 16, 2009 at 2:05 pm
well, I used about 1/3rd of the batch to make a deep dish pizza in my 12″ cast iron skillet. The results were pretty tasty! I was afraid the crust wouldn’t cook through, and it was a little doughy, but it tasted fine. I think I may pre-bake the shell next time, and use less toppings, as it got pretty soupy in there (used mushrooms, artichokes, onions and lots of sauce!) But all around a huge thumbs up from the family!
zoe said...
October 16, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Hi Sarah,
Thank you so much for reporting back. I’m so eager to give it a try!
Thanks, Zoë
Susan said...
November 4, 2009 at 11:38 am
I am about to mix up a batch of Olive Oil dough for pizzas for my daughter’s birthday party Friday and was wondering about par baking the crusts. I am going to have a pizza bar so the girls can make up their own personal pizzas. But I wanted to have all the crusts ready to go ahead of time. Do you have any suggestions about how to do this? I was thinking about baking them for about 4-5 minutes in a 450 degree oven. Do you think this sounds right?
Congratulations on the new book! I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. I use your first book many times a week and just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!
Thanks for everything!
Susan
jeff said...
November 4, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Thanks Susan. You need to bake till the crusts are set, that is, that they are firm enough to transport. I’m guessing you will need a little more time than what you specify here, at this temp. Don’t let it brown or the result will be dry; complete the browning at a higher temp at your final destination. Jeff
Kristin said...
November 24, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I really really really don’t want this to sound mean – but I simply must finally mention a pet peeve here. OH how I wish commenters would restrict their comments to how a recipe turned out AFTER they have made it.. – vs. – “this looks so good!!!”. Of course it is going to look good. This is a food blog, by great pastry chefs. I find that the only time I read a food blogs’ comments is if they are little mini-posts from people who add their 2 cents on how well the recipe worked, and what they did (if anything) differently, as well as how the dish was received. Otherwise I just move on. It simply is not helpful, enlightening or amusing to keep reading over and over and over again about how good a dish LOOKS. I mean really, if it looked blech, it wouldn’t BE on here, right??
sue said...
December 12, 2009 at 9:48 am
Kristin,
It’s hard for some folks to contain enthusiasm about a project and concept so startlingly new to us like Jeff and Zoe’s, so be prepared to skip some posted replies.
However, I have to agree that these type of posts add nothing to the learning curve we are all going through. I crave more feedback and info–I WISH there was a forum here so we could start threads and discussions about the methods and recipes.
Chowhound’s boards have an informal rule which does go a long way to keeping people on track: if a comment doesn’t further discussion about *deliciousness* then it’s best not posted. Chowhound (dot com) may be a place for you to look for more on-topic posts and threads about ABin5.
Meanwhile, I still WISH there was a separate place to specifically post about recipes and experiments HERE.
(psst–oh, Santa Webmaster? )
sue said...
December 12, 2009 at 9:52 am
I’m also gonna ask Santa to organize Jeff and Zoe’s posted recipes in an index (easily searchable).
I can’t tell you how much time I spend looking back through the archives (not easily searchable) for a recipe, scroll scroll scroll.
oh, and also, an FAQ page for basic (non-specific) questions.
jeff said...
December 12, 2009 at 11:00 am
Sue: We’re working on it… (all of these web ideas– you’re not the first to ask). The books remain our indexed source for recipes though.
Richard said...
January 6, 2010 at 6:26 am
I own both your books and enjoy the extra ideas that you post on your web site. I’m sure going to give the Breakfast Pizza a try as it sounds great! Looking forward to your next book that I’ll be adding to my library!
Becky said...
March 7, 2010 at 5:33 pm
I adapted this recipe for the half a pound of Italian Semolina dough I had left and a 10” cast iron skillet. I still used 4 eggs, but I added minced onions (I was too lazy to chop one.), and I would have added tablespoon or two of salsa if we hadn’t been out. I decreased the shredded sharp cheddar slightly and used 2 Tbsp of pecorino romano cheese instead of parmigiano-reggianno. It turned out GREAT! The crust is nice and crispy on the bottom, and the best part is that you can eat it like a slice of pizza, so I’m eating some while I’m typing!
I was worried when I slapped the dough into the pan because I didn’t get it to the edges very well, but the egg came off the pan with just a little left behind. I used a plastic scraper to lift as much away from the sides before I plated it.
And no kidding, this was easier than scrambled eggs. Next time I’ll add some Canadian bacon.
zoe said...
March 7, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Sounds amazing Becky!
I think I need to try this in the morning for the boys!
Thanks, Zoë
rebecka veil said...
March 22, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Can you use flat beer in place of some of the water in the Master Recipe?
jeff said...
March 23, 2010 at 9:15 am
Rebecka: Might be a bit of a strong flavor if you replace ALL the water– how about 1/3 and see what you think. Dial it up if you like the flavor. Jeff
Rosalina said...
July 10, 2010 at 9:28 am
I don’t suppose you can do this on the grill, too? What would be your temperature suggestion?
Rosalina said...
July 10, 2010 at 10:13 am
Also, approx how many oz of dough is good for a 12″ pan and since I am not experience in this and probably won’t get the exact right size as the pan, should I aim for slightly bigger or smaller circle? Thanks again for answering my question, we are definitely on a pizza track here, wish your book is out now!
jeff said...
July 10, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Sure, why not. I’d try about 450, bake it “blind” (without toppings on one side).
jeff said...
July 10, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Rosalina: Try about 10 ounces of dough for a thin-crusted pizza, and 16 for thicker. Slightly smaller is easier to deal with.. Jeff
Rosalina said...
July 10, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Thanks for the answers. One more question: so you never flip the dough in this cast iron pan?
jeff said...
July 12, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Rosalina: Yes, assuming that it’s not topped with anything, this can be a nice way to get both sides browned. Obviously can’t do it with the breakfast pizza or other pizzas. Jeff
jamlambert said...
August 10, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Yum! Another great recipe to use with your easy-peasy dough! I never lack for ideas thanks to both of you! I need to go home and mix up a new batch of dough — but the fridge only has room for one container, and I’m torn between brioche and a simple master recipe! What a dilemma!