Canadian Bacon Yellow Pepper Onion Bacon Artichoke Heart Pizza
- Sponge: 1 to 2 days in advance
- Rising time for dough: 1½ hours
- Pizza prep and assembly: 20 minutes
- Pizza baking time: 10 to 15 minutes
Ingredients
Pans and Parchment Paper:
- Two 16-inch pizza pans
- Parchment Paper (or instead of parchment paper bake directly on a pizza stone)
Pizza Sauce:
Cheese:
- 1 pound grated mozzarella cheese, low moisture part skim (4 cups)
- ½ cup grated cheddar cheese
- 1 cup grated Parmesan
Bacon Toppings:
- ½ pound thinly sliced Canadian bacon
- 4 slices of bacon; baked or fried until crisp, cooled, and crumbled
Vegetable Toppings:
- 1 onion, thinly sliced and caramelized
- 1 yellow or red pepper, chopped
- Two 14-ounce cans of artichoke hearts; drained and chopped into quarters
Instructions
-
If you prefer a homemade pizza crust, prepare pizza sponge 1 to 2 days in advance of making pizza.
- If you are baking the pizza on parchment paper, pull the oven racks out of the oven and set on stovetop.
- Preheat oven:
Standard Oven: 425° | Convection Oven: 400°
- If you are using a pizza stone place it on a rack in the lower half of the oven:
Preheat oven:
Standard Oven: 425° | Convection Oven: 400°
- Prepare pizza sauce; set aside.
- Prepare caramelized onion and set aside.
- Chop yellow or red pepper and set aside.
- Chop artichoke hearts and set aside.
- Cook bacon, chop and set aside.
- Tear off 2 sheets of parchment paper. Each one should be approximately 20 inches long.
- Place each piece of parchment paper on a separate work surface.
- Lightly dust another work surface with cornmeal.
- Punch down the dough.
- Turn dough out onto a floured surface.
- Knead dough for 30 seconds.
- Split the dough into two equal halves and place on the cornmeal dusted work surface.
- Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
- Place each piece of dough directly in the center of a piece of parchment paper.
- If you are using a baking stone place the dough directly on a generously floured pizza peel, press out into a 14-inch round, and assemble as directed below. NOTE: You will have to bake one pizza at a time.
- Beginning in the center of each dough ball use the palm of your hand to gently press each ball into a 14-inch round.
- Get out two 16-inch pizza pans.
- Slide each pizza pan under each of the two pizza rounds.
- Note that the pizza round and the parchment paper will both end up on top of the pizza pan.
- Spread each round with ½ cup + 2 tablespoons pizza sauce. If you like a lot of sauce on your pizza add more according to your tastes.
- Place ¼ pound of Canadian bacon on each pizza round.
- Add caramelized onion to each pizza round.
- Sprinkle each round with ½ the chopped yellow or red pepper.
- Add chopped artichoke hearts to each round.
- Sprinkle ½ of grated cheese mixture over each round. If you prefer your pizza to be light on cheese, use less than the recommended amount.
- Slide the parchment paper with the finished pizza off of the pizza pan and directly onto an oven rack.
- Bake the pizza for approximately 10 to 15 minutes. The underside of bottom crust should be golden brown.
- If you have a convection oven you can bake 2 pizzas at the same time.
- To remove the pizza from the oven, slide a pizza pan or a pizza peel under the parchment paper then carefully grab the edge of the paper with your fingers and pull the paper and pizza onto the pan or peel.
- If you are baking the pizzas on a pizza stone, slide the pizza from the pizza peel onto the preheated baking stone. Baking time should be approximately 10 minutes.
- To remove the pizza from the pizza stone, slide the pizza peel under the pizza and remove the pizza from the oven.
- Cool for 5 to 10 minutes, cut and serve.
Comments
Recipe makes two 14-inch thin crust pizzas. If you want a slightly thicker crust roll the dough out 10 to 12-inches and follow the same baking instructions.Salad goes great with pizza so why not serve up a Caesar salad with croutons or a bowl of crisp salad greens topped with Italian salad dressing and croutons?