Breakfast Pizza Recipe with White Sauce & Baked Egg

Here is my guide for making the best breakfast pizza at home! A cheesy, homemade white mornay sauce (aka a béchamel sauce with cheese) is topped with thinly sliced fingerling potatoes, lots of mozzarella cheese, and crispy bacon bits, with a baked egg on top of it all.

The only real question you have to answer is: Are you eating this breakfast pizza for breakfast or dinner?

While testing my breakfast pizza recipe, I started by experimenting with different types of white sauces, then moved on to different cheese varieties, potato formats (hash browns, grated, sliced, mashed!), and finally worked on nailing down the timing of adding the egg on top. All that hard work paid off, because I am just so, so pleased with the final version I am sharing with you today.

Whether you want breakfast-for-dinner or dinner-for-breakfast, there's just something so satisfying about combining the two meals as a pizza. This thin-crust breakfast pizza really hits the spot no matter when you eat it.

I've updated this breakfast pizza recipe a bit over the years. In the original version of this recipe, I called the cheesy white pizza sauce a "béchamel sauce," but I've since learned that when you add cheese to a béchamel, it becomes a mornay sauce. A mornay sauce is made from a cooked mixture of butter, flour, and cold whole milk with a hint of nutmeg and parmesan cheese.

And I think you'll agree with me: There's no such thing as too much cheese on a pizza.

The fingerling potatoes are thinly sliced and crisp up beautifully in the rendered bacon fat. Then, to send this breakfast pizza with white sauce over the top, I finish it by cracking an egg (or two) right on top halfway through cooking.

Cracking the egg over the top might sound a bit tricky to pull off, but I have faith in you! You can do this. Pizzas cook at such a high temperature that the egg only needs a few minutes to cook.

The thinly sliced scallions added as a garnish at the end, imo, are not optional — they add such a nice bright crunch to this homemade breakfast pizza that cuts through all the other rich toppings. Super satisfying. Do not skip them!

I use my overnight thin crust pizza dough here, as usual. You can use any pizza dough you like, but you will get better results with a homemade pizza dough with a small amount of yeast and longer rise time because the gluten has more time to relax so it can be stretched thinner and will bake up crispier.

Remember: Pizza toppings should always be ready-to-eat (or pre-cooked) before adding to your pizza!

Crispy Potatoes and Bacon

I cook the potatoes and bacon on a sheet pan in my toaster oven, but you can also do this in your regular oven on a different rack while it preheats (you'll have to shorten the cooking time and keep a close eye on it as the temperature is much higher) OR you can cook the bacon and potatoes together in a large skillet.

I like to cut the potatoes at a slight angle to give them more surface area, but you do you. Alternating the bacon and potatoes on the sheet pan allows the potatoes to crisp up in the bacon fat.

Making a Cheesy White Pizza Sauce

A Mornay sauce is a béchamel sauce with cheese. In this case, parmesan cheese.

TIP: Making this cheesy white sauce is a fairly quick process, so make sure you have all the ingredients measured and ready to go before you start.

The process is simple. First, you're going to make a roux (cooked butter and flour) then you'll whisk in cold milk, then the seasonings, then the cheese. Super easy.

Bring the sauce to a low bubbling boil. Once it boils, whisk constantly, holding it at the boiling point for about 15-20 seconds until thickened.

Breakfast Pizza Assembly

Start by hand stretching the pizza dough into a nice medium sized circle about 10-12" across. The dough will shrink back a little as you spread the sauce on it, so I usually stretch it maybe an inch or two wider than I want the final pizza to be.

This is a very thick sauce, it tends to pull and tug on the dough a bit, so be gentle.

Why do you spread sauce on pizza with the back of a spoon? The curve of the spoon glides gently over the delicate pizza dough. Because the edges of the spoon are curved away from the dough, they won't catch or tear it the way a knife or spatula would!

Give the pizza a little shimmy back and forth on the pizza peel to make sure it isn't stuck. If any parts seem to be sticking, carefully lift them up and dust additional semolina flour underneath.

Cook the pizza for about 3 minutes, just enough for the dough to begin setting and the cheese to melt. Then get ready, because it's time to add the eggs.

Adding Eggs to Breakfast Pizza

While the pizza is cooking for those first 2-3 minutes, I crack an egg into a small bowl or cup. This way if any shell gets into the egg, I can remove it before it hits the pizza.

Then, I return the pizza to the baking steel (carefully so the eggs don't slide around on top of the pizza) until it's done cooking. My goal is to cook the egg until the white is set, but the yolk is still as runny or jammy as I want it to be.

Note: Broilers are VERY hot and their power can vary widely from oven to oven. Once you switch to broiling, check on your pizza frequently to make sure it's not browning too much!

There will be some carryover cooking on the eggs the longer the pizza sits before serving, so the sooner you eat it after pulling it out of the oven, the better.

Every oven is different, but pizza cooks quickly. What you're really looking at to determine if the pizza is "done" in this case is the browning on the crust and whether the whites of the eggs are cooked through. Some of that comes down to personal preference!

Using Store-Bought Pizza Dough

Store-bought pizza dough has lots of yeast in it to help it stay active longer. It's almost impossible to make a truly thin crust breakfast pizza with store-bought because it just has so much rising power. But there are a few things you can do to help it get pretty dang close.

1. When you bring the pizza dough home from the store, divide and shape it into dough balls weighing around 225 grams each (a pound of pizza dough should get you two dough balls).
2. Place each dough ball in a lightly oiled round deli container and pop it in the fridge if not using immediately. If using immediately, let it sit at room temp for 30-60 minutes prior to stretching.
3. If refrigerated, remove the dough from the fridge about 30 minutes prior to stretching it so the gluten has time to warm up.

Practical Tips and Recipe Notes

• This recipe makes enough cheesy white sauce for 1 medium pizza. Double or triple it if you plan on making more pizzas.
• Baked egg without a baking steel: Fry the egg in a separate pan and slide it on top of the pizza to finish.
• If the mozzarella cheese is too soft to grate, pop it in the freezer for about 10 minutes then try again.
• Don't Get Stuck: Once you add the sauce to the pizza, work quickly to add the cheese and toppings and get the pizza into the oven. The longer the pizza sits on the peel with the moisture from the sauce and the weight of the toppings, the more likely it is to stick to the peel!
• Let the pizza dough warm up: Hand-stretching refrigerated pizza dough takes a bit of practice. You'll have a much easier time if you let it sit at room temperature for 60-90 minutes before stretching it.
• I use the Original Baking Steel to make all of my pizzas (note: I bought my Baking Steel with my own money and you can read my full Baking Steel review here, but I love it so much I became part of their affiliate program; use code TPK10 for 10% off!). A pizza stone will also work if that's all you've got, but it may take slightly longer to cook.

📖 Recipe

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