Breakfast Pizza Recipe with White Sauce & Baked Egg
Here is my guide for making the best breakfast pizza at home! A cheesy, homemade white béchamel sauce is topped with thinly sliced potatoes, lots of mozzarella cheese, and crispy bacon bits, with an egg on top of it all. You can use my homemade thin crust pizza dough or store-bought pizza dough to make this breakfast pizza — both work well.
Ingredients
- 1 portion overnight thin crust pizza dough (approx 225 grams)
- ½ tablespoon semolina flour (for sliding the pizza off the peel)
béchamel cheese sauce
- 14 grams butter (1 tablespoon)
- 14 grams all-purpose flour (1½ tablespoons)
- 120 grams whole milk (½ cup)
- 20 grams finely grated parmesan cheese (¼ cup)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper
- 1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg
Breakfast Pizza White Sauce & Toppings
- 3 strips bacon
- 6-8 fingerling potatoes (sliced on a diagonal ⅛" thin)
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 100 grams low-moisture mozzarella cheese, freshly grated (½-¾ cup)
- 1-2 eggs
- 1 scallion (thinly sliced)
Instructions
Prep.
- An hour before you plan to bake your pizza, preheat a baking steel for 1 hour at 500°F. Remove pizza dough from the refrigerator at least 60-90 minutes prior to stretching. Prep the toppings, grate the cheese, and make the sauce while the oven preheats.
Bacon, Potatoes, and White Pizza Sauce
- Prep potatoes. Wash the fingerling potatoes and slice into ⅛" thin slices. Toss with 2 teaspoons olive oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
- Toaster Oven: Line a small baking sheet with aluminum foil. Arrange 3 strips of bacon so they are evenly spaced apart from each other with one in the middle and the other two at either end. Place the thinly sliced potatoes in the spaces between the strips of bacon in an even layer. Its okay if they overlap slightly. Cook, starting in a cold toaster oven, for 10-15 minutes at 375°F. The potatoes may need an additional 5 minutes. When done, remove the bacon to a paper towel and set aside, slide a spatula under the potatoes to loosen them before they cool.Skillet: Cook 3 strips of bacon until crisp in a large skillet over medium heat. Remove bacon from pan to rest on a paper towel, and reduce heat to medium. Cook thinly sliced potatoes in remaining bacon fat until crispy and cooked through, flipping occasionally, approximately 3-5 minutes per side. Remove from skillet.
- Make the sauce. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. As soon as the butter has fully melted, add the flour and use a whisk or a fork to stir until a thick, clumpy paste forms. Pour in the cold milk, whisking well to break up any lumps. Add in the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir to combine. Let simmer and thicken for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the parmesan cheese and stir until smooth and creamy. Remove from heat and set aside. Bring it to a low bubbling boil and whisk constantly for 15-20 seconds to thicken.
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.Reaching the boiling point is crucial, as it causes the starches in the flour to swell and burst which is what thickens the sauce.The sauce will set up as it cools, so you may need to whisk in a splash of cold milk over low heat to thin it out right before you spread it on your pizza.
Breakfast Pizza Assembly & Baking
- Lightly dust a wooden pizza peel with semolina flour.
- Hand stretch pizza dough. Stretch the pizza dough into a round about 10-16" in size, depending on how thick you want it or the size of your dough ball. Transfer the stretched pizza dough to the pizza peel. (See: How to Hand Stretch Pizza Dough.)
- Sauce it. Use the back of a metal spoon to spread the white sauce almost all the way to the edge of the crust. This is a thick sauce, be gently so you don't tug or tear the pizza dough.
- Cheese and toppings. Add the mozzarella cheese top with crispy potatoes and chopped bacon.
Breakfast Pizza Baking
- Shimmy. Give the breakfast pizza a shimmy on the wooden pizza peel to make sure that no parts of the crust have stuck. Dust additional flour underneath any stuck spots if needed.
- Launch. Open the oven and line up the tip of the pizza peel with the back of the steel. Tilt it at an angle (20° or so) and give it a quick thrust to help the pizza begin sliding off. As the pizza slides off, pull the peel straight back, keeping the tip of the peel on the steel, depositing the pizza onto the hot surface to begin cooking.
- Bake. Bake for 2-3 minutes. While the pizza bakes, crack an egg into a small bowl.
- Egg it. Use the pizza peel to remove the parbaked pizza from the oven. Gently tip the egg out of the bowl onto the pizza. Repeat with any other eggs if using. Season the eggs with salt and pepper.
- Bake and broil. Carefully return the pizza to the oven and bake 2-3 minutes more, then broil for 30-60 seconds to finish. Remove from the oven with the pizza peel.
- Scallions. Garnish the pizza with thinly sliced scallions. Slice and serve immediately.
RECIPE NOTES
- This recipe makes enough sauce and toppings for 1 medium pizza.
- Stretch the pizza dough an inch or two larger than you want the final pizza to be — the sauce is thick and the pizza will shrink back slightly as you spread the sauce.
- If using more than 2 eggs, use medium or small sized eggs.
- IMPORTANT: Before you slide the assembled pizza off the peel, give it a few shakes back and forth to make sure the dough hasn't stuck to the peel. If it has, gently pick up the stuck edge and dust some flour under it.
- Fried egg pizza without a baking steel: Crack the egg on top of the pizza with 3-4 minutes left on your timer OR fry the egg in a separate pan and slide it onto the pizza once it comes out of the oven.
- Storage Notes: Breakfast pizza is a bit tricky to store because of the egg on top. I don't recommend storing slices with yolk on them; a bit of egg white is just fine. Wrap any leftover slices of breakfast pizza well in aluminum foil or plastic wrap and store them in the fridge for about 1-2 days. Reheat pizza in a dry skillet over medium heat, or on a foil-lined baking sheet in the oven at 350°F for 10-15 minutes (or until the cheese is melted again).