Caramelized Onion, Gruyere + Pepper Bacon Whole Wheat Pizza.
Let me tell you about this pizza.
A few weeks ago, my cousin Lacy walked into our house with this pizza.
It was right in the middle of a hangry husband episode and once he realized that this pizza wouldn’t be enough for him, he left and went to get a burger.
I was thrilled. Secretly. But not so secretly.
The two of us had this entire pizza to ourselves and oh my word – it was insane. I think I took down four slices and then thought about it for just about as many days. Ah, but they were thin slices so it was really like I ate two slices. AND it was whole wheat. Girl math!Â
No lie though: I thought about this pizza for days. It haunted my dreams. It was the perfect balance of sweet and salty. It was like I was physically incapable of doing anything in my life until I recreated this pizza.
It had to happen.
Caramelized Onion, Gruyere + Pepper Bacon Whole Wheat Pizza
Ingredients
dough
- 1 1/8 cups warm water
- 3 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
pizza
- 8 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into pieces
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 vidalia onions, thinly sliced
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 12 ounces gruyere cheese, freshly grated
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, honey and olive oil. Mix with a spoon, then let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes. Add in 2 cups flour and salt, stirring with a spoon until the dough comes together but is still sticky. Using your hands, form the dough into a ball and work in the additional 2/3 cup flour, kneading it on a floured surface for a few minutes. Rub the same bowl with olive oil then place the dough inside, turning to coat. Cover with a towel and place in a warm place to rise for about 1-1 1/2 hours.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat and add the bacon. Cook just until a bit of the fat is rendered and the bacon is SLIGHTLY cooked – it will cook more in the oven. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and place it on a paper towel. Sprinkle it with the pepper. Leave the grease in the skillet. Reduce the heat to low and add butter. Add in the onions with the salt and toss to coat. Cover and cook for 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes or so. After 1 hour, stir in the brown sugar and cook for 15 minutes more. Stir in the garlic. Turn off the heat and add the onions to a bowl. Set aside.
- After the dough has risen, punch it down and place it back on the floured surface. Using a rolling pin or your hands, form it into your desired shape (sometimes I use baking sheets and do rectangles or free form pizzas – this specific dough will yield one pizza large enough to feed about 3-4 people) and place on a baking sheet or pizza peel. Place the towel back over the dough and let sit in the warm place for 10 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees (or if you’re using a pizza stone or the skillet method, follow those directions). Add half of the cheese to the dough, then cover it with the onions, then the bacon. Add the remaining cheese. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly. Remove and serve.
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Get this done.
110 Comments on “Caramelized Onion, Gruyere + Pepper Bacon Whole Wheat Pizza.”
Man, I can see why you thought about this pizza for days, it sounds incredible and so savory!! Don’t you just love it when you have something new at a restaurant and then you come home to re-create it so you can never be without? Love when I get a meal that good! Excellent recipe!!
Soooo, I just had to pick myself up off of the floor. Would having this every night for dinner be too much? And I love that you paired it with a Coke IN THE BOTTLE (best)!!!
PS::: I totally use your math. Thin crust = twice the serving size. It’s the new math.
Coke in the bottle took it over the top for me, too! This looks AMAZING!
You had me at gruyere, and caramelized onion… and bacon…. who am I kidding you had me at pizza!
Caramelized onions make anything incredible – I love pears with gruyere and onion, too!
This looks divine! I think I have most of the ingredients in my kitchen, so I will be making these asap! :D
Uh, YES. That looks to DIE FOR! Cannot wait to make this!
Boy, do I love pizza!!! This sounds fantastic and I really like the recipe for the whole wheat crust!
UMMM. This is the meaning of life. NOM.
My fave pizzas are the ones with a few perfect ingredients. Does this mean caramelized onions and bacon equate to perfection? Why yes, yes it does.
Whole wheat totally means you can have double the servings. Delicious!
Gruyere is just the best cheese. Just the best. I want to smother it on everything.
Boom.
STOPPPP I want this NOW!
Freaking over here. Can I get this for breakfast? It has bacon so it’s totally breakfast food + whole wheat! Yeah, I am pretty good a girl math too.
Obviously!
Oh and those cokes in a bottle are awesome. My brothers keep bring them home for me to shoot with. I know have a collection of 5 old time coke bottles. It’ awesome!
I recently got a pizza peel and stone and have had one disastrous experience trying to get the pizza from the peel to the hot stone in the oven. Can you share your technique? Do you put semolina or flour on the peel or stone? Do you pull the oven rack holding the stone out of the oven to transfer the pizza from the peel to the stone? Thank you!
i make sure i have all the toppings ready to go (like cheese grated, etc) then i flour the HECK out of the pizza stone. put the dough on, quickly add toppings (i find if you don’t do it quickly, the dough gets heavy and sits and the bottom gets sticky and is hard to remove), then open the oven door and slide it on to the stone using a spatula! don’t worry. i’ve have full blown prepared doughs fall on my 450 degree oven floor. not fun.
I don’t know why I didn’t start embracing caramelized onions til recently. I hate raw onions but caramelized is just…heaven! Love the gruyere and the abundance of it! And making whole wheat dough is so good and I always make my own, too! Beautiful pizza, Jessica!
Oh my gosh!! Amazingly mouth watering pizza!! Love this
this is stupid ridiculous. i haven’t wanted to make pizza for a while (moving into a new house=pizza for too many meals in a row), but this has reignited my passion.
I am literally salivating! yum!!
A
http://www.denimanddaydreamsblog.com
“Dying. Dying! DEAD!” <– me shouting to an empty room as a read this. Ohmyword.
I agree with others re: the Coke bottle! That did it for me. A nice, cold Coke (especially if you can get it in a bottle) + pizza is the perfect combination!
Oh, my stars! Sheer pizza heaven, Jessica! I need this pizza in my face right now…for brekkie!
I want this like RIGHT now!! What an amazing combination, and can you really ever go wrong with Bacon?!! No, the answer is you can’t. Love the use of the Gruyere over plain old Mozzarella. Amazing!
Just made Caramelized Onion Hummus last night so I am speaking your language girrrl!!! Those onions just have the dreamiest sweet & savory flavor, I love them on everything!!!
Also, bacon ;)
This is such a goooood recipe!!
A local restaurant/brewery makes a pizza like this that could be right up your alley:
Flat bread crust with roasted garlic sauce, wild mushroom blend, spicy Italian sausage, and carmelized onions with a mix of fontina, asiago, and mozzarella cheese. So freakin’ good! The carmalized onions and garlic sauce totally make it. You breath will stink, but it will be worth it!
Gruyere rocks the house, seriously. Yay for husbands getting their own food.
wow… so awesome. I love caramlized onions on pizza! I need to replace bacon’s saltiness though (vegetarian here) – what can I substitute it with?
I have some pizza dough sitting in my frdge, I need to try this!
Delicious!!!
4 slices of thin crust AND whole wheat? That’s nothing! Haha –> I’m ashamed to admit that i could probably down a lot more than that.
I was having a major pizza craving this morning out of nowhere and this post is not helping!!
I don’t know how you held back from devouring the entire thing – this is definitely one that I don’t think I could share!
I love the indulgent toppings on this healthier crust!
This looks amazing, I need to try it! One issue; I don’t think that the cooked bacon would last an hour in my house while the onions carmelized! :)
This looks DIVINE! Can’t go wrong with Gruyere!!
I’ve lost all the feeling in my torso.
And now that I have picked up my jaw from the floor…this will be made. :-)
I love everything about this pizza!
Would you recommend I cook this pizza on a pizza stone to get one as goo as yours? Or will a convention baking pan do the trick. Nothing is better than good gossip amount family and pizza especially when it includes bacon and sweet, sweet onions!
WOW! this looks so freaking amazing! Love the flavor combo! It’s like French onion soup only on pizza! And with bacon!! How could your hubster not want some? Nuts!
Thanks for sharing this one! Can I have some for lunch???
Luv your “girl math”!
This pizza looks so incredibly delectable! Caramelized onions and bacon! og gaaawwwsh!
Yes please.
YES! I am a total pizza monster…I just cannot stop eating/picking at it if it’s anywhere near me. I’m add this one to my list of to-make pizzas…there are never enough pizzas in the world.
I don’t even know what to say about this except I want a piece of this pizza right now. Three of my favorite foods combined in one pizza. Wow! Great post!
Seriously, this blog is like “crack” for people who want to eat good things.
I agree! She kills me with all of this great food! Decadent but not gluttonous!
fuckmyLIFE. This looks amazinggggggggggggggggggggg!
You should do me a solid and fly out to California for my birthday at the end of the month and make this for me. And your buffalo chicken oven fries. I’ll take you to the DQ and get you a sprinkle cone! Whaddya say?!
This seriously looks like my DREAM pizza! :) Sooo tasty!
I made a very similar pizza this weekend! I had some leftover homemade ricotta and decided to make a version of Smitten Kitchen’s Fresh Ricotta & Red Onion Pizza! Except in my version I smeared the ricotta over Trader Joe’s whole heat pizza dough, topped it with the red onion marmalade, and then chopped up bacon because I am not fancy enough to have procscuitto or speck around my house! IT WAS DELISH! I guess great minds think alike :)
YES. I need this pizza in my life.
This looks AMAZING. Wow – such a yummy pizza!
But if it’s a thin crust AND whole wheat, then it’s ok to eat triple the amount…right? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure I would devour this entire pie in one sitting.