Egg and Bacon Bread...

I don't know if you can technically call this Egg and Bacon Bread a pizza, but we did prepare it with our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough and I did make it tonight for our Friday Night Pizza!

After I whipped up the pound version of the dough, I set it aside to rise, which gave me just enough time to get all the rest of the ingredients together. I got the eggs cooked and chopped, a mess of bacon crisped and shredded a generous hunk of sharp white cheddar. If you've never had luck hard-cooking eggs, the easiest way to do it is add the eggs into your pan, fill it with cold water and toss in a small scoop of salt. Bring the water just to a boil, cover the pan and take it off the heat for about 13 minutes. Once the timer beeps, drain the hot water away and shock the eggs with cold water. The salt is added to help with removing the shells when you're ready, but don't worry about it making your eggs salty... it doesn't go through the shell. I can't explain the science behind it, but it just seems to make the shells slip off much easier.

Once the dough was ready to work with, I gently pulled it into a large rectangle and instead of using a tomato sauce as a topping, we smeared the dough with a medley of grainy mustard, a clove of garlic, black pepper, cayenne pepper sauce and a just a pinch of salt. Next came the crumbled bacon and chopped eggs, followed by a good coating of the sharp cheese. The dough is then rolled up just like you were making cinnamon rolls, keeping it tight and even. While I'm sure this would be good baked as a long loaf as is, we curled the dough into a large tube pan to create an intriguing ring!

Left to rise until puffy once more, before it went into the oven, we brushed the dough with an egg wash, added some slashes on top to allow for expansion and gave one more coat of that shredded cheese on top. Because of the layers, it will take quite a bit longer to bake - it is done when the loaf is a rich golden brown and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Because the cheese it melted and quite hot on the inside, you'll want to let this rest for about a half hour before you start taking out slices - this give the cheese enough time to set and not run out all over.

Jeff wasn't around until I pulled it out from the oven and he was quite surprised! He could barely contain himself as we waited for it to cool down - once I took the first piece out and he saw the swirl of bacon, egg and cheese he was taken aback - "I had no idea this is what you where making! This looks so fun!" is all he could say. Using the mustard as a spread inside brought a charging zing and lent a nice bite to the salty bacon and eggs. While we had this for dinner, I think this would be a standout dish to serve at a casual brunch, on a buffet cut into small wedges or for a killer hearty breakfast! And since it is fairly contained and could be eaten out of hand, it could be a portable breakfast at that!

Recipes
Egg and Bacon Bread