BBQ & Balsamic Pizza

Bernice Baran
Jul 30, 2018
3 min read

*10 years ago*

"Bernice, what's your favorite food?"

Me: "Pizza"

*Today*

"Bernice, what's your favorite food?"

Me: "Pizza"

*10 years from now*

"Bernice, what's your favorite food?"

Me: "Still pizza"

If you can't tell, pizza's my favorite food & always will be <3

Soooo I made a pizza, to prepare my taste buds for Italy next month ! *jumping up & down emoji*

Lolllll, we were supposed to go to Banff, but if you don't book way in advance, there aren't great places to stay at. So then we switched to Iceland, because tickets are like $300. But you also need to book this way in advance to be able to get a place to stay at outside of Reykjavik & I wanted to go around the east coast as well. Sooooo then something magical happened & I found $500 tickets to Italy (they've been >$1,000 like every time I've looked so yes this is magical for me). &&& lucky for me, there's a million places to go to & stay at in Italy so my spontaneous, last minute self is able to go (I'm sure all the GREAT places are booked but whateverrrrr lol I'm going for the pizza *sassy emoji*).

Okkkkk so I know I talked about my photography skills getting better in my last post but can we talk about the detail in these pizza photos right now?! Like I'm a little impressed if I do say so myself ! #trynabehumble

& yeah... I burnt the pizza a little but it still deserved a photoshoot & blog post because it was still beautiful & incredibly delicious. I actually prefer my pizza well done but this is a wee bit crispyyyy. It's cuz of the garlic on the crust, so you can omit that if you'd like.

I let it cool a little too long before I cut it so all I got was that tiny stringing piece of cheese. You can zoom in if you'd like, I know it's satisfying. #cheeseporn ...even though I don't like cheese...except on pizza & cheesecake *hiding myself from all the cheese-lovers emoji*

BBQ & BALSAMIC CHICKEN PIZZA

INGREDIENTS

Dough:

1 cup warm water

1 package active dry yeast (~1 tbsp.)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups +1/2 cup flour

Toppings:

1 large chicken breast

4 strips of bacon

1/2 medium red onion, diced

1/2 cup mushrooms. chopped

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp brown sugar

salt to taste

3-4 tbsp bbq

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp garlic (burns quickly on the crust)

2-3 cups mozzarella (depending on how cheesy you likkkeee)

handful of spinach

DIRECTIONS

Combine warm water with active dry yeast & sugar, in the bowl of your stand mixer.
Let it sit for five minutes & then mix until everything dissolves.
Add in oil & salt, mix until combined.
Add in flour, start with 2 cups & mix with hook attachment on low speed.
Continue to add flour in slowly until dough stops sticking to the edge of the bowl.
Knead for another couple minutes & then grease sides of the bowl, with oil, by pushing dough to one side of the bowl & and back to the other.
Cover dough & let it rise until at least doubled (dough rises faster in warm environments than in cool, but you can let it rise in the fridge overnight).
I used only half of dough for this pizza, feel free to refrigerate the other half or make a thicker pizza using the whole thing.
Meanwhile, cook bacon in a saucepan.
Remove & cut into bacon bits.
Use oil to sautee onions & mushrooms. Once they've started to brown, add in salt, half of balsamic & sugar.
Remove from heat & set aside.
Cook chicken, once it's fully cooked, remove from heat, dice/shred, return to heat pour the rest of the salt, balsamic & sugar over it.
Let it brown & then remove & set aside.
Preheat oven to 450 (preheat pizza stone if you have one. I used the back of a cookie tray)
Roll out dough & spread bbq all over, leaving about an inch for the crust.
Top with mozzarella & as much of the toppings as you want, you may have some left over. I like to do half mozzarella, then toppings, then the rest of my mozzarella.
Melt your butter, mix it with garlic (or cajun, parmesean, etc.) and brush onto crust.
Bake for ~8 minutes, keeping a close eye, not to burn like mine.
Once it's ALMOST DONE, remove & top with spinach, then return to oven for 1-2 minutes.
ENJOY & tag #bakewithb on instagram !

Crust Recipe adapted from domestically-speaking

So my friends, until I come back from Italy with a degree in pizza making, this will have to do. I hope ya'll enjoyed this post, because I sure enjoyed this pizza ! As always,