Bacon and Tomato Pizza Bread

This is one I am making for the front porch this weekend. Give this one a try. You’ll want a metal baking pan. A glass one will make the bottom soggy. The key here is a light coating of tomato that cooks on top of the dough in very high heat. In the last two minutes, add any pre-cooked topping you want, like bacon. You can add cheese, but honestly, it is not necessary. This is just light and refreshing. Use high-quality tomatoes because they really do make a difference.

Ingredients

• 222g water heated to 100ºF

• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast (7g)

• 345g bread flour

• 7g kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling on top

• 28g olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1 cup canned crushed or pureed tomatoes, preferably San Marzano

• 6 strips of bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

• Mozzarella cheese (optional)

Direction

1. Dissolve yeast in the water with a pinch of sugar and wait ten minutes for it to be foamy. Add flour and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook. Add water and yeast, stirring on low until a shaggy dough comes together. Cover and rest for ten minutes. Add in the 28g of oil and mix on medium for ten minutes to knead until a smooth ball forms.

2. Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to a clean bowl and ensure the sides are greased. Form a loose ball of your dough, and transfer it to the oiled bowl, then roll the ball to cover all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature until it roughly doubles in size. It’ll take between an hour and 1.5 hours.

3. Add 1/2 cup olive oil to the bottom of a 9x13-inch metal pan. Yes, you want to use that much as it will cause the bottom to get crispy. Spread the oil out and up the sides of the pan.

4. Add the dough and spread it out. If it starts pulling back, let it rest under a towel for ten minutes and resume spreading.

5. Sprinkle some kosher salt. Then lightly cover the dough with the tomatoes being careful to avoid the edges where the dough touches the pan. The sauce will burn if it touches the edge.

6. Loosely cover and let the dough proof in the pan for 30 minutes, until it’s puffed up. Meanwhile, heat your oven to 475°F. Once the dough has puffed up, poke it all over with your fingertips to make dimples. Do this, then bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the un-sauced edges are brown where they touch the pan, and the pizza-like bubbles that have puffed up across the surface are tinged dark brown in the centers. In the last few minutes of baking, sprinkle on the bacon and optional cheese.

7. Serve warm. The bread can be stored in the fridge and reheated in a toaster oven later.