Weekly Recipe: Bacon, Mushroom, Mozzarella, & Caramelized Onion Pizza

I am a sucker for any type of bread-related recipes, especially when it's the main entree.  I love making homemade pizzas to use up items in the fridge but this one came together after seeing numerous pizzas around the blog community.  None of the ones I found used these same ingredients and I think the combination turned out quite well.  The onions provided a little sweetness to counteract the saltiness of the bacon.  The mushrooms just soaked up the bacon goodness.

I used Sugar Plum's crust after she tried to duplicate one of my favorite pizza joints, Pizzeria Regina, in Boston. It wasn't your traditional crust, with it's high ratio of cornmeal but I loved it!  It's been a while since I've been to Regina's, so I can't comment as to how similar the crusts are.  This is a good, wholesome crust though.

Bacon, Mushroom, Mozzarella, & Caramelized Onion Pizza
adapted from Sugar Plum

Crust:
3/4 cup warm water (not hot)
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp honey
3/4 tsp salt
2 T melted butter, divided use
1 1/2 cup whole wheat bread flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal, plus additional for rolling

Toppings:
8-10 cremini mushrooms
4 slices of bacon

1 T. olive oil

1/2 of large red onion, thinly sliced

1 T brown sugar

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1-2 cups mozzarella cheese

1 cup pizza sauce (I like Muir Glen)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together water, yeast and honey until well combined; rest for 5 minutes. Mix in salt, melted butter, bread flour and whole wheat flour until well combined and a dough ball forms. Turn out dough onto a work surface, and knead in cornmeal. Knead dough for about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic.

Lightly cover bowl and allow to rise in a warm area for 1-2 hours or until doubled in bulk.

While the crust is rising, fry the bacon, reserving 1 tsp grease.  Crumble bacon and set aside.  Add mushrooms to the pan and saute on medium-low for 3-5 minutes.  Remove and set aside.  In the same pan, add 1 T. olive oil if your skillet has gotten too dry.  Increase heat to medium-high and add sliced onions.  Allow to cook down for 5-7 minutes, stirring often.  Add 1 T. brown sugar and turn heat to low.  Allow the onions to caramelize for 10-15 minutes.  Remove from heat and add 2 tsp balsamic vinegar.

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.
Roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness on a work surface. Transfer to a pizza stone or greased cookie sheet.  Spread evenly with pizza sauce.  Top with crumbled bacon, mushrooms, onions, then cheese.  

Bake 15-18 minutes until golden and bubbly. 

Linking up to Jam Hands, Lady Behind the Curtain, This Chick Cooks, and Remodelholic.