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wide shot of BLT pizza

BLT Pizza


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  • Author: Elizabeth Farr
  • Total Time: 1 day 46 minutes
  • Yield: 24 pieces

Description

Simple overnight pizza dough stretched into a thin crust wonder topped with peppered tomatoes, perfect bacon and mayo drizzled arugula.  This is the best of summer on a plate.


Ingredients

Scale

Dough

  • 1 pound all-purpose flour or 00 pizza flour (454 g)
  • 1 teaspoon instant yeast 
  • 1 and 1/4 cups water (295 mL)
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil (30 mL), plus extra for drizzling
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Toppings

  • 1 pound bacon (a 12 oz package is okay too)
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • Salt and pepper
  • 8 oz grated cheese (American and Cheddar, or whatever you like) (227 g)
  • 1 pound ripe tomatoes, preferably ones good for slicing (454 g)
  • 5 oz arugula

Lemon Basil Mayo drizzle

  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Handful of fresh basil or other soft green herbs (dill, parsley, cilantro, tarragon), finely chopped 


Instructions

For the dough

  1. Mix all ingredients with a spoon in a mixing bowl.  The dough will be shaggy and rough, but don’t worry about it.  Briefly knead the dough just to pick up any loose flour from the bottom of the bowl.
  2. Drizzle the dough with a little olive oil, then cover to rest for 20 minutes.
  3. After 20 minutes, scoop under the dough with an oiled hand, bringing the dough back onto itself in the middle.  Do this on each side of the dough (north, south, east, and west if you want to think of the dough like a compass).
  4. Cover and rest for another 20 minutes.  Repeat the dough folds.
  5. Repeat this process one more time.  Notice how much smoother and elastic the dough is.
  6. After 3 rounds of folding, cover the dough to rest in the fridge for at least 8 hours and up to 24.

Make the pizza

  1. Heat the oven to 425F (220 C).  Bake the bacon on a parchment lined sheet tray for 10-15 minutes until crispy.  Drain the bacon and chop it into pieces.  Save the bacon fat.
  2. Place a pizza stone inside your oven if you have one (use an upside-down sheet tray if you don’t).  Turn up the heat to the highest heat it can go.  My oven goes to 500 F (260 C), though every oven I’ve owned before now tops out around 450 F.  Just know you’ll have to bake your pizza a little longer if you have a thicker crust or a lower temp.
  3. Divide the dough in half.  This is enough dough for 2 half sheet pans of thin crust pizza.
  4. Drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil over each sheet tray or smear them with about the same amount of bacon fat leftover from cooking the bacon.
  5. Lightly pat out the dough into the center of the sheet tray.  Do the same to the second sheet tray. 
  6. Let the dough rest for a minute or so, then begin stretching it outwards towards the edges of the pan.  Stop stretching when the dough springs back on you.  Moving from one sheet to the other will give the first dough some time to relax before you work it again.  Over about 10 minutes you should be able to stretch the dough all the way to the edge before it snaps back.
  7. Cover the pans each with a clean kitchen towel until the oven is at full heat.  Ideally, you should preheat the stone for about 20 minutes before baking.
  8. Spread some of the sour cream over one of the pizza crusts in a thin layer.  Sprinkle over some salt and pepper.  Cover the sour cream with about half the cheese. 
  9. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. 
  10. Meanwhile, prepare the toppings. Cut the tomatoes into slices between ¼” and ½” thick.  Lay them on a large plate and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  11. Mix the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl. 
  12. After 10 minutes of baking, lift the pizza crust out of the pan and place it directly on the pizza stone (or the overturned pizza crust) and bake for 3 more minutes until the bottom is light and crusty, the cheese is starting to brown and the crust holds together well.
  13. Toss a few handfuls of arugula in a bowl with about a tablespoon of the dressing.
  14. Top the baked pizza with the dressed arugula, tomato slices, and half the bacon.  Drizzle the mayo over the pizza before cutting.
  15. Repeat the baking for the second pizza.
  16. Pizza is best eaten straight away, though leftovers are still good refrigerated for a couple days.

Notes

Dairy free version: skip the sour cream and add dollops of Miyoko’s Cream Cheese (cashew based) with the arugula.  It tastes just like goat cheese! 

  • Prep Time: 20 minutes active time + 24 hours refrigerator time
  • Cook Time: 26 minutes for 2 pizzas
  • Category: Pizza
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: Italian