★ ERIC Atkins ★

Dough courtesy of Terry’s Pizza on Bailey Cove. $1.50 for the dough. I avoid pre-made crusts. Refrigerating the dough for 24-72 hours can add to the taste of the dough. If you are like me, you’ll not wait 24 hours and just go ahead and cook the dough the morning after you acquire it.

You’ll need

5-6 slices of your meat (I choose Canadian bacon thinly sliced from the deli)

2 cups of cheese (mozzarella is my favorite but fontina is also good)

2-3 eggs (however many you want on top)

Olive oil (to brush the dough)

Sugar (handful)

Pizza sauce (optional – I used tomato basil sauce)

Arugula (for ganishing)

Butter (everything is better with butter)

Flour (to keep the dough from sticking to prep surfaces)

Preheat the oven and stone to 445-450 F.

Flatten out dough into the crust shape. Brush one side with olive oil.

You’ll want the dough to slide onto the pizza stone so use flour to reduce the friction between the dough and whatever you will use to slide the dough from onto the stone. A metal pizza pan will work fine. I use a cardboard box.

While the stone is warming up, go ahead and pre-cook the meat (Canadian bacon or smoked ham in my case). Grill it for 4-5 minutes on a medium temperature in a skillet until the meat begins to brown. I added a little butter to sauté the Canadian bacon.

Put your cheese on the dough. Spread it evenly and try not to have any mounds of cheese. Go ahead and add a little bit of pizza sauce if you want. I use very little if any at all.

Next, place your meat onto the cheese.

I like to now go back and place ¼ to ½ of a cup of cheese on top of the meat.

We aren’t ready to put the eggs on the pizza yet. We’ve got to cook the pizza first.

But before we slide the pizza onto the stone, take a look at where you think you will place and cook your eggs on the pizza. Yes, we are cooking the eggs in the oven on top of the pizza.

Survey where you are going to put your eggs because the eggs, when they come out the shell, could run off the pizza if you have any “mounds” or “lumps” on your pizza. The first time I did it, the eggs slid right off the pizza onto the oven. So, I make a couple of indentions where the eggs will go to “hold” the eggs in place.

After you’ve got the ingredients on the dough as you like, it’s time to cook the dough and the ingredients (without the eggs).

Place it in the over at 445-450 F for 6-7 minutes.

After 6-7 minutes, it’s time to crack your eggs and put them on the pizza. I like 2 eggs on mine, but 3 or even 4 will work just as well.

Crack the eggs and put them on your pizza. Hopefully they’ll stay on the pizza and not run off your crust.

If you want, you could at this time add some extra pizza sauce on top of the ingredients.

Now, just watch those eggs for 4-6 minutes. The longer you cook them, the more done they’ll become. I like a runny egg, so about 4-5 minutes is about as long as I’ll leave them on the pizza.

When the eggs are as cooked as you like them, pull the stone and pizza out of the oven. Let it cool for a few minutes. The ingredients should still be bubbling.

One thing I do to spice up just about any pizza, depending on the sauce, is sweeten it by sprinkling sugar on the pizza. Some pizza sauces are already sweet, but if yours is bland and if you want a sweet taste, just take a handful of sugar and sprinkle it around the pizza. A little bit will add a lot of flavor to your pizza. It won’t take away from the taste of your meat or cheese.

Add some garnishes if you like.

One thing to note, the hardest thing to cook is the crust. You may have to experiment with the thickness of your crust, the length of time you need to cook the crust, and the temperature of your over. The flow of air inside your over makes a big difference. The more hot air circulating, the better the dough will bake.

Kuddos to you if you have an oven pizza and a wooden paddle.