Mini Eggs Benedict Pizzas
Mini Eggs Benedict Pizzas- A fun twist on a brunch favorite, these personal sized pizzas are loaded with gooey cheese, Canadian bacon, a perfectly poached egg, and a delicious mock hollandaise.
January 20, 2021 by Nicole Collins
I live for brunch.
Anyone who knows anything about me knows this to be true.
Honestly, people that don’t even know me know this about me too!
I mean, with all of the brekkie and brunch recipes that we make around here, you had to know that I’m basically brunch obsessed. Right?
My close friends know that I have a few go to orders whenever I go out to eat a restaurant. (Or at least I did when we used to do things like going to restaurants.) For brunch, I’ll almost always order one of these two things: some kind of eggs benedict or some kind of chicken and waffles. They’re 2 of my absolute favorite brekkie combos, and there are soooooooo many different flavor profiles that both dishes can take on.
Since we’ve been stuck at home and I got my wood fired pizza oven, I’ve been making A LOT of pizzas. And what’s ironic about this is that I’ve never really been the biggest pizza fan. But, homemade pizza with whatever flavor profile you can dream up is easily becoming one of my new favorite things to make.
So today, we’re mixing and matching ideas. We’re taking my favorite meal and doing a mash up with my new favorite things to cook.
Today, we’re making Mini Eggs Benedict Pizzas!
This special brunch treat checks all of the boxes. You get an adorable personal sized pizza. You get the most perfectly cooked poached egg. And, we even have a super quick mock hollandaise to serve on top!
Are you excited yet?
Let’s talk about the pizza base. You guys know that I have kind of a love/hate relationship with yeast, and it’s definitely not one of my favorite things to work with. Since I’ve been making my own pizzas, I have been making my own dough. But, that dough recipe is specifically for a Neapolitan style pizza which is different than the “traditional” pizza. So, I decided to cheat and buy fresh pizza dough from a local store. If you have a favorite pizza dough recipe, use it. But, there is nothing wrong with taking a little help from the grocery store (or a local pizzeria) to get a really delicious dough.
Before we start working with the dough, we want to make sure our dough is at room temperature. We’re going to divide our dough into 4, then stretch it into little baby circles. This will be impossible to do if your dough is not room temperature, so you do need to plan ahead a little before making this pizza.
To top our pizza, we’re going to give it a simple brush of olive oil. Then, we’ll sprinkle a mix of shredded mozzarella and shredded gruyere right on top of the dough. And before it goes into the oven, we’ll chop up some Canadian bacon to rest on top. Now, if you can’t find or don’t have Canadian bacon, ham or regular bacon would taste yum here too.
While the pizza bakes, we can work on our poached eggs. Everyone has their own theories when it comes to cooking any kind of egg, but this is my tried and true method for poaching eggs. And, I poach A LOT of eggs. What we’ll do is bring a shallow saucepan filled with water and a cap full of white vinegar to the lightest simmer. We just barely want to see the bubbles rising from the bottom of the pot. Then, we’ll give the water a pinch of salt for seasoning before we drop in our eggs, and we’ll carefully lay our eggs (that have been cracked into a ramekin first) into the water. The eggs will cook for exactly 3 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to take them out of the water, gently pat the eggs to absorb any extra water, and the eggs are ready for our pizzas! Now, if you’re not serving all of these pizzas at once, wait to poach the eggs until you’re ready to serve.
To finish any good eggs benedict, you need a hollandaise sauce. But, we’re switching things up and making a super simple mock hollandaise today. I guess, technically, this sauce is probably more like an aioli. But, it does the job we need it to do of adding a little extra acid and richness at the same time.
So to make our mock hollandaise, we’ll melt a little butter in small saucepan. We’ll add in some mayonnaise, some lemon juice, a little dijon for color, and a pinch of salt and cayenne pepper. Whisk it all together until everything is nice and smooth and the sauce has been warmed through, and that’s all we need to do for our mock hollandaise. It’s so fast and so simple.
After we give our pizzas a drizzle of hollandaise, garnish with some chives, and it’s time to eat! The pizza dough is soft and pillowy. The ham and cheese are nice and savory. The egg is rich and luxurious. And, that hollandaise ties it all together with a little zip of tang. This gorgeous little brunch pizza is definitely not just for looks. It’s so darn comforting and delicious!
Ok, everyone! You know my wheels are spinning now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a chicken and waffles pizza in our future!
But for now, enjoy! And, let’s eat!
Mini Eggs Benedict Pizza
Serves: 4 Print
Ingredients:
For the Pizza:
1 lb pizza dough, at room temperature
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 cup shredded gruyere
4 slices Canadian bacon, quartered
4 eggs
1 tsp white vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste
minced chives, for garnish
all purpose flour, for dusting
semolina flour or cornmeal, for the baking sheet
For the Mock Hollandaise:
2 tbsp unsalted butter
½ cup mayonnaise
1 ½ tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp dijon mustard
1/8 tsp salt
1/8- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Lightly sprinkle a large baking sheet with semolina flour. Set aside.
Lightly dust a clean surface with all purpose flour. Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Gently stretch each dough ball into a 6 inch round. Transfer dough rounds to prepared baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil evenly over dough; and brush olive oil all over dough, leaving a ½ inch border. Top each pizza with both cheeses and Canadian bacon, evenly divided. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.
Make the Poached Eggs: Fill a medium saucepan or a high sided skillet with water and 1 tsp vinegar. Heat over medium high heat until the water just starts to lightly bubble. Add a pinch of salt to the water. Crack each egg into an individual ramekin. Carefully drop each egg into the water, and cook at a low simmer for exactly 3 minutes. If the water starts to bubble more than a very light simmer, reduce the heat to medium. Use a slotted spoon to remove the eggs from the water, and gently dab with a paper towel to get off any excess water. Top each pizza with one poached egg. Season egg with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Make the Mock Hollandaise: In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add mayonnaise, lemon juice, dijon mustard, salt, and cayenne pepper, to taste. Whisk until fully combined and heated through. Remove from heat.
To serve, drizzle hollandaise over each pizza. Garnish with chives. Enjoy!
Recipe notes:
*It's very important that your dough is room temperature before you start working with it. If it's not, it will not stretch properly. You can either purchase your dough from your favorite store or pizza shop, or you can use your favorite homemade dough recipe.
*You could also top these pizzas with a fried egg, if you prefer.
*If you're not serving all of these pizzas at once, wait to poach the egg until you're ready to serve. You can store leftover hollandaise in the fridge, and reheat it before you serve it again.
*You could also prepare this as one large pizza to share as opposed to 4 individual pizzas.
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