Apple and Bacon Pizza with Caramelized Onions

I've been on a caramelized onion kick for the last couple of days. And the other night I decided that I wanted to try to do a pizza with caramelized onions. I searched online for some ideas, and I found a few recipes that interested me. I took a few ideas from them, and came up with this. It includes yummy caramelized onions, crispy bacon, goat cheese and...wait for it...apple slices! So here is my gourmet pizza that I created...

Apple and Bacon Pizza with Caramelized Onions

3 slices of bacon, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large onion (I used red onion), sliced thinly
1-2 tbs honey
2 tbs marscapone cheese
1/4 cup farmer's cheese
Fresh ground black pepper
About 4 ounces crumbled Goat cheese
1 green apple, thinly sliced
A little chopped basil
Pizza crust

1. Chop 3 slices of bacon into 1/2-inch pieces.
   
   
   
2. Saute the bacon over medium heat in a dash of olive oil until crispy.
   
   
   Remove to a plate lined with a paper towel.
   
   
3. Leave 2 tbs of bacon grease in the pan and saute onion over high heat.
   
   
   I added a drizzle of honey to pump up the caramelization in the short amount of time that I cooked the onions.
   
   
   Cook until well-browned 8-10 minutes, stirring often.
   
   
   
   
   Remove onions to plate with bacon.
   
   
4. Mix together in small bowl 2 tbs of marscapone cheese with Farmer's cheese (Neufchâtel cheese). Season with freshly ground pepper, and mix. Set aside.
   
   
5. Spread cheese mixture over pizza dough. Lay apple slices on pizza dough and sprinkle with bacon.
   
   
   
6. Spread half of the onions across the pizza. Sprinkle with chopped basil, goat cheese, and remaining onion.
   
   
   
   
7. Bake in 400 degree oven until golden brown.
   
   

This wound up being quite good! Woodrow gave it two thumbs up, which is good, because I wasn't sure what he would think of it. He's not a very adventurous eater, unless I hide the ingredients from him and just feed it to him (like not telling him it was goat cheese until he had lauded the dish with praises first!)

Next time I might use more onions in the recipe, because they were really good! Also more apple slices. And I might lessen the amount of goat cheese or try a different kind of cheese. I think that I probably used about 6 ounces of goat cheese, in addition to the cheese mixture spread on the dough, and it wound up being slightly overpowering. I think next time I might use closer to 4 ounces, or try mozzarella or something instead. Also I might mix a little balsamic vinegar in the marscapone-farmer cheese mixture to pump up the sweetness a little, and make the cheese mixture easier to spread over the dough. Also, I would like to try making my own pizza dough next time, and try something that will create a really flavorful crust!





All in all, this was a success! Oh, and see that cheese bread? That is Little Caesar's cheese bread. If you have a boy scout or someone come by your house selling Little Caesar's products, go for the cheese bread! It's awesome!