Breakfast for Dinner Pizza and Butterscotch Pudding Cake: Two Keeper from Sara Moulton

Not too long ago, I purchased Sara Moulton's newest cookbook, Everyday Family Dinners. I gotta say, I like the lady. We don't have cable, but on occasion I see her on our public television Create channel. She is just a no-nonsense person. She talks about how she came up with different recipes and what her family thinks of them, offers lots of variations for ingredients and techniques, and basically cooks in real time. She is a classically-trained chef who isn't afraid to use beans from a can or frozen veggies in a pinch to get food on the table for her family. When you read her book it almost feels like she is in the room with you having a little chat. 


One of my favorite lines of hers is "Left to my own devices, I'm tempted to finish off just about every recipe with a fried or poached egg." And in this cookbook she does seem to do just that. She puts eggs over warm lentils with roasted tomato vinaigrette, poaches them in yogurt with sage oil, stuffs them in phyllo cups with creamed spinach, and uses them as a topping for cheesy grits with corn, to name a few of her creations. This past week, I made her Breakfast for Dinner Pizza, which calls for topping a potato, bacon and Gruyere flatbread with a fried egg. We all enjoyed it. Ethan ate two big servings. It is perfect with a little side salad or even some fruit. It was simple, different and yet somehow classic. 

Breakfast for Dinner Pizza

Adapted from Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners

1 — 20 oz bag of store-bought pizza dough
8 oz. maple cured bacon
1 1/4 lbs. small yukon gold potatoes, thinly 
    sliced
1/2 vidalia onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
Salt and Pepper to taste
8 oz. Gruyere cheese, grated
6 large eggs


Remove the dough from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before you begin preparing dinner. Preheat the oven to 475° F.  


Cook the bacon in a large skillet until firm and just beginning to brown, but slightly undercooked. Drain on paper towels.


Drain and reserve the fat from the pan and wipe it out with a paper towel. Return 1 Tbs. of the bacon fat (let the burnt bits settle first) to the skillet (or you can use olive oil) over high heat. When hot, add the potatoes and onion; sprinkle with salt, pepper, and half the rosemary. Reduce heat to med-high and cook the mixture until the potatoes are just tender, turning several times. Set aside.


Roll or press out the dough into a 14x10" rectangle and place it onto a baking sheet lightly sprinkled with cornmeal. Bake for 3-4 minutes, until set but not browned. Let it cool a few minutes before proceeding.


Arrange the potatoes and onion over the crust. Sprinkle it with the remaining rosemary, cheese, and crumbled bacon. Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for 8-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the crust is browned.


Fry the eggs in the same skillet, using additional bacon fat or olive oil, until they are cooked as you like them. A runny yolk is nice in this dish. Season with salt and pepper.


When the pizza is done baking, cut it into 6 pieces and top each with a fried egg.


Makes 6 servings

Butterscotch Pudding Cake

From Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners

Another of Sara's recipes I recently made was Butterscotch Pudding Cake. I am a big fan of chocolate pudding cake, but eating chocolate after dinner sometimes has a way of making sure Jim and I understand we are not as young as we used to be. Waking up at two am and not being able to get back to sleep has motivated me to find other non-chocolate alternatives for the occasional dessert I make. 


I love butterscotch so when I saw the delicious picture in her book of the golden cake and warm pools of buttery sauce topped with melting vanilla ice cream, I new I needed to act. And I am glad I did. Like its chocolate brethren, the preparation involves topping a stiff batter with boiling water, baking, and voila, out of the oven comes a light cake with a crispy surface atop a layer of molten pudding. It is not too sweet and has a little saltiness to it that makes your mouth water. We topped ours with a generous dollop of maple flavored whipped cream. So easy and quick to make, so delightfully homey to eat. 


4 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 cup unbleached flour
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup whole milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup boiling water


Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease an 8 cup shallow baking dish or pan. Melt the butter. Bring water to boil.


Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl until there are not brown sugar lumps. Add the milk, butter, and vanilla. Stir until just combined; transfer the batter to the baking dish.


Pour the boiling water carefully over the surface of the batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cake has a crisp golden surface and the pudding sauce on the bottom bubbles.

Set aside for 5-10 to cool slightly. Serve warm.


Serves 4-6