Pizza with Onion Confit

I do love a good, homemade pizza.  But let's be honest, I haven't made one in awhile.  Maybe it was the advent of two kids into my life or maybe it is the abundance of excellent pizzerias in Portland (that do take-out), but whatever the reason it's been missing in my dinner repertoire.  After completing this recipe I might be convinced that it is time to bring it back, because it really takes little effort.  Some planning and forethought, sure, but not even too much of that.  Plus it was an easy dinner for Quinn (Rhiannon's big brother) to help out on; he really got into making his own little pizza crammed with pepperoni and cheese.  

This recipe does call for 2 rises: one with the sponge and one with the dough.  For pizza dough, I typically have skipped the sponge rise without significant consequence.  If I have time, I will let the sponge rise but if not, I won't let it stop me.  

the sponge

the risen sponge

the dough

the risen dough

(As you can tell from my pictures, the day progressed from morning, natural light to artificial light.  Not as pretty but no choice in the matter.)
Now, I must say I was skeptical about the onion confit.  I am not a big onion person, much less so when it comes to pizza.  But I was pleasantly surprised here.  The butter and wine and vinegar and sugar nicely mellowed the onions into slightly tender, sweet, sour onions with little of their typical character.  These took over an hour to cook, and I did cook these up these a few days ahead of time and stored them in the fridge.  I am not sure I would go to the trouble of cooking these again, but they were an excellent addition this time.  And I only used them on one of the pizzas and have frozen the rest for use as a base in savory galettes (yea!).

Pizza with onion confit, olives, & goat cheese- ready to bake

Complete!

So the other pizza crust was covered with red sauce, mozzarella and pepperoni.

And Quinn made his own pizza.

Find this recipe on Paul's page, this week's host of Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia.

Finally, Rhiannon was introduced to snow recently; she was perplexed.