Blue Cheese, Bacon, and Onion Pizza with Arugula and Apples

Here is an improvised pizza with some non-typical pizza ingredients and a whole wheat no-knead crust.  It is amazing how little effort went into it and how wonderful it turned out.  This is one a few book-free posts.  There are a couple of reasons for this - first, I am trying to post more often, with great seasonal recipes, and I can definitely cook quicker than I can read!  Second, I am on about page 850 of a close to 1000 page book, so it has obviously taken me longer to get through it than my typical book.  Next weekend I will (hopefully) be ready to go with some book/food combos!  For now, enjoy this wonderful pizza.

Bacon, Blue Cheese and Onion Pizza with Apple and Arugula Salad (and Whole Wheat Pizza Crust)
Crust adapted from Jim Lahey's No Knead Pizza Crust, pizza inspired by thecafesucrefarine.blogspot.com, via Food52.com

Wow, the title of this pizza is quite a mouthful, huh?  If anyone can come up with a better name, let e know!  For the crust, I used a Jim Lahey "No Knead" recipe.  I totally watched the No Knead bread trend from the sidelines, and had not tried any of those recipes, even though they are raved about.  In general, I don't need (no pun intended!) to add any more carbs to my diet, if you know what I mean?  I love, love, love bread, and if there was an easier way to make really wonderful bread at home I would eat even more bread than I do, so I have stayed away.  BUT, when I was inspired to make this pizza (again part of trying to use up ingredients I had purchased for that MasterChef audition - bacon, blue cheese), the no knead pizza dough seemed like a great lazy option - just mix all the ingredients together and leave over night.  I altered the recipe by making the majority of the flour whole wheat flour, and the nutty crust really played well with the strong flavors of the bacon, onion and blue cheese.

Ingredients (makes two small/10-12 inch pizzas)
Crust
 1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water

Toppings (this is rough, adjust topping amounts to your taste!)
7 ounces bacon, chopped into small strips
1 and 1/2 cups blue cheese, chopped
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1 apple, thinly sliced
2-3 cups arugula
olive oil

Directions:

1. Combine all crust ingredients in large bowl.  Stir until all ingredients are incorporated.  Cover with plastic wrap, keep in a warm place, around 70 degrees.  Leave there 12-24 hours.
2. Turn dough out onto a well floured work surface and fold dough over itself a few times.  Dough will be very sticky, so be liberal with the flour.  Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 15 minutes.
3. Again using flour as necessary, divide dough in two and shape into two balls.  Cover with a floured dishtowel and let rise two hours more.
4. When dough you are ready to use it, roll out dough with well floured rolling pin.  If you have a pizza stone, use it. Otherwise, put the dough onto cookie sheets dusted with cornmeal.
5. Preheat oven to 450.
6. Cook bacon in a large skillet over low heat until browned and crispy.  Drain on a paper towel.
7. Get rid of most of bacon grease, but keep about 2 tablespoons in pan.
8. Put back on medium low heat and add onions, cooking until onions are browned nicely, about 15-20 minutes.
9. Add bacon, blue cheese and onions to pizza dough.
10. Cook pizza until lightly browned and blue cheese is bubbling, about 15 minutes.
11. Let pizza cool about 5 minutes.
12. While pizza is cooling, toss arugula with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.
13. Pile arugula on top of pizza and add apple slices on top.