This recipe was a true labor of love. Sometimes food just taste better when you know you’ve put a lot of time into it.
It’s not that this recipe was at all difficult, it just takes time. Between the fermenting dough and caramelized onions, you need to plan ahead for this one. But most of the time is spent letting the ingredients do their own thing while you go paint your toe nails, do your laundry, or watch Law & Order. So, don’t be scared off by the length of it.
This pizza is truly awesome with it’s garlicky cream sauce, sweet caramelized onions, and earthy sauteed mushrooms. Everything just goes together. And after calculating the cost, I have to say I was quite surprised. I expected the total to be twice as much and to have to explain that I was simply trying to use up a bag of onions that have been sitting on my counter for a couple weeks and a half pound of mushrooms that were starting to get wrinkly in my fridge. I guess I don’t have to make excuses after all! It’s an all around winner!
So, plan ahead to have a pizza night this Friday and mix up your dough the night before… you WON’T be disappointed!
Caramelized Onion & Mushroom Pizza
Caramelized Onion & Mushroom White Pizza
Servings 4Ingredients
DOUGH
- 2 cups all purpose flour ($0.30)
- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp instant yeast ($0.02)
- 3/4 cup water (approximately) ($0.00)
TOPPINGS
- 3 small yellow onions $0.84 ($0.84)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil $0.24 ($0.24)
- a pinch salt and pepper $0.05 ($0.05)
- 8 oz button mushrooms $1.75 ($1.75)
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme $0.02 ($0.02)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella $0.93 ($0.93)
- handful fresh parsley (optional) ($0.10)
SAUCE
- 1 Tbsp butter ($0.12)
- 1 clove garlic ($0.08)
- 4 oz cream cheese ($0.93)
- 1/2 cup milk ($0.13)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
Instructions
- The night before, combine the flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl. Stir to combine. Add just enough water to make the mixture form a ball of dough with no dry flour left on the bottom of the bowl. This will be around 3/4 cup of water. Loosely cover the bowl and allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 12-18 hours.
- The next day, about an hour and a half before you plan to eat, thinly slice three small (or 2 medium/large) yellow onions. Saute the onions in a skillet over medium-low heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil for about 45 minutes, stirring the mixture every 2-3 minutes. The end result should be deep golden brown, soft, sweet onions. For a more detailed, step by step photo tutorial on how to caramelize onions, check here.
- While the onions are cooking, slice the mushrooms. Take the caramelized onions out of the skillet and add the mushrooms, along with a pinch of salt and pepper and the dried thyme. There should be some residual oil in the skillet to cook the mushrooms, if not add a tad more. Cook the mushrooms until all of the moisture has evaporated away (about 10 minutes over medium heat).
- While the mushrooms are cooking, prepare the cream sauce. Mince a clove of garlic and add it to a pot with 1 tablespoon of butter. Saute over medium heat until softened (about 2 minutes). Next, add the cream cheese, milk, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Heat and whisk this mixture until a smooth sauce forms (about 5 minutes).
- Adjust the rack in your oven to its highest position and begin to preheat to 500 degrees. The dough at this point should be at least double in volume and very bubbly (see photos below). Sprinkle it generously with flour and then scrape it out of the bowl and onto a floured surface. Pat the dough down into a circle about ten inches in diameter. Transfer the dough to a large (16-inch) pizza pan that has been coated with non-stick spray and stretch/press it the rest of the way out to the edges of the pan.
- Spread the sauce over the surface of the dough with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle the caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms over top. Finally, add the shredded mozzarella. Bake the pizza in the fully preheated 500 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley after baking, if desired.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
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Step By Step Photos
The night before, stir together the flour, salt, and yeast. Stir in just enough water until it forms a ball of dough like this. For me it was about 3/4 cup of water, but it will be different every time depending on the humidity and other factors. Loosely cover the dough and let it sit at room temperature for 12-18 hours. This will develop the gluten to give you a nice crisp/chewy crust and also provide flavor.
The next day, about an hour and a half before you want to eat, get the onions started. You can use three small or two medium or large onions. You could even caramelize a double batch and then freeze half so that you don’t have to do it all over again next time!
Slice the onions and pop them into a skillet along with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Start cooking them over medium/low heat, stirring every few minutes.
This is a long, slow process and must be done that way. After about 45 minutes of slow cooking, the onions will be like this. I could have even cooked them longer, but I was all like “I WANT PIZZA NOW!” so I stopped here. For a more detailed photo instruction of how to caramelize onions, look here.
To avoid dirtying another pan, I just took the onions out and added my sliced mushrooms. There was enough oil left over in the skillet that I didn’t need to add more, but do so if you need to. Also add a pinch of salt, pepper, and a 1/4 tsp of dried thyme.
Cook those mushrooms down until they have released all of their moisture and then that moisture has evaporated off (about 10 minutes).
While the mushrooms are cooking, you can begin making the sauce. Mince a clove of garlic and saute it for about 2 minutes in a tablespoon of butter.
Then add 4 ounces of cream cheese, a half cup of milk, and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt…
Whisk and heat the ingredients together until they form a smooth sauce (about 5 minutes over medium heat)
Now back to that dough… This is what it looks like after about 16 hours. Big, fluffy, bubbly, and most importantly, STICKY. Sprinkle some flour over top of the dough and then use your hands to scrape it off the sides of the bowl and onto a floured counter top. Oh yeah, and begin to preheat your oven to 500 degrees now too, because that may take a while. And make sure your oven rack is on it’s highest level.
Once you have the dough out on your counter top, press it down into a circle that is about half the size that you want it. You need to be able to transfer it to the pizza pan and then you can stretch and press it the rest of the way out once it’s on there. I used a large 16 inch pizza pan.
Transfer the partially stretched dough onto a pizza pan coated with non-stick spray. Stretch it the rest of the way out. Pour the cream sauce on top and use the back of a spoon to spread it around.
Sprinkle the mushrooms and onions over top…
And then sprinkle just a little mozzarella over top (1 cup). Since there’s already a rich cream sauce, I didn’t want to add a ton of cheese. Plus, I didn’t want it to over power the onion and mushroom flavor.
Bake that puppy for about 12-15 minutes or until the crust is nice and golden brown. Add fresh parsley on top after cooking, if desired (it just makes it look nice).
Why, hello gorgeous… *wink, wink*
Beth,
I have a jar of active dry yeast and I really don’t want to buy another type of yeast and let this one go to waste. Can I still use just 1/4 tsp of yeast and just proof it before adding flour?
Yes, I think that will work. You can just add it into the water that you’ll be adding. :)
Hi Beth. I made this last night. The addition of thyme to the mushrooms is a great touch – one I’ll add to my book of tricks. The sauce was impossibly watery and I had to thicken it with corn starch. After cooking it more than 5 minutes, I realized it was never going to thicken up without help. Had I poured it on my pizza, it would have just ran everywhere. I would make this again, but would use a garlicky béchamel sauce.
Hmm, that’s really strange. Did you double check the quantities for the sauce ingredients? Also, I’ve noticed that it does thicken quite a bit as it cools down.
Argh! You are right! I put in a cup of milk! LOL, my daughter says I am a terrible cook even after 35 years in the kitchen. She could be right. LOL! Sue
We all do it, no matter how long we’ve been cooking! :)
Made this last night. I used Greek yogurt instead of cream cheese. Turned out delicious!!
I am all for all things caramelized. I linked to this recipe in my December meal plan.
I made caramelized balsamic onions and mushrooms yesterday and made this today with the leftovers and it was Amazing!! I didn’t have any cream cheese in the house so I used a few wedges of laughing cow cheese.
I have been wanting to make this since you posted it back in November, and I finally got a chance to do so this weekend. Oh My Gosh! This was one of the best pizzas I have ever had. It was totally worth the extra time it took to make.
Lizz – Absolutely. I’ve even heard of people who caramelize large batches of onions and then freeze them for later! :D
Beth…do you think you could caramelize the onions the night before while you’re making the dough and store them in the fridge until you’re ready to bake the pizza the next day?
Made this with my boyfriend – it was to die for! We’re officially having pizza night once a month thanks to this recipe! I’ve used your site quite a bit and just want to thank you for the delicious recipes (we’ve made your honey spice chicken thighs and black bean quesadillas and loved those too!). Anyways, keep them coming, this is truly a great place to find new recipes that don’t hurt my bank account!
I’m thinking this would be totally yummy on a gluten-free cauliflower crust instead of a yeast crust as well … definitely going to have to try that very soon!
Thanks so much for your answer. We can’t wait for a cookbook from you. I want to be first in line!
Asia – For regular pizza dough recipes (that rise one or two hours) you add a little sugar to kick start the yeast and make it act a little faster. Those recipes also require more yeast than this one. For long rise recipes (like this one) you only need a very small amount of yeast and no extra sugar because the yeast has plenty of time to feed off of the flour and multiply many times over. So, that’s the basic difference :) I also find the long rise recipes to have a better texture (less bread-like). But hey, I’ll take either one as long as it’s turned into a pizza!!
Hi Beth :) my husband and I are big fans and have been making your recipes for years. He is the pizza maker between us and has recently started making your pizza dough recipe once per week after the bread machine pizza dough that he was making started coming out funny. We really like the pizza dough recipe you have, but what is the difference between that one and the one contained in this recipe? I noticed that this one doesn’t contain sugar where the other one does, and I also noticed that this one rises for much longer (the other one for just an hour.) thanks!
Lauren – White onions will work just fine. There shouldn’t be much of a noticeable flavor difference :) I just wouldn’t suggest using red or purple onions.
This looks so good! I had a question though, do you think white onions will be okay for caramelizing, or does it absolutely have to be yellow? Will the taste be any different?