This is my kind of "baking"!!!

I'm not sure which is more surprising about this recipe - the fact that it is "baking" or the fact that it's breakfast. Neither of which are usually my thing. I tend to avoid baking because I find it stressful. Unlike cooking where I can tweak things as I go, baking requires specific attention to detail and if you get something wrong, you don't find out until it's out of the oven. Then there's breakfast...I'm not quite sure why, but I've never been a big breakfast person. Other than a phase in my youth where I boycotted eggs (thanks to a biology class project) I can't think of breakfast foods I don't like. But yet I also admit to waking up late on summer mornings when I was in school and treating myself to a delicious "breakfast" of grilled cheese and Spaghettios.

So it is somewhat unusual that a recipe caught my attention a few months ago and inspired this dish. Regardless of my usual tendencies, this dish is easy and delicious and is sure to become a regular in our rotation!

Spicy Sausage Breakfast Bread (adapted from Cooking Light, Jan/Feb 2010)
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 can refrigerated pizza dough
1/4 large onion, diced
1 lb mild Italian chicken sausage
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (Cheddar, Mexican blend, Monterey Jack, etc)
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
Cooking spray & Olive Oil

Preparation:

To start this recipe, spray a baking sheet with some cooking spray and roll out the refrigerated pizza dough into as close of a rectangle as you can get. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.



Next, brown a pound of chicken sausage in a skillet. I used mild Italian chicken sausage because it's what my grocery store had, but you could use hot, or any other type of chicken sausage. I really prefer chicken sausage because it is flavorful and still juicy but not greasy or full of fat - but if you can't find it, turkey sausage would work, or even plain old pork. As the sausage is browning, stir in the diced onion.


Once the sausage is browned, crack open 3 of the eggs in a bowl, lightly beat them, and throw them into the pan. The eggs should only need a couple of minutes to cook. When they're done, take the pan off the heat.


Take half of the shredded cheese and sprinkle it in a strip down the center of the dough. I've used different types of cheese each time I've prepared this meal. Based on the flavors, a cheddar, monterey jack or some sort of Mexican blend seem to work the best, but use what you like!


Then top the cheese with the sausage, egg and onion mixture. Top that mixture with the diced jalapeno. If you're a wuss (I kid, I kid) you can cut back on the peppers. But to be completely honest, this is not a particularly spicy dish. Finally sprinkle the rest of the cheese on.


Using a paring knife, make diagonal cuts 1-2 inches apart on either side of the filling.


Criss-cross the strips over the filling to mimic a braid. Make sure to seal the ends so that the goodness doesn't ooze out in the oven. One important note: if you add too much more sausage (or egg or cheese) you will not have enough dough to close this sucker up. Trust me, I've pushed it before. Practice restraint!


Crack open the last egg and get just the egg white into a bowl, to brush over the bread. It will give it a beautiful golden color when it's in the oven. Pop it into the oven and let it cook 15 minutes.


Once you pull it out, let it rest a few minutes before cutting it so that the filling can set a bit.


Here's what you'll get!


So even though I don't make the dough in any way, shape or form...this counts as baking, right?