Bratwurst Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Balsamic Reduction - BMB Knockoff

Hey there! 

Been a little off the grid lately -- super busy doesn't begin to explain the past month or so of my life. Mostly involved things like exams, Easter, family time, the Monument Avenue 10k, brewery visits, cooking a few yummy meals here and there, trying not to cut jerk my nose off my face because of the pollen that decided to finally make its appearance this year, andddd a whole lot of other boring stuff for the in between moments -- ya know, like sleeping, driving, etc. 

So I mentioned breweries (a whole post to come with deets). Last weekend I paid a visit to Devil's Backbone Brewing Company, Bold Rock Cidery (officially in love -- cider is about to be the new craft beer -- mark my words), and Blue Mountain Brewery. If you're not familiar with these, that's ok. Their beverages are yummy, but their views are even better! Seriously -- this part of Virginia is one of, if not my absolute favorite (mountain momma at heart, remember?). 

From what I gather, once breweries have been around for a little bit, it's only natural to introduce food/restaurant flare into the mix of things. This can be good and bad, depending on the person in charge of your menu/kitchen. I didn't taste anything at Devil's Backbone {besides beer}, but by the time I made it to BMB my tummy was ready for some yummy. I got the crab dip and it was pretty decent. I definitely want to feel a fierce presence of crab in my crab dip and I didn't with this dip -- nonetheless, still good. 

After finishing off the crab dip, I continued to peruse their whole menu and stumbled across a pizza (Bratwurst w/Apples and Onions) that kept me coming back -- I seriously considered ordering it over and over. I didn't order it but I did snap a pic of the description so that I could make it at home. 

Monday evening came and here's the result:

Bratwurst Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Balsamic Reduction - BMB Knockoff

What You'll Need

• Pizza crust -- I bought mine from Whole Foods because I needed easy, not hard (work smarter, not harder).
• Sauce -- also purchased from Whole Foods -- ditto on the easy.
• Two bratwursts (or a package) -- I bought two from the case at WF becuase I cannot control my actions when I buy bratwurst, and would put them all on the pizza if I were forced to buy an entire package.
• 1 package of mozzarella
• 1-2 oz. of cream cheese
• Blue cheese crumbles
• Pepper
• 2-3 tbsp.vinegar (white or white balsamic)
• 1/2 - 1 C regular balsamic vinegar
• 1 yellow onion
• Olive oil

How To Make It 

• Rub olive oil on a pizza stone and roll out your pizza crust on the stone.
• Slice yellow onion and sautee in a bit of olive oil until caramelized.
• Preheat your oven to 400F.
• Next, you'll make a blue cheese whip. That's right. I said whipped blue cheese. Mine was more of a sauce than a whip becuase I didn't want to pull out a food processor for just a little bit of whip (if you do want to go all out, then follow this recipe for the whip). 
• So for my whip/sauce -- Just put an ounce or two of cream cheese in a bowl and melt it in timed increments in the microwave. Then add blue cheese crumbles to the warm cream cheese (however much you want) -- stir to melt/distribute. Add a dash of black pepper and white vinegar (about 2 tbsp to the mixture). Stir and heat again if needed. Honestly, just make this to taste and to the consistency of your choosing . . . or not at all if you're not a blue cheese lover addict. 
• Squeeze your brats out of their casing into a skillet, separate into crumbles and brown until almost cooked through (kinda like ground beef for spaghetti).
• While you're cooking your brats, pop your pizza crust in the oven for about 8 minutes.
• Next, put ~1/2 C of balsamic vinegar into a sauce pan and heat over medium heat (don't boil) to make a reduction (like this).
• Once crust has cooked for about 8 minutes, take her out and dress her up! 
• Spread sauce over somewhat cooked crust, sprinkle mozzarella over sauce, sprinkle brat crumbles over mozz, add dabs/drizzle blue cheese whip, place onions all over pizza, then finish with balsamic reduction drizzle.
• Pop her back in the oven for about 20 minutes, broil for 1 minute before taking her out.
• Enjoy!

I don't know how BMB's pizza is, but I'll have to order it next time so that I have something to compare my own to. 

I promise -- deets to come about the breweries.

-Sue