Caramelized Onion, Bacon Fig Jam and Goat Cheese Pizza

Bacon cooked into fig jam, slow caramelized onions, and goat cheese dolloped over mozzarella. The sweet-savory flex pie.

Time: 8 min | Yield: 1 pizzas | Difficulty: Intermediate | Serves: 3 | Published: 2026-07-24

This is the pie you make when you want someone to think you know what you're doing. Sweet, salty, tangy, savory, all four, balanced.

Two components do the heavy lifting and both happen in one pan: bacon fried crisp, then fig jam warmed in the bacon fat with the bacon folded back in, and onions taken low and slow with butter, oil, and a balsamic finish. Neither is hard; both just want patience, the onions especially. Twenty to twenty-five minutes of low heat, no shortcuts.

Assembly is mozzarella down, onions, then the bacon-fig mixture, then tablespoon dollops of goat cheese spaced apart. The goat cheese stays in distinct tangy pockets, which is exactly what you want against the sweet jam.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 500-550 degrees on the convection setting. PIZZA PREP
  2. Cut your bacon up in small pieces and fry it until about 85% crispy. 1 pack of fried bacon
    You'll know it's right: 85% crispy means the bacon still has slight bend, it crisps the rest of the way in the oven. Fully crisp now means burnt later.
  3. Remove bacon and place on a paper towel. Drain your bacon grease, but don't wipe it out completely.
  4. Turn the flame to medium/low. Add your jam. Cook for about a minute and then add your bacon back in. Cook for another 2-3 minutes then set aside to cool 1/3 cup fig jam
    You'll know it's right: The jam should loosen in the warm bacon fat and coat the bacon pieces in 2-3 minutes, it becomes one spreadable component.
  5. Thinly slice your onion. Add butter and oil to a pan on low heat. Cook for 10 minutes while stirring. ½ chopped sweet onion, 1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp olive oil
    You'll know it's right: Low heat, stirring, 10 minutes to translucent-golden. If they're browning fast, the flame is too high.
  6. Once the onions reduce by half, add balsamic vinegar and salt. Cook for another 10-15 minutes. Then set aside.
    You'll know it's right: After the balsamic, cook until the onions are jammy and deep amber. They should taste sweet with a vinegar edge, not sharp.
  7. Stretch your dough to 14-16 inches. I used my New York-ish Dough recipe (pinned as sub recipe). But you can use whatever dough recipe you'd like!
  8. Evenly spread your low moisture mozzarella.
  9. Then spread out your caramelized onion first, then the bacon fig jam.
  10. Evenly spoon on your goat cheese. About a tablespoon-sized scoop, 2-3 inches apart from each other. Or however you desire.
    You'll know it's right: Tablespoon-sized goat cheese scoops, 2-3 inches apart. Pockets, not coverage.
  11. Add an optional drizzle of olive oil around the crust.
  12. Bake in the oven for 8 minutes. Add 1 minute broil if you like char.
  13. Best if rested on a cooling rack for 1-2 minutes before slicing up. Enjoy!

Troubleshooting

Onions were sharp and crunchy, not sweet

Rushed them on high heat. Low and slow, 20-25 minutes total with the balsamic finish. Caramelized onions cannot be hurried, brown edges on crunchy onions is not the same thing.

The jam burned on the pizza

Applied in thick exposed smears. Fold it with the bacon and spread it in a thin, even layer under the goat cheese line. The bacon fat in the mixture protects it.

Goat cheese disappeared into the pie

Crumbled it fine everywhere. Tablespoon dollops, spaced. The distinct tangy pockets against the sweet jam are the whole design.

Too sweet overall

Heavy jam hand, no acid. A third of a cup of jam for the whole pie, and don't skip the balsamic in the onions, it's the counterweight.

Bacon was chewy

Undercooked before assembly. 85% crispy in the pan. The oven finishes it, but it can't rescue floppy bacon in 8 minutes.

Nutrition (2 slices (1/4 of a 14-inch pie)): 440 calories, 17g protein, 42g carbs, 23g fat.