Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza

For me, a crispy crust with a sweet tomato sauce, lots of cheese, Italian sausage, and pepperoni is the pinnacle of pizza perfection. Every Friday night, I order a large sausage and pepperoni pizza from my local pizzeria. And while that’s most certainly my favorite pizza, in honor of National Pizza Day, I wanted to make something a little different yet no less delicious than my go-to pizza.

So, I thought outside the box (the pizza box that is…ha!) and crafted this Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza.

If you love bacon cheeseburgers, you’ll love this recipe. Instead of the traditional tomato sauce you find on pizzas, this one has a cheese sauce along with crumbled ground beef, caramelized onions, crumbled bacon and a drizzle of A1 sauce. Oh yes. I went there.

Not a beef fan? Not a problem. You can use ground chicken or ground turkey instead!

It’s easy to make the pizza dough for this recipe too. It’s not too time-consuming though it must be made the same day. Mixing and kneading the dough is fairly quick. It’s the rising time that you need to factor in which is a good 2 hours. When the dough is done rising, you stretch it out onto your pizza stone or a cookie sheet if you don’t have the stone.

The comes the fun part! Saucing and topping the pizza is probably the best part about making your own pizza. No wait. It’s EATING the pizza, but making it is still pretty fun. This dough is great for any pizza you make but just remember, any toppings that need to be cooked should be done while you’re waiting for your dough to rise so bacon and ground beef (or chicken or turkey) need to be cooked up before adding them to your pizza.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get this pizza party started!

Pizza Dough

Recipe used and adapted from
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/1043-pizza-dough?incode=MCSCD00L0&ref=new_search_experience_1

Ingredients

1   1/4 cups water divided plus  1/2  cup warm
1 envelope active dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp olive oil
3 cups bread flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
semolina flour for dusting pizza peel

Directions

This dough can be used to make thick or thin crust pizza.  Your oven should be set to 500 degrees for 30 minutes before you put the pizza in the oven. Follow the manufactures directions for your pizza stone if you have one.  I use a pizza stone, and I have a stone pan.  The stone pan can’t go in a 500 degree oven, so make sure you follow the directions for your pan. 

1. Measure 1/4 cup of warm water about (100 – 105 degrees) along with 2 tsp sugar into 2-cup measuring cup. Sprinkle the yeast in; let stand until yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes. Add remaining 1/4 cup of warm water plus  1 1/4 cups water and olive oil.

2. In a food processor fitted with a steel blade or a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, pulse bread flour, all purpose flour and salt in a work bowl to combine. Add liquid ingredients (holding back a tablespoon or so) to flour and pulse together. If dough does not readily form into ball, stop machine, add remaining liquid, and continue to pulse until ball forms. Process until dough is smooth. 

3. Turn dough onto lightly floured work surface; knead by hand with a few strokes to form smooth, round ball. Use chef’s knife or dough scraper to halve, quarter, or cut dough into eighths, depending on number and size of pizzas desired.  Put dough into oiled bowls, and cover with damp cloth. Let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. 

4. Working with one piece of dough at a time, shape the dough.  Transfer to pizza peel (if you have one) that has been lightly coated with semolina, brush dough very lightly with olive oil before topping and cooking. If you don’t have a pizza peel you can just place your dough on your pan or pizza stone.

THIN CRUST
14-inch pizzas (recipe makes 2) – Bake 7 to 8 minutes
12-inch pizzas (recipe makes 4) – Bake 5 minutes
8-inch pizzas (recipe makes 8) – Bake 3 minutes. 

MEDIUM-THICK CRUST
12-inch pizzas (recipe makes 2) – Bake 9 to 10 minutes
8-inch pizzas (recipe makes 4) – Bake 5 minutes
6-inch pizzas (recipe makes 8) – Bake 4 minutes.

Cheddar Cheese Sauce

Ingredients
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
seasoned salt to taste  
ground black pepper to taste
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp granulated onion
10 oz mild sharp Cheddar cheese, medium diced
(I used a combination of white cheddar and yellow cheddar)  

Directions

  1. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat; whisk in flour until smooth. Whisk constantly for about 1 minute.
  2. Gradually whisk in beer. Cook, whisking constantly about 3-5 minutes until the mixture has thickened.
  3. Whisk in cheese, salt, pepper, granulated garlic, and granulated onion. Continue to whisk until smooth.

Cheese Burger Pizza
(I made 2 pizza’s with this recipe)
2 lbs of cooked ground beef
6 slices of chopped bacon
1 large vidalia onion diced and caramalized
Shredded Mozzarella and White Cheddar Cheese
(I like to grate my own cheese from a block of mozzarella and cheddar cheese)
A1 Sauce

Assemble Pizza
Once your dough is on your pizza stone, add cheese sauce.
Top your cheese sauce with the ground beef, bacon, caramelized onion, and your shredded cheese.  Drizzle with A1 sauce. 

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