Homemade Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza

Last night I was supposed to make a Cheeseburger Calzone. However, I did not have enough yeast to make both a top and a bottom for the calzone, so I decided to create my own cheeseburger pizza, inspired by Lynn’s Cheeseburger Calzone recipe.

The bacon cheeseburger pizza was a huge hit in our house! We will definitely be making it again. Best of all, it can serve 4 for $4.79 assuming the four aren’t big eaters. (My son and I each had ¼ of the pizza and were more than satisfied, but my husband ate ½ of the pizza!) Here is a picture of our serving size:

Homemade Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza

1 pizza dough (I follow Sara Moulton’s Food Processor pizza dough recipe found here.)--$1.20
2/3 c. ground beef—2.00
¼ c. ketchup--.10
1 tbsp. mustard--.05
1 garlic clove--.05
1-2 green onions--.05
1/3 c. shredded cheddar cheese--.16 (I found 8 oz. on sale for $1.00.)
4 slices bacon--.50
¼ c. shredded mozzarella cheese--.13
Shredded lettuce--.30
Diced tomato--.25

--Prepare dough.
--While the dough is rising, brown 2/3 lb. of beef in a skillet. When it is done, drain and rinse the beef. (We do this to lower the fat content.) Let the beef cool.
--Meanwhile, cook the bacon.
--When the dough is ready, spread it out on a greased pizza pan and pierce it with a fork.
--Cook the dough at 450 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until the bottom turns light golden brown.
--Mix the cooled beef with the ketchup, mustard, diced garlic, diced green onion and shredded cheddar cheese in a bowl. Stir well.
--When the crust is nicely browned on the bottom, remove from oven and spread the beef mixture over it.
--Bake at 350 degrees for 3 to 5 minutes, just long enough to melt the cheese.
--Remove from oven and sprinkle on crumbled, cooked bacon and shredded mozzarella cheese.
--Cook 2 to 3 more minutes until the mozzarella cheese melts.
--Garnish cooked pizza with shredded lettuce and tomatoes.
--Enjoy!

I shared this recipe at The Grocery Cart Challenge, Life as Mom, and $5 Dinners.

Homemade Pizza

We love pizza! However, since we have been eating at home more, restaurant pizza seems saltier and less appealing. And then there is the financial cost. . .

So, we have begun to cook our pizza at home. This pizza is delicious!

We use Sara Moulton's Food Processor Pizza Dough recipe.

After the pizza dough is processed in the food processor, it looks like this:



Then, place it in an oiled bowl with the oiled side of the dough up. Place a damp towel over the top and let it rest in a warm place for 35 minutes:




Sara Moulton says the dough is ready after 35 minutes when you can put your finger in it and it leaves a dent like a belly button:



This makes a medium thickness crust. If you like thin crust, you may be able to stretch the dough to make 2 pizzas. (We replaced 1/2 the white flour with whole wheat, so the dough lost some of its elasticity.)

Once it is rolled out on the pan, cook at 500 degrees for 5 minutes before topping it.

For the pizza sauce, we simply used tomato sauce with a little Italian seasoning sprinkled in. Then we covered with green pepper and sliced mozzarella, ham and pepperoni from the deli at our grocery store.



We cooked it on 500 degrees for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, until the cheese was melted and the crust was brown on the bottom.


Ta-dah! Our finished product:




We find it as good as take out for a fraction of the cost.