As you may recall from my last (and first) pizza making adventure.. I am not a huge fan of pizza. I find it to be an overall BLAH experience. Pizza, one of the most loved foods of all time, is totally wasted on me.
I tried making my own before.. but the crust recipe (that claimed to be thin crust, which is tolerable) puffed up until it looked like I had used a Digiorno crust. *scrunchyface* Total crap.
This time I approached it from a different angle and tried to figure out what would make pizza more likeable. I decided that making it totally unlike pizza would be best but barring that, a thinner crust and something interesting on top of it would have to do.
Introducing.. Cheeseburger Pizza!@%!$
None of that Digiorno style bullshit, puffy crusted pizza this time!
I started with a 1/2 lb of 85/15 ground beef. I sautéed this in a pan with some salt and pepper until it was browned but not crispy. I drained off the grease, then added 1/2 cup ketchup (classy, I KNOW!) and 1/4 cup Dijon mustard. Once done, I set the mixture aside so the flavors could marry.. or mostly because I was ready to work on the dough at this point. For the dough I combined 2 cups AP flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp of olive oil, and enough water (probably like 1/2 cup) to bring it all together. Since there’s no yeast needed, no need to wait on rise time (yay!) Once this all came together I rolled it out into a rustic (read: misshapen) circle type thing, only slightly smaller in size than my pizza stone. (which was prewarmed in a 425 degree oven) Keep in mind that I am basically functionally retarded when it comes to rolling out dough, so I bet if you were skilled you could totally make it cover a whole pizza stone. 😀 I slathered the crust with another 2 tablespoons of mustard and ketchup respectively. Then I added the meat mixture in a thin layer on the top of the crust. I used about 1 1/2 cups of cheddar. I would suggest something super sharp because otherwise the tangy meaty goodness covers up the cheese amazingness. Now, if you’re looking at the pizza and still see meat, you’ve not used enough cheese. I could be way off with my cheese usage, so use your best judgement. (Sorry, I don’t really do that whole measurement thing) I popped this into the oven at 425 for about 10 minutes, then added some sliced onions and sliced tomatoes to the pizza, and cooked it for another 7 minutes until the crust was golden but not burnt. Overall, I liked it. I didn’t hate the crust, which is a step in the right direction. I didn’t like the first bite but as it cooled a little, I began to like it more. I’m already planning some variations to bring more flavor but feel like I’m not doing a disservice to the world by posting the pizza recipe as is. PS – I have now acquired pork belly. Bacon related posts forthcoming!
The Confluent Kitchen 
Looks good! I have done something similar, but I topped mine with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and some BBQ sauce after it was all done cooking…tasty stuff! You are right, a STRONG, sharp cheddar is ideal.
Hmm. BBQ sauce might have that ZING that it was kind of missing. I’m gonna file that one away for the next time I try this!