Cheeseburger Pizza from the Taste & Create Blog Recipe Swap

As part of the Taste and Create monthly blog recipe exchange, I was paired with Nicole from For the Love of Food. She’s an American living in Germany who began her food blog five year ago to help some vegetarian friends learn healthy cooking. Her writing is engaging, and her photos are glorious. If you struggle with producing interesting visuals for your blog as I do, check out her article on food styling (photos on the left are my current (lack of) style and the right photos are my desired state).

I haven’t made pizza for a while, and I knew my guys would love her original recipe for Cheeseburger Pizza. Who wouldn’t? Using sesame seeds on the pizza stone in addition to cornmeal and the “special sauce” seemed a fitting tribute to the cheeseburger. A bacon cheeseburger nonetheless.

 (oops, the aroma was so tantalizing that we dove in to it before I took a photo)

I must fess up that I used my normal modified Eating Well pizza dough recipe. I subbed ground bison for the ground beef because we don’t buy beef, and I had garden tomatoes that were screaming to be used. Craig called this an excuse to slip tomatoes on pizza, which he knows I lovvvvve. Sorry, no American cheese either. I don't eat such on a burger, so why would I on pizza? I used a mix of shredded Gouda and cheddar. While it appears I made a number of changes, I consider these exceptionally minor. What I produced certainly reflects the spirit of Nicole’s recipe. The recipe below is with my changes.

The resulting pizza? A WINNER. We all loved it and declared it one of the best I’ve made in recent memory. The tangy barbecue-flavored sauce “makes” the pizza, and the subtle nuttiness of the Gouda imparts a bit of complexity to a simple pizza. Nicole, thanks! What a tasty recipe.

Cheeseburger Pizza
Few tablespoons of sesame seeds

Few tablespoons of corn meal
“Special sauce” – recipe below
12 ounces ground bison or lean ground beef
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup diced fresh tomatoes
1/2 cup Gouda cheese, shredded
1 cup cheddar, shredded
4 slices of bacon, chopped

Make the whole wheat pizza dough posted here. In addition to cornmeal, sprinkle sesame seeds on the pizza stone so that it’s like a sesame seed bun.

With the pizza stone in the oven, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Once the oven is at that temperature, heat the pizza stone for at least 15 minutes. Longer is fine too.

Cook the chopped bacon over medium heat until crispy. Remove from pan, "pat" grease with paper towels, and set aside. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon drippings from the pan. Add the ground bison (or beef) and heat over medium heat until browned, making sure not break up the meat too much. You want it to look like burger pieces and not like taco meat. Add the red onion slices, soy sauce, garlic powder, and pepper and cook until the soy sauce absorbs into the meat. Remove from heat and set aside.

Special Sauce

6 tablespoons ketchup (Trader Joe’s organic ketchup is preferred because it contains no HFCS and has real tomato flavor)
2 tablespoon yellow mustard
2 tablespoon tomato paste

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. If it’s too thick for your tastes, add water until it’s the desired sauce consistency.

To assemble the pizza, on top of the dough, layer the special sauce, burger mixture, tomatoes, bacon, and cheese mixture.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.