As promised, today’s recipe is for my take on the California Pizza Kitchen’s version of cheeseburger pizza. To be honest, it had been so long since I’d eaten it, that it might not actually taste at all like the original. But Husband said it was pretty spot on, and he had eaten it quite a bit, so I’ll trust his judgment. I’d say the aspect that makes their pizza stand out from the crowd is their Honey Wheat crust, which I am absolutely unwilling to re-create. Aside from yeast and me having a very shaky relationship, there’s a fabulous national chain of take and bakes that sells uncooked pizza crust, already stretched out, ready for toppings. That’s my kind of crust.

Good taste. Bad hassle.

Unfortunately this time around, I went the refrigerated dough in a can route. I’d never used it before, but I could probably eat crescent rolls by the dozen, so I figured it would be just as tasty and simple. False. In fact, it was finally determined after three sets of hands had been all over the dough, slapping it, rolling it out, and pressing it down, that the only way we were going to have a pizza larger than about 6″ in diameter was if Husband beat the crap out of that dough. It worked, but it also took mass amounts of time and created a lot of holes that had to be filled in and then re-filled in. The taste was pretty phenomenal, but the hassle wasn’t worth it.

Putting the pie together is really easy; in fact I’ve found that many of my most beloved recipes are less science and more putting stuff together in an organized manner. You start with copious amounts of cheddar cheese (totally forego sauce — that will come later), top it with browned ground beef, and then top with more cheddar cheese. I imagine some people would take it easy on the dairy, but if you’re looking for that sort of blog, you have come to the

Low-res, but delish

wrong place. Bake it till the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden, and then add the last few ingredients that make people say, “come again?” Just trust me when I say they’re what make it delicious. You mix shredded iceberg lettuce (I know, I know, iceberg is gross, but I swear it’s the only option here and after all, we aren’t eating this for vitamins and minerals) with a little mayo and ketchup. I had an epiphany last night that it would also be awesome to mix it with thousand island dressing, making it taste more like an In n Out or Big Mac. Add sliced tomato and you’ve got yourself a big, open-faced cheeseburger. And what couldn’t be awesome about that?

 

cheeseburger, pizza, recipe

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11/30/2011

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