Hamburger Pizza

     Mmm... Pizza. Who doesn't like pizza? Seriously. The nice thing about pizza is that you can pretty much put anything on it that you want. And if you make it with a sugar cookie crust, it can be a dessert pizza.
     This pizza dough is super easy to make and can also be used to make calzones. To make it:

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            3 ¼ to 3 ¾ c flour
           2 ¼ tsp. yeast
           1 ½ tsp. salt
           1 ¼ c warm water
           3 T oil

     In large bowl, combine 1 ½ c flour, yeast, and salt. 

     Add warm water and oil. 

     Blend at low speed until moist. 

     Beat 3 minutes a medium speed. 

     By hand stir in enough flour to make firm dough. 

     Knead 3-5 minutes. 

     Cover dough with plastic wrap or a warm towel. Let rise 20 minutes. 

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     This can be topped with whatever pizza toppings your heart desires. This time, I topped ours with:

     Hamburger (fried with chopped onion and seasoned with salt and pepper),

     Canadian Bacon,

     Olives (cut up into fourths),

     Shredded Cheese (mozzarella and cheddar), and

     Pineapple Chunks.

     To make the pizza, make the dough from the recipe above. After it has risen for 20 minutes, stretch it out onto pizza sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. You can also use a cookie sheet or make personal sized pizzas using pie plates.

     The sauce can either be homemade or store-bought. (I used store bought this time because I totally forgot about making the sauce and everyone was getting hungry.) To make pizza sauce:

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            1 8oz can tomato sauce
           2 tsp. oregano
           ¾ tsp. salt
           1/8 tsp. garlic
           1/8 tsp. pepper

     Combine the above ingredients and stir well. It is a good idea to make it prior to starting the pizza dough so the flavors have a chance to incorporate better. It also works fine to make it and use it right away.

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     After putting all the toppings you want on your pizza, put it in a 425 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown on both the edges and the bottom. Check on the pizza a couple times while it is baking and rotate it to make sure that the pizza is cooked evenly. Let the pizza set for a few minutes before cutting it or you will have a problem with all of your toppings wanting to fall off.

     To make calzones, make the pizza dough from the above recipe. When we have calzones, they are usually filled with the same things that we put on hamburger pizza minus the pineapple (it is too juicy to put in them). However, you can fill it with you want. When my cousin makes them, she fills them with sausage (fried and seasoned with salt and pepper), pepperoni, olives, and cheese. 

     Break off a section of the pizza dough and stretch it into a circle that is about 5 inches across (unless you want to make mini calzones, but those are a lot of work). Place your fillings on one half of the dough. Fold over the other half of the dough and press the edges together to seal. Place on a pizza sheet or cookie sheet that have been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown. Make sure to rotate the pan at least once to ensure even baking.

     Other variations we have used this pizza dough recipe for are:

          BBQ Chicken Pizza -  BBQ Sauce instead of Pizza Sauce with two chicken breasts that have been seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked in a pan, and then chopped up (we use a Pampered Chef Food Chopper).

          Honey Chipolte Pizza - Foster Farms Honey Chipolte Chicken Breasts (we buy them from Costco) that have been cooked in a pan and chopped up. For this one, we still have not decided if we like it better with Olive Oil or normal Pizza Sauce.

     And now... Pictures!!!!!!!

The dry ingredients

This is what it looks like after you have added the wet ingredients and mixed it for 3 minutes.

After adding the wet ingredients, you slowly begin to work in the rest of your flour. This is what it looks like when it starts to come together.

Kneading the dough. A very important step.

After the dough has been kneaded and returned to the bowl.

Twenty minutes later, your dough will have at least doubled in size. It does better if there is no draft. I like to cover mine with plastic as well as a light towel that I have put in the microwave for about 20 seconds.

Stretch out the dough onto your pizza sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Add your toppings.

After coming out of the oven.

     The nice thing about making your own pizza rather than getting delivery, somewhere like Papa Murphys, or buying a frozen one is that you get to control what you have on your pizza and how much of everything you want on it. This helps to please everyone who eats it. For example, my sister does not like pineapple, so there is no pineapple on 1/4 of this pizza and my cousin who was there for dinner does not like olives (crazy kid) so there are no olives on 1/4 of the pizza. In the end, everyone is happy and no one ends up with a pile of toppings on their plate because they are things that they do not like.      

 "Pizza. Great equalizer. Rich people love pizza. Poor people love pizza. White people love pizza. Black people love pizza."

-Michael Scott - "The Office"