Summertime = Burgertime!
We’ve already covered grilled corn and grilled taters with onions, so why not burgers via a Grilled Burger Pizza?
Here’s the truth about our summer grilling: We grill once every two weeks-ish and load up the grill with burgers, sausage, hot dogs, and anything else in the meat department that has caught out taste-bud fancy. We put aside enough meat for the week’s meals and freeze the rest. That way if we want a grilled burger, but it’s a billionty degrees outside (before you scoff at that number, have you endured a Texas summer?!), we just grab a few from the deep freeze, then thaw and heat. BAMMO! burgers from the grill!
That being said, there are only so many many many many times I can eat a burger as, well, a burger, until I need to get creative.
Enter the Grilled Burger Pizza:
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Garry likes to throw some ‘pice on his: Grilled Burger Pizza w/Jalapeno
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I hear you wondering if we’re feeding a crowd. Nope. This is how I cook: LARGE AND IN CHARGE, BABY!
This will feed us for a few meals throughout the week (a lunch or two included). Anything else, goes in the freezer for another, lazier day. (y’all catching on that I like to cook and freeze thangs?!) Seriously, why make one when you can easily make two and have a few more meals covered? We eat homemade meals about 90% of the time, yet I only cook a few times a week with this method. Perfecto!
The dough is my absolute favorite recipe, thanks to Boy who passed it along to me (although, I’ve tweaked it a bit since then). I love that when he was but a puppy dog tail, we used to make pizza together. I think he was under the age of two when he got his first patting-of-the-dough experience. He loved being in the kitchen with me (what kiddo doesn’t?) and forming pizza dough is a great first step in a culinary education. I can’t wait until Sweet E is helpin’.
Basically, I make the dough recipe twice, in two separate bowls (I do not double the recipe), chop some onion, crumble one burger per pizza and top with shredded cheese. If you’ve never had a pizza made with a grilled burger, then you’re in for a flavor explosion.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We don’t use a gas grill; we use a smoke pit that has a fire box on the side. The smokey flavor imparted to the burger is incomparable to anything you’ll ever taste from a gas grill.
The cooked pizza can be sliced and frozen in a freezer bag, if it makes more than you need.
A few more things before I get to the recipe. As a baker, this dough is the kind of dough that makes your heart sing. It’s soft and pillowy and makes me sigh the sigh of the baking content when I put my hands on it. It’s also a great beginner recipe for those of you with the skeerds to make anything dough-like. Bonus: it’s kid proof. Let your budding cooks get their hands all over this life-changing cloud of carbs!
I mean look at it:
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Really looook at it!
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Ahhhh….
To the recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 cup very warm, yet not scalding, water (too hot and you kill the yeast)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 3 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup flour for kneading
- Pizza sauce
- Grilled hamburger, crumbled
- Chopped onion
- Jalapenos (opt)
- Shredded cheese
Instructions
- Combine water, yeast, sugar and salt and stir until the yeast is fully dissolved. Let yeast proof (get bubbly) for 5 minutes.
- Gently add olive oil to the yeast mixture.
- Place flour into a generously-sized bowl (1) and make a well in the middle. Pour yeast mixture into well and stir until well combined with a wooden spoon or spatula.
- Knead into a smooth ball, adding the extra 1/2 cup flour as needed to prevent stickiness. (2)
- Let dough rest 5-10 minutes.
- Spray pizza pan with Pam or lightly grease with more olive oil.
- Place dough in the middle of a pizza pan (or stone) and pat dough outward until desired size is achieved. You may need to dip your fingers into a bit of olive oil to prevent the dough from sticking to your fingers.
- Spread with your favorite pizza sauce.
- Add onions, crumbled burger and cheese.
- Exclaim MOMMA MIA! Kiss your fingers, then do that explodey thing with them. Repeat! (3)
- Bake at 425° for 15-20 minutes. (4)
Notes
(1) Use a bowl big enough to knead in. Makes clean up easier. (2) You may not need the entire 1/2 cup of extra flour. Use just enough so it doesn't stick. Add in small portions. (3) A seriously important step, especially is you're cooking with kiddos. (4) I bake on the low end, at 15 minutes.
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One of the best things about having leftover pizza?
Eating cold pizza! On a fancy-pants plate, no less.
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Happy pizza making!