THE ULTIMATE CHEESEBURGER PIZZA

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A note on ingredients: When trying to make take-out or fast food at home, don't spend too much on fancy ingredients. Use cheap mustard and store brand cheese, that sort of thing. If you use anything fancy and expensive, it just won't taste right. It might still be good, but it won't be right. For example, when making chicken pot pie, you must use frozen vegetables, and when making regular pizza, you must use canned store brand pizza sauce and store brand mozzarella. In this case, you will need to use cheap yellow mustard like you would find at a hot dog stand.

Ingredients for the crust:
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
About 1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 tbsp melted butter or margarine
1 envelope (2 1/2 tsp) regular bread yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3/4 cup warm water, about 115°

Toppings:
3 strips bacon
1/3 lb lean ground beef
4 plum tomatoes
Shredded cheese (I like Colby or other mild cheddar, most people will prefer American; the volume is up to you, start with 2 cups)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup finely shredded lettuce
3 dill pickles spears
Ketchup and mustard

To make the crust, combine the cornstarch, cornmeal, salt, and garlic in a bowl along with 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. In a separate bowl, combine the water and the yeast.

Add the water and the melted margarine to the flour mixture and stir vigorously for 1 minute. Gradually stir in more whole wheat flour until a dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently, adding more flour to keep it from sticking, for 4 minutes. Be gentle (but firm) since the dough has very little gluten, due to the corn, and will tear easily.

Roll the dough out to an oblong about 18 inches across. Rolling it bigger makes a thinner crust, smaller makes a thicker crust. Transfer to a well-greased baking sheet that is heat-safe to 500 degrees. This means NOT a non-stick sheet. No non-stick sheet is safe at this temperature! Use a double layer of tinfoil instead if you don't have any heat-safe baking sheets. Then use your fingers to "squish" in the edges of the crust, mounding them up to be thicker. Let rest while you prepare everything else.

Begin pre-heating the oven to 500 or as high as your oven goes. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and fry the bacon until crisp. Remove to a plate, and pour out the drippings. Crumble the beef into the same pan and cook until done, stirring. Keep warm.

To prepare the tomatoes, cut off their tops, then cut in half width-wise. Use a spoon to scoop the seeds out and discard them. Then chop the tomatoes into diced bits about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in size. To prepare the pickles, cut out the seeds from the center of the pickle spears and discard. Then mince the rest of the pickle.

If the oven is hot, and the pizza crust has risen somewhat, you can begin to cook it. Spread the tomato bits over the crust and bake it for 7 minutes or until the edges just begin to turn a little golden.

Remove the crust from the oven and top with the shredded cheese. Return it to the oven and bake again, for 5 minutes this time. Check the pizza. If the cheese is beginning to brown, it's done. If not, bake another minute.

When it's done baking, apply the remaining toppings in this order: meat first, then onions, pickles, and lettuce. You can drizzle the ketchup and mustard over the whole thing yourself or, like I did, just put the ketchup and mustard squeeze-bottles on the table for people to serve themselves since some people like more mustard than others.