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I am going to share with you a little secret. I take my kids to Stevie B’s occasionally and they have a loaded baked potato pizza that is ridiculously delicious. Yes, I know, fast food is horrible for me. Loaded baked potato pizza is certainly NOT low fat. My brain says ‘NO, you should be eating salad!’. I occasionally tell my brain to shut up and let my mouth enjoy something truly decadent!
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Save money with Homemade Pizza!
Of course, making loaded baked potato pizza at HOME is a much cheaper and even slightly healthier alternative. You aren’t going to turn this delicious pizza recipe into a low fat meal but you can certainly skip the preservatives and make it with all natural and fresh ingredients! That will alleviate a tad bit of the guilt, right? I mean, who can resist a pizza with ranch dressing, Cabot cheese and crumbled bacon? Not me!
There is a tad bit of prep work for making this homemade pizza recipe. There are things you can do ahead of time to make it a quicker weeknight meal recipe. Boil your potatoes, cook your bacon, and buy a premade pizza dough from the bakery section of the grocery store. I prefer to buy the dough itself and roll it out rather than buy something already precooked if I don’t have time to make the dough from scratch.
Making Pizza in Cast Iron
I made this loaded baked potato pizza in a 12-inch cast iron skillet (and if you love loaded potatoes, check out my loaded sliced potatoes recipe!). One dough recipe was divided in half and rolled thin. Brush the cold pan with olive oil, add in the dough and toppings and bake in a 500 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Really quick to make if you have everything ready to go!
Best Toppings for Homemade Pizza
When most people think about pizza they think mozzarella cheese but honestly, homemade pizza can be anything you want it to be. I have had steak and blue cheese pizza that was to die for. I made a BBQ Chicken Pizza on French bread once that was heavenly. Don’t just stick to plain old red sauce and pepperoni! Think outside the pizza box a little bit and get creative with your homemade pizza. That is the beauty of making pizza from scratch..you control the toppings! And, you save a fortune on delivery fees as well.
I will say that the quality of your ingredients will definitely play a huge part in the taste of the final product. Cabot cheese has always been a huge favorite of mine (maybe because of my New England roots!) and I used a nice, sharp cheddar cheese for this pizza recipe. Sustainably raised bacon, organic potatoes and Naturally Fresh dressing are also good choices to top this pizza recipe with.
How to Cook Your Homemade Pizza
You can make this pizza in the oven or on the grill. I recently discovered the idea of making homemade pizza in a cast iron pan and can I just say that this method produced and amazingly crispy crust? I have tried pizza stones and never got the crust as crispy as it was with the cast iron pan.
To cook this in the oven, bake at 500 degrees for about 12 to 15 minutes. If you are grilling the pizza you can still use the cast iron pan and cook it for about the same amount of time, just make sure you have a thermometer on your grill so you know about how hot it is. Have you ever had loaded baked potato pizza?
Loaded Baked Potato Pizza Recipe
Yield: 2 small pizzas
Loaded Baked Potato Pizza Recipe
This loaded baked potato pizza recipe with cheddar and bacon is a decadent homemade pizza made in a cast iron skillet.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time45 minutes
Ingredients
1 recipe of your favorite pizza dough (enough for 2 thin crust 10 inch pizzas)
6 medium red potatoes
1/3 cup ranch dressing
6 TBSP olive oil
8 slices of bacon
8 ounce block of Cabot Cheddar Cheese, shredded
4 green onions, tops only, thinly sliced
Instructions
Oil a cold 12 inch cast iron skillet
Preheat oven or grill to 500 degrees
Boil potatoes 7 to 8 minutes or until just barely tender. Drain, let cool, and slice thinly.
Cook bacon and crumble. Set aside.
Roll out dough. You want it to be rather thin but not so thin it falls apart. Roll half the dough into a 10 to 12 inch circle and place in the cast iron pan (you will do this twice if you want two pizzas unless you have 2 pans!)
Brush a touch more olive oil over the top of the dough
Spread 3 to 4 TBSP of the ranch dressing over the dough
Lay the slices of potato over the ranch dressing and sprinkle with half the bacon.
Top with half the shredded cheddar (just over 1 cup)
Bake at 500 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until crust edges are lightly brown and cheese is bubbly and starting to darken
Remove from oven and let cool slightly before removing the pizza from the pan.
Diane is a professional blogger and nationally certified pharmacy technician at Good Pill Pharmacy. She earned her BS in Microbiology at the University of New Hampshire and has worked in cancer research, academics, and biotechnology. Concern over the growing incidence of human disease and the birth of her children led her to begin living a more natural life. She quickly realized that the information she was learning along the way could be beneficial to many others and started blogging and freelance writing to share this knowledge with others. Learn more about her HERE.
This is a crazy awesome idea. I can’t wait to try it! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I have been wanting to make it again…might need to go get the ingredients!
Just tasted this pizza at a local place. My daughter loves it. Thank you for the recipe
It is definitely one of my favorites!