Loaded Baked Potato Pizza

This past week I stopped at the Spice House in Milwaukee to pick up an array of spices. It has been my tradition the past few years to create my own spice blends and to give them out as gifts to some of my foodie friends. In years past I have have made a classic BBQ rub, a standard meat rub, as well as a fish rub. This year, with the great help from the folks at the Spice House, I created an all-purpose seasoning, and is it ever good! I won’t go into the details of that, however when I was finished up there, I was extremely hungry and decided to stop at a pizza joint called Brick 3. I’ve been once before, and it’s just OK pizza, served New York style, and as I was browsing the pizzas, one caught my attention. It was a loaded baked potato pizza. I’ve never heard of such a thing, and as I had already ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza, I thought I had to make that pizza, and well, so I did.

If you are a fan of any “loaded baked potato” you are going to love this pizza. I have made things such as your classic loaded baked potato soup (which I love), as well as steakhouse potato salad that reminds me everything about a loaded baked potato, but I was skeptical at first when I thought of that loaded baked potato pizza. I mean, come on, mashed potatoes on a pizza crust?

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 1 Pillsbury pizza crust, or make your own
• 4 whole Russet potatoes, peeled and cleaned, cut into quarters
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• generous pinch of salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of milk
• 7 slices of your favorite bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 3 whole green onions, sliced
• 2 cups of colby jack cheese, shredded
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Start by adding your quartered potatoes to a large pot of cool water. Raise the heat, and cook the potatoes until they are fork tender. When done, drain them, and return them back to the pot, and cook on medium heat until all of the water has evaporated.

Next step is to mash your potatoes. My favorite way to mash potatoes is to use a potato ricer. If you do not have a ricer (you should), then go ahead and mash them how you were taught. Add in the butter, milk, and salt, and give them a taste. You want that creamy consistency of mashed potatoes. Let the potatoes cool.

Next, preheat your oven according to the Pillsbury directions.

Now let me pause here for a second. I have no idea why I went with trying this pizza with a Pillsbury pizza crust. I think, that, like most people,  I just wanted to see why Pillsbury sold pizza dough. I was thinking that maybe it could be great, as after all, their croissant rolls are super delicious. But let me just say, I was not impressed with their dough. So make your own, or go with a true and tested pizza dough that you prefer.

Once the oven is preheated, lightly coat a large cast iron skillet, or a pizza pan if you prefer.

Take the dough and form into into the pizza shape, placing it into the skillet or pan, and into the oven for 10 minutes.  This will precook the dough.

While the dough is cooking, add the cheese, and almost all of the green onions to the potatoes. Reserve a few green onions to sprinkle over the finished pizza. Give a good stir.

Remove the skillet from the oven, and set it on a workspace.

Spread the mashed potato mixture all over the dough, leaving a quarter inch or so around the perimeter.

Top with the crumbled bacon and place back into the oven, cooking another 15 minutes or so.

Once the crust is nice and golden brown, remove it from the oven. Carefully remove it out of the skillet onto a pizza sheet, garnish with more green onions, and slice into wedges.

It’s truly a loaded baked potato pizza. Heck, I would even suggest serving with a side of sour cream. At first, I was a bit confused on the texture, but that did not stop me from having a second slice. When my wife arrived, she was as curious, and as I did, really fell in love with the pizza.

So if you are looking for a new idea to try with a pizza, give this loaded baked potato pizza a try, I’m certain you’ll love it as much as we did. Enjoy!