Way way back a long time ago my family went on a trip to California. While there we ate at this restaurant called California Pizza Kitchen. This restaurant was amazing and had the best pizzas ever. I loved all of the different pizzas they offered because they were not your traditional pizzas. I decided on the BLT pizza and ate every last bite of it cause it was so delicious.
A few years after that we discovered a restaurant called American Pizza Kitchen, about an hour from where lived and decided to give it a try. Basically it was the same as CPK(California Pizza Kitchen), just not quite as good, however it was about 2,000 miles closer, at that time CPK was only in California.
Jump forward a few more years and a mall about 45 minutes from where we lived opened a CPK and I was one happy girl! However, convincing my parents to drive there just for pizza was not easy.
Jump forward several years and my parents decided to sell the home I grew up in. Just before moving my parents informed me that a CPK was going in about 1 mile from the house, 1 mile. Are you kidding me, my parents sell their house and a CPK goes in so close to them. I tried to convince my parents not to move, but it did not work. They did say that whenever I came to visit we could go eat at CPK, it would not be that far from their new house. A few years later a CPK came to the local mall which was even closer to my parents new house.
Every once in a while I still manage to eat at CPK and I order the same pizza, the BLT. Once I tried a different pizza and it was good, but I still like my BLT pizza the best.
I came across a copycat recipe for CPK's BLT pizza and thought why have I never tried to make it myself. It is not that complicated, a crust with some cheese, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce and mayo.
I made the copycat pizza and changed a few things to suit my family's tastes. Instead of applewood smoke bacon, I used turkey bacon and instead of mayo I used miracle whip. My husband was not exactly thrilled to hear this was the pizza I made for pizza night, but after one bit he changed his mind.
We both ate just a little too much of this delicious pizza, but how could we not eat more since it was so deliciously good.
California Pizza Kitchen Inspired BLT Pizza
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup warm water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 3/4 cups bread flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- cornmeal
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup crumbled cooked turkey bacon
- 2-3 Roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
- 3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- 3-4 tablespoon miracle whip
Directions:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Let sit for about 5 minutes or until the mixture foams.
- In a large bowl combine the flour and salt.
- When the yeast is ready, turn on the mixer, with the dough hook attached, and slowly add in the flour. Knead until the dough forms a smooth ball, about 5-10 minutes.
- Coat the dough with olive oil, return to bowl, cover and let rise in a warm spot for 1-2 hours or until the dough doubles in size.
- Punch down the dough, cover it and let sit in the refrigerator overnight.
- Preheat the oven with a pizza stone in it to 500º F.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours to warm up.
- Form the dough into a ball and divide into two pieces. On a lightly floured surface roll each dough ball into a thin crust, about 10 inches.
- Place one pizza dough on a pizza peel that is sprinkled with cornmeal.
- Brush 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the entire dough. Sprinkle 3/4 cup cheese over the dough, then sprinkle 1/8 cup bacon over the cheese. Place 8-10 tomato slices on top, then sprinkle with 1/4 cup cheese and 1/8 cup bacon.
- Transfer pizza to the preheat pizza stone and bake for 5-10 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted and bubbly.
- While the pizza is baking combine 1 1/2 cups lettuce and 1 1/2 -2 tablespoons miracle whip.
- Remove pizza from oven and top with lettuce.
- Repeat the process with remaining pizza dough and toppings.
- Alternatively, you could bake the second pizza at the same time as the first on either a pizza pan or an upside down preheated baking sheet.
Serves: 4
Calories: 445
Total Fat: 16.1g
Saturated: 3.5g
Polyunsaturated: 1.8g
Monounsaturated: 8.1g
Trans: 0g
Cholesterol: 15.7mg
Sodium: 635.4mg
Potassium: 362.8mg
Total Carbs: 49.7g
Dietary Fiber: 2.5g
Sugars: 6.5g
Protein: 13.2g
Vitamin A: 61.1%
Vitamin C: 38.1%
Calcium: 13.1%
Iron: 18.6%
*The nutritional information will vary slightly depending on the brands you use.
*Adapted from California Pizza Kitchen at Home.
