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Bacon. Cheese. Burger. Some of my very favorite words in the English language. Put ’em together and it’s magic. And while I’m never going to give up a bunless Five Guys bacon cheeseburger with mushrooms, this low carb stromboli version means I can enjoy it for less money (and more bread!) and I know exactly what goes into it. Plus, this recipe has basically perfect macros for a ketogenic diet!
In the early days of my keto eating, I tried this recipe from Sugar Free Mom. It was good, but she crosses the bacon cheeseburger with Italian flavors and I wanted 100% bacon cheeseburger. She also uses a nut-free mozzarella dough, which is great if you can’t have nuts, but I prefer the texture of almond flour in my crust.
After I perfected my low carb pizza crust recipe, I knew I had to tackle this bacon cheeseburger stromboli and let me tell you– it’s just right.
The Dough
As I mentioned, this is the same dough as my low carb pizza (and what’s used for this cheesy bread!) but in this recipe we’re rolling it into a big ol’ rectangle, almost as big as a half sheet pan. (If you haven’t noticed, I use these for everything and they HOLD UP, friends. And they’re not even expensive. I have four.)
Using two sheets of parchment paper makes it really easy to roll this out without getting dough stuck to everything. Once you’ve rolled out the dough, peel off the top layer of parchment and set it aside and work on the filling.
Bacon Cheeseburger Filling
Fry yo’self up some bacon! Isn’t this just the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen?
For this recipe, we’re going to use the bacon grease to cook the ground beef to give extra flavor. So once your bacon is lovely and crispy, remove it from the pan but leave the grease!
When it’s cool enough, chop the bacon up coarsely.
Next, you’re going to throw the ground beef and onion into the skillet with the bacon grease and cook until the meat is fully browned and the onion is translucent.
It’s important that you drain the fat off the meat once it’s cooked. That’s not because we’re afraid of fat (we’re not!) but because otherwise your finished product is going to be swimming in grease and the bottom won’t brown properly. So you can either drain off the fat and leave the meat in the skillet, or remove the meat from the skillet with a slotted spoon before mixing in the rest of the ingredients.
To make this taste just like a bacon cheeseburger, we’re adding sugar free ketchup, yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce or coconut aminos, chopped dill pickles, and the chopped bacon.
Some notes on ingredients:
My favorite ketchup is this unsweetened ketchup. You can use ketchup sweetened with other sweeteners, but I prefer to limit my intake whenever possible.
Make sure your yellow mustard doesn’t have any added sugar. I like this one from Whole Foods 365, which is available quite inexpensively through Amazon’s Prime Pantry program. If you’re not a Prime member, you can click here to Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. Annie’s Organic is also a good brand.
I like to use Worcestershire sauce here, but it does contain a small amount of molasses and sugar. If you want to avoid any traces of sugar, you can use Coconut Aminos. There’s no difference in carb count between these.
Wrapping It Up
Ok! Once you have all your filling ingredients mixed up, you need to spread the meat down the center third of your dough the long way. Once you’ve done that, make perpendicular cuts, 1 inch apart, in the dough on either side of the meat. The cuts should be symmetrical on either side.
Sprinkle your favorite cheeseburger cheese all up on that meat.
Next, you’re going to fold the strips up and over the filling, overlapping a bit in the center.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake this up for 15-20 minute or until it’s a gorgeous brown. The filling is already cooked, so you just need to cook it long enough for the dough to cook.
If it seems like it’s getting brown too fast, you can tent it with foil partway through cooking.
Mmm, mmm, mmm. My whole family loves this dish for dinner. And I love that it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort on my part.
(Seriously, my husband just came up behind me as I’m writing this and said, “Oh, that looks so good!” I guess I know what I’m making later this week!)
So. If you like bacon. And cheese. And burgers. And easy dinners, give this recipe a try!
Next time I might have to add some mushrooms, too. 😉
Prepare Pizza crust, and roll out between two sheets of parchment paper into a large rectangle to about 1/8″ thickness. Set aside.
In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Remove from pan onto a paper-towel lined plate to drain. Keep the bacon grease in the pan. Chop bacon once cool.
Brown ground beef and onions in the same skillet with the bacon grease until beef is completely browned and onions are translucent. Drain meat mixture, then add ketchup, mustard, pickles, and chopped bacon.
Lay out the meat mixture in the center third of the dough. Cut 1″ strips in the dough at a diagonal on each side of the meat. Top the meat with cheese, then fold the strips of dough up and over the meat, overlapping in the center. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Transfer parchment with the stromboli carefully onto a half sheet pan.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. If it seems like it’s browning too quickly, you can tent it with foil. Remove from the oven. Slice and enjoy!
. You can use ketchup sweetened with other sweeteners, but I prefer to limit my intake whenever possible.
Just made this and it is hubby approved in my house, too! Yum, yum! Thank you!