Cast Iron Pizza Recipe Ingredients
Here’s a quick shopping list to help you gather your ingredients. See the recipe card below for the full ingredients and instructions! She said the quote as if I was the one who came up with it. I had to regrettably inform her that no, the pizza-sex analogy is not something I just randomly made up one day, it’s a famous quote from a movie star. Haha!! How did I get credit for this for so long?? Poet and I didn’t know it. Sorry Sarah, I’m way less cool than you thought I was!! But don’t worry, there is nothing bad about today’s handmade pan pizza recipe. It is simply phenomenal. It’s basically the runway model of pizzas, if we’re going with the sex analogy. This stuff LITERALLY tastes like it came from Pizza Hut. It is so good! Where are all my pan pizza people? I am a pizza hut pan pizza girl for life. It is the BEST. The crispy, fried edges. The fluffy interior with the perfect chewy texture. The cheese for days and days. It’s just the best! Regular pizza crust has it’s place in life, especially for a last minute homemade pizza situation. But in my opinion, pan crust always wins. And anything that is so worth the calories is worth putting in the time to get it done right! She recently wrote her second cookbook, Ready, Set, Dough! It is a beginner’s guide to breads for all occasions. It is such a fun book! It is perfect for beginner bread makers, but also has tons of new ideas for those who are more experienced with yeast. Click here to purchase! I flipped through the book, landed almost immediately on this pan pizza recipe, and knew I had to try it out! It is even better than I thought it would be, no joke. Rebecca also has The Best Pan Pizza recipe up on her blog, click over to check out more pictures!
How to make Cast Iron Pan Pizza
Making homemade pan pizza is super easy, you will be surprised. All you need is some time to plan ahead. Rebecca’s recipe calls for an initial rise time of 8-24 hours, with an additional 2 hour rise plus bake time. I am one of those people who usually remembers about dinner when it’s already dinnertime, but when I’m really on my game, I remember to prep for dinner around lunchtime. But definitely not 24 hours in advance! I tested out a few ways to shorten the rise and have found a pretty easy hack to get it done. Today’s pan pizza recipe can be done in about 6 hours start to finish. Perfect for remembering to start around noon and eating by 6. First up, make the dough. All you need is warm water and a little yeast, then bread flour and salt. You don’t need to knead it. Just mix it together until combined. You can use active dry yeast or instant yeast, just make sure you dissolve the yeast in warm water to get it started. You need 14 ounces of bread flour for this recipe. Bread flour has more gluten than all-purpose, and makes for a chewier and holier crust. It’s best to use a scale if you have one. Too much flour will make your dough less tender. But if you don’t have a scale, it’s 3 cups plus 1 tablespoon. Here is the dough before and after the rise. Cover it loosely so that the gas has room to escape. The trick to getting it to rise quickly is to preheat your oven, then turn it off so that it is very warm but not hot. At room temperature, this dough needs at least 8 hours to rise. But in a warm oven, you can get the job done in about 4 hours. If you have more time for this initial rise, great. The longer the better. If not, 4 hours works. Split the dough in half with a well oiled spatula, and divide between two well-oiled cast iron pans.
Pan Pizza Common Questions
Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram Once you have the dough in the pans, use well-oiled hands to lift one edge of the dough and tuck it into the center. Do this several times until a loose ball has shaped itself. The dough is super sticky. Don’t worry, it’s supposed to be that way! Spread the dough out with your hand until it reaches the edges, or nearly reaches the edges. Then let the dough rise in a warm oven for about an hour and a half, or up to two hours if you have time. The dough should have reached the edges of the pan by now. Top with sauce, but not too much; you don’t want to weigh down the dough. Then cover with cheese. I love to add sliced mozzarella cheese in addition to shredded cheese. It gives your pizza this added element of cheesiness that you don’t get from just shredded cheese. I actually didn’t have any sliced mozzarella the day I made this, so I used my favorite hack of using my kids string cheese! Works like a charm. Top with pepperoni and a little bit of parmesan. Again, don’t add too much or it will weigh down your dough. Then bake your pizzas in a SCREAMING hot oven. Turn your oven up as high as it will go, 550 degrees F, if possible. A super hot oven makes your crust nice and crisp on the outside, and gives your dough that holey, chewy texture that makes pan pizza so amazing. Observe: I like to slide my pizza out onto a cooling rack within a couple minutes of taking it out of the oven, to make sure the crust stays super crispy. Then after a few minutes, slice and serve! Technically these are not Personal Pan Pizzas like the ones at Pizza Hut, but I can pretty much eat an entire one of these pizzas single handedly. Don’t judge me. Join the dark side. It’s quarantine anyway, calories don’t count. Green Salad with Feta and Beets « if you hate chopping this salad is for you. Super easy! Strawberry Cucumber Salad with Honey Balsamic Dressing « this dressing is so refreshing. Pineapple Spinach Salad « a compromise between those who like pineapple on their pizza and those who don’t–just serve it in the side salad. Spinach Bleu Cheese Salad (with Copycat Zupas Poppyseed Dressing) « cinnamon candied almonds, fresh berries, and homemade dressing?? Yes please.
Can Homemade Pan Pizza be frozen?
Yes, absolutely. You can wrap the slices in plastic wrap, put them on a baking sheet in a single layer, and freeze. When they’re frozen, you can transfer them to a ziploc bag or a leftover container. They’ll be best if you eat them in the first 1-2 months, but are still safe to eat for 3-6.
Best way to reheat Cast Iron Pizza
Look, the microwave works. It totally does. But if you want to reheat your pizza to “fresh” level, you’ll want to use the oven. Just put the slices under the broiler for a couple minutes (watching them super carefully so they don’t burn, tragic!!).
