Cast-Iron Pan Pizza
current situation: pizza lining up
No stone, no peel, no 900°F oven. A cast-iron skillet gets hotter than a baking tray and holds it, and what comes out has a fried base — crisp all the way across the bottom because the dough is sitting in oil on metal.
The rim is thick and puffed because the dough is pressed to the edge of the pan and allowed to climb it. That is a pan pizza and it is a different thing from a thin crust, not a worse one.
Everything on top goes on sparingly. A pan pizza holds more weight than a thin one and still has a limit, and the limit is wherever the cheese stops being able to set.
- Makes
- One 12-inch pizza
- Hands-on
- 20 minutes
- Dough
- Overnight, cold
- Bake
- 500°F, 15 minutes
What you need
The dough — the night before
- 2 1/2 cups bread flour
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
The pan
- 3 tbsp olive oil, in the skillet
- A 12-inch cast-iron skillet
On top
- 3/4 cup tomato sauce — crushed tomatoes, salt, a little garlic, uncooked
- 2 cups low-moisture mozzarella, grated
- 20 slices pepperoni, the small cupping kind
- Pickled banana pepper rings
- 1 jalapeño, sliced into rounds (from my garden)
- 1/2 red onion, sliced thin
- 4 mushrooms, sliced
- Dried oregano, for the rim
How it goes
1 — Mix the dough and leave it cold overnight
Flour, cold water, yeast, salt and oil mixed until there is no dry flour, then covered in the fridge overnight. No kneading — time does it.
2 — Oil the skillet heavily and press the dough out cold
Three tablespoons of oil in the pan, dough in, pressed towards the edges with oiled fingertips. It will fight you and spring back. Leave it ten minutes and press again.
3 — Two hours at room temperature in the pan
Covered, until it has relaxed all the way to the edge and gone puffy and bubbled. This rise in the pan is what gives you the thick rim.
4 — Sauce uncooked, and not too much
Crushed tomatoes with salt and a little garlic, straight on. It cooks in the oven; a sauce simmered first and then baked for fifteen minutes tastes tired.
5 — Cheese to the very edge of the pan
Right up against the metal. The cheese that touches the side fries against it and turns into a crisp brown rim, which is the best bite on a pan pizza.
6 — Toppings sparse, pepperoni on top of the cheese
Pepperoni above the cheese so it cups and crisps rather than steaming underneath. Banana pepper, jalapeño, onion and mushroom scattered, not crowded.
7 — Start it on the stove for two minutes
Skillet over high heat on the burner for two minutes before it goes in the oven. That is what fries the base, and it is the step that separates this from a pizza baked on a tray.
pro tip — Listen for it. You should hear the oil working underneath within a minute. If it is silent, the heat is too low.
8 — 500°F for 13 to 15 minutes, then out of the pan
Into the top third of the oven until the rim is deep gold and the cheese is blistered. Slide it straight out onto a board — left in the hot pan the base keeps cooking and goes hard.
Pizza lining up. Oregano on the rim while it is still hot. LFG.