cast iron skillet

Ever since we moved to the country, I’ve been refining my home-made pizza process. I’ve finally documented the recipes and instructions for making dough, sauce, and cooking it all up to perfection. I hope you enjoy making and eating it as much as we do!

DOUGH INGREDIENTS

5 grams (2 tsp) dry active yeast
625 grams (4.5 Cups) all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
5 grams (2 tsp) salt
2 tablespoons (30 milliliters) olive oil
Extra olive oil for coating dough

COOK INGREDIENTS

Finely chopped or sliced garlic
Olive Oil for coating pan and drizzling on dough
Pizza sauce and toppings

DOUGH STEPS

Put 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water in a stand mixer bowl. Sprinkle yeast over water and let dissolve, about 2 minutes.
Add flour, salt and olive oil and mix/knead in a stand mixer for about 5 minutes.
Lightly dust a work surface with flour. Turn dough out onto surface and knead lightly until it looks smooth, a couple minutes.
You have a choice at this point to either cut the dough to weight before putting in the fridge, or putting all the dough in the fridge and cutting to weight after it’s risen. Your total dough weight for this recipe will be around 1000 grams.

Dough weight per pan size
- 12″ pan – 350g
- 10.5″ pan – 260g
- 9.5″ pan – 210g
Lightly coat dough (or individual dough pieces) in olive oil and place in a sealed container with room to double and refrigerate for several hours or (for best results) overnight.

PIZZA SAUCE
For pizza sauce, I either buy a jar at the store or make something really simple by mixing up something like what’s below and heating it up, simmering a bit.

6oz tomato paste
15oz tomato sauce (pasada, etc)
2 tsp olive oil
1-2 Tbsp oregano
2 Tbsp italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
crushed red pepper to taste
salt to taste

PIZZA COOKING STEPS

Take dough out of refrigerator for 1-2 hours before cooking. (2 hours if you didn’t cut it to weight before refrigerating – cut to weight after it’s warm).
Put iron pans in the oven and heat to 450°F. When pans are hot, put a bit of olive oil in the pan, and take the appropriately-sized dough ball and form the dough into its matching pan. Drizzle olive oil and some fresh garlic and a bit of salt on top of dough and cook in oven for about 5 minutes, or until the top of the dough is no longer doughy (has formed a “shell”).
Pull pizza pan from oven and top with toppings. Be sure to put a fair amount of mozzarella cheese around the edge of the dough where it meets the iron pan. This will become caramelized and will be delicious. Advice: don’t overdo the cheese, it’s the mistake we make most often.
Cook the pizzas until the top cheese is golden brown all around and edge cheese is caramelized. Pizza should be firm enough to slide out of the pan onto a cutting board or plate to cut and serve.