Artisan Pizza Dough & Cast-Iron Pan Pizzas
Hi Girls - Here is a cool pizza dough recipe. Once you have the dough, you can make whatever kind of pizza you want. I used it to make a little cast iron Greek pizza - Feta, spinach, and a little shallot. And then the next night I put together a quick salami, pepperoni, and mozzarella pizza.
But the star is the dough. I suck at making pizza dough. Usually, it comes out flat and kind of boring. This dough worked out nice - It makes for a thicker, fluffier crust, the texture is chewy and the crust browns so well. Below are the ingredients and directions for the dough and then for the personal pan-style pizzas.
Dough Ingredients:
Below are the measurements I used. The original recipe calls for a scale, which I did not have at the time, but these measurements worked.
3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups water plus 1 tbsp warm water, divided
¼ tsp active dry yeast
1 ½ tsp fine salt (I used fine sea salt)
Dough Directions:
Mix flour and all but 1 tablespoon of the water in a large bowl until just combined, then cover with a clean towel and set aside for 20 minutes to rest.
Sprinkle yeast over the remaining 1 tbsp warm water and set aside to dissolve.
After the dough has rested, sprinkle the salt over the surface of the dough.
Then stir the yeast mixture and pour it over the dough.
Okay, this part is a little weird and awkward sounding, but it works well. This is how to fold the dough from the original recipe:
Lightly wet your hand, reach under the dough, and stretch a section of it over the top. Repeat until the center of the dough is covered.
Then, using your thumb and fingers as pincers, squeeze and pinch off 5- 6 chunks of dough. Put the dough pieces back on top of the dough each time.
Wet your hand to minimize sticking. Fold the dough over itself a few times. Repeat pinching and folding until the yeast and salt are fully mixed and a shaggy dough is formed.
Cover the bowl and let it rest for about an hour.
After the dough has rested - fold the dough one time to develop the gluten: lightly wet your hand, reach underneath the dough, and stretch up a section of the dough, then fold it over the center.
Rotate the bowl and fold four to five more times, or until the dough has tightened into a ball.
Take the entire ball of dough and invert it into a clean, lightly greased bowl, so the seam is down, and the top is smooth. Cover and let rise until doubled in volume, 5- 6 hours.
After the dough has risen - turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and cut in half. Working with one piece of dough at a time, shape it into a ball:
Stretch out a quarter of the dough just until you feel resistance, then fold it back over the center.
Repeat stretching and folding the remaining three edges until the center is covered and a loose ball is formed.
Turn the ball over so the seam is down and place it on an un-floured area. Cup your hands around the dough and gently pull it towards you, dragging the bottom along the counter to create a bit of tension.
Rotate the ball 90 degrees and drag it a few inches toward you again.
Repeat rotating and gently dragging until the top of the dough tightens up and the ball is round.
Transfer to a greased plate and repeat with the remaining dough.
Lightly oil the tops, cover, and let rest at room temperature for about an hour.
Preheat oven if making pizza(s) now or if not using right away, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready (for up to 2 days).
Now for the fun bit. Making the pizzas. We do have a pizza stone and I was going to use that, but I thought it would be fun, and easier, to just make pan pizzas in a cast iron pan. We have a 9-inch cast iron pan, and it worked really well! Seriously, this is super easy and makes good pizzas in the right size for one or two people. I found that about 1/4 of the dough works well for the 9-inch cast iron pan pizza.
Place the cast iron pan into a cold oven and preheat the oven, and the pan, to 475 degrees F (the highest our conventional oven will go). I preheated the oven and pan for about 30 min.
While the oven is preheating, take out your ingredients. See the two pizzas I pulled together below. The fun bit is that you can experiment with toppings and make whatever you want!
Greek Pizza ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup of baby spinach
1/2 shallot thinly sliced
1-2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup feta broken into crumbles
1/2 cup mozzarella sliced into small pieces
Salt to taste
Greek Pizza Directions
Heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 tbsp olive oil
Add spinach, and shallot to the pan with a pinch of salt and sauté for about 2 minutes until spinach is wilted
Add garlic and continue to sauté for another minute. Don't let the garlic burn!
Remove from heat
When the oven is ready, assemble your pizza!
I don't have a pizza peel and doubt I will buy one, so I use a small wooden cutting board instead. I dust the cutting board with cornmeal just like you would dust a pizza peel.
Stretch the dough into a circle to fit the cast iron pan. I like to create a thick edge on the crust to get all brown and crunchy
Place dough on the pizza peel, or pizza cutting board substitute :)
Brush a little olive oil on the dough
Spread your spinach/shallot filling over the dough.
Sprinkle feta on top of the filling
Add mozzarella cheese
When the pizza is assembled, using a potholder, remove the now very hot cast iron pan from the oven
Sprinkle cornmeal in the pan to prevent the pizza from sticking
Carefully transfer the pizza from the cutting board/pizza peel to the cast iron pan.
Bake the pizza until the crust and cheese are nicely browned, about 10 minutes. I would check at the 5 min or 7 min point to see how well it's all cooking
When it's nicely browned, again, using a potholder, remove the cast iron pan from the oven and let the pizza cool for a couple of minutes
Transfer the pizza to a plate using a spatula (it should come out of the pan very easily
Enjoy!
Salami & Pepperoni ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 handful of salami (pick your favorite style, or what is in your fridge)
1 handful of pepperoni
1 cup mozzarella sliced into small pieces
1 cup Monterey jack (or any other cheese you want to add)
1 cup pizza sauce (you can use store-bought, and I will post a great pizza sauce recipe I use)
4 basil leaves
Salami & Pepperoni Pizza Directions
The oven is ready, assemble your pizza!
As I said above, I don't have a pizza peel and doubt I will buy one, so I use a small wooden cutting board instead. I dust the cutting board with cornmeal just like you would dust a pizza peel.
Stretch the dough into a circle to fit the cast iron pan. I like to create a thick edge on the crust to get all brown and crunchy and I like to stuff the crust with cheese - yum!
Place dough on the pizza peel, or pizza cutting board substitute :)
Brush a little olive oil on the dough
Spread about half of both kinds of cheese around the edge of the pizza. Roll the edges of the dough so that the cheese is now inside the crust.
Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce over the pizza dough up to the now cheese-stuffed crust.
Place salami and pepperoni on top of the sauce
Sprinkle remaining cheeses on top
When the pizza is assembled, using a potholder, remove the now very hot cast iron pan from the oven.
Sprinkle cornmeal in the pan to prevent the pizza from sticking
Carefully transfer the pizza from the cutting board/pizza peel to the cast iron pan.
Bake the pizza until the crust and cheese are nicely browned, about 10 minutes. I would check at the 5 min or 7 min point to see how well it's all cooking.
When it's nicely browned, again, using a potholder, remove the cast iron pan from the oven and let the pizza cool for a couple of minutes
Add basil leaves
Transfer the pizza to a plate using a spatula (it should come out of the pan very easily.
Enjoy!