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Foolproof Pan Pizza

A pan pizza recipe for those who love a thick and crispy
crust that's golden on the bottom, but puffy and soft under
the layers of sauce and mozzarella.

B Y J . K E N J I L Ó P E Z - A LT Updated March 30, 2023

R AT I N G : (104)

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IN THIS RECIPE

Solving Problem 1@ Kneading

Solving Problem 2@ Stretching

Solving Problem 3@ Transferring

Pan Pizza, Step-by-Step

WHY IT WORKS
● A long, slow rise is a hands-free way to
develop maximum flavor and chewiness in
the crust.
● With a hot oven and a cast iron pan, the
crust bakes up deeply golden and crisp.
● Shredded, low-moisture mozzarella keeps
the pizza crisp and light.

I'
ve got a confession to make: I love pan
pizza.
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HImage: Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt]

It would arrive at the table in a jet-black, well-

worn pan, its edges browned and crisped where
the cheese had melted into the gap between the
crust and the pan. You'd lift up a slice, and long
threads of mozzarella would pull out, stretching
all the way across the table, a signpost saying,
"Hey, everyone, it's this kid's birthday!" You'd
reach out your fingers—almost involuntarily—
grasping at those cheese strings, plucking at
them like guitar strings, wrapping them around
your fingers so you could suck them off before
diving into the slice itself.
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That perfect pan pizza had an open, airy, chewy

crumb in the center that slowly transformed into
a crisp, golden-brown, fried crust at the very
bottom (from a heavy duty cast iron pan) and a
soft, thin, doughy layer at the top, right at the
crust-sauce interface. It was thick and robust
enough to support a heavy load of toppings,
though even a plain cheese or pepperoni slice
would do.

It's been years since I've gone to an actual Pizza

Hut. XThey don't even exist in New York, aside
from those crappy "Pizza Hut Express" joints
with the prefab, lukewarm individual pizzas.[ But
I've spent a good deal of time working on my
own pan pizza recipe, to the point that it finally
lives up to the perfect image of my childhood
pan pizza that still lives on in my mind.

I'm not talking deep-dish Chicago-style, with its

crisp crust and rivers of cheese and sauce. I'm
talking thick-crusted, fried-on-the-bottom, puffy,
cheesy, focaccia-esque pan pizza of the kind
that you might remember Pizza Hut having when
you were a kid, though, in reality, most likely that
pizza never really existed—as they say, pizzas
past always look better through pepperoni-tinted
glasses.

If only pizza that good were also easy to make.

Well, here's the good news: It is. This is the
easiest pizza you will ever make. Seriously. All it
takes is a few basic kitchen essentials, some
simple ingredients, and a bit of patience.

The way I see it, there are three basic difficulties

most folks have with pizza:

● Problem 1, Kneading. How long is enough?

What motion do I use? And is it really worth
the doggone effort?
● Problem 2, Stretching. Once I've got that disk
of dough, how do I get it into the shape of an
actual pizza, ready to be topped?
● Problem 3, Transferring. Okay, let's say I've
got my dough made and perfectly stretched
onto my pizza peel. How do I get it onto that
stone in the oven without disturbing the
toppings or having it turn into a misshapen
blob?

This recipe avoids all three of those common

pitfalls, making it pretty much foolproof. To be
perfectly honest, every single one of these steps
has been done before, and none of it is rocket
science. All I'm doing is combining them all into a
single recipe.
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Read on for a few more details on what to expect

and how we got there.

No Kneading
By now, everybody and their baker's heard
about no-knead dough. It's a technique that was
developed by Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery
and popularized by Mark Bittman of the New
York Times. The basic premise is simple: Mix
together your dough ingredients in a bowl just
until they're combined, cover the bowl, and let
time take care of the rest. That's it.

Overhead shot of mixing dough for pan pizza.

So how does it work? Well, the goal of kneading

in a traditional dough is to create gluten, a
weblike network of interconnected proteins that
forms when flour is mixed with water. All wheat
flour contains some amount of protein (usually
around 10 to 15%, depending on the variety of
wheat). In their normal state, these proteins
resemble tiny crumpled-up little balls of wire.
With kneading, your goal is to first work these
proteins until they untangle a bit, then to rub
them against each other until they link up,
forming a solid chain-link fence.
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It's this gluten matrix that allows your dough to

be stretched without breaking, and what allows it
to hold nice big air bubbles inside. Ever eat a
slice of pizza with a dense, under-risen crust?
It's because whoever made it didn't properly
form their gluten in the process.

Now, you can see how this could take a lot of

work. Kneading, aligning, folding, linking. That's
why most pizza dough recipes take a good 10 to
20 minutes of elbow grease or time in a stand
mixer.
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But there's another way.

See, flour naturally contains enzymes that will

break down large proteins into smaller ones.
Imagine them as teeny-tiny wire cutters that cut
those jumbled-up balls of wire into shorter
pieces. The shorter the pieces are, the easier it
is to untangle them, and the easier it is to then
align them and link them up into a good, strong
network. No-knead dough recipes take
advantage of this fact.

Over the course of an overnight sit at room

temperature, those enzymes get to work
breaking down proteins. Meanwhile, yeast starts
to consume sugars in the flour, releasing carbon
dioxide gas in the process. These bubbles of gas
will cause the dough to start stretching and, in
the process, will jostle and align the enzyme-
primed proteins, thereby creating gluten.
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Simply allowing the dough to sit overnight will

create a gluten network at least as strong as a
dough that has been kneaded in a stand mixer or
by hand (if not stronger![, all with pretty much
zero effort. Indeed, the flavor produced by
letting yeast do its thing over the course of this
night will also be superior to that of any same-
day dough. Win-win!

Other than time, the only real key to a successful

no-knead dough is high hydration. Specifically,
the water content should be at least 60% of the
weight of the flour you use. Luckily, high
hydration also leads to superior hole structure
upon baking. I go for about 65%.
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Problem 1@ avoided.

No Stretching
One of the happy side effects of having a loose,
moist dough is that it practically stretches itself.
Form the dough into a ball and let it sit around at
room temperature, and you'll see it spreading
slowly outwards until it's nearly disk-shaped. The
only thing holding it back? Friction. It sticks to
the countertop or board.

What do you use to eliminate friction? Grease.

Coating the dough ball in grease and placing it
on a smooth surface (such as, say, the inside of
a cast iron skillet or round cake pan) allows it to
stretch completely under its own power.

All that's needed is a few gentle pokes with your

fingertips to do the final shaping and to eliminate
any ultra-large air bubbles.
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You may wonder why we'd want to get rid of

those bubbles, when an open, airy structure is
what we're after. Well, it's because this dough is
almost too good. It's so loose and easy to stretch
that large bubbles will form giant domes,
shedding their cheese and sauce, eventually
collapsing into large, barren craters when you
pull the pies out of the oven, like this:

Some simple fingertip docking eliminates that

problem while keeping your dough plenty light
and airy.
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Problem 2@ avoided.

No Transferring
Do I need to spell it out here? If your pizza is
constructed in a pan, there's no need to use a
peel or a stone. Just throw the pan straight into
the oven.

Problem 3@ avoided.

How to Make a Pan Pizza, Step-by-

Step
What follows is a step-by-step guide to making a
pan pizza with a crisp, olive oil-flavored crust; an
open, airy, nicely chewy crumb; crispy, browned
cheesy bits around the edges; and plenty of
sauce and cheese. It ain't the classiest pizza on
the block, but sometimes you're just looking for
something cheap and easy.
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Step 1: Mix and Proof

This is the hardest part of the whole process:

weigh out your flour X400 grams), salt X10
grams), and yeast X4 grams) into a bowl, then
add water X275 grams) and oil X8 grams) and mix
it up, either with your hand or a wooden spoon.
That's it. No need to knead, punch, massage,
nothing. Just make sure there's no dry flour left,
and you're good to go.

Wrap it up tightly with plastic wrap and let it rest,

anywhere from 8 to 24 hours.

Step 2: Ball the Dough

After all those hours of you doing absolutely

nothing to it, your dough should look basically
like a big, puffy, lumpy-looking bowl of soup.
When you uncover the plastic and knock the
bowl slightly, you'll see the whole thing deflate a
bit. This is AoOK.

Sprinkle the top of the dough with some flour,

then dump it out onto a floured work surface. It's
fine to use a fair amount of flour here; just don't
knead it into the dough. This should not be hard,
as kneading isn't on your agenda anyway. Divide
the dough into two even balls.
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Working with one ball of dough at a time, form

and roll the dough on the counter using the sides
of your hands to form a taut ball with a smooth,
elastic top. Use your fingers to pinch and smooth
out the bottom side of the ball of dough. Repeat
this process with the second portion of dough.
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Step 3: Proof Dough in Cast Iron Pan

Pour some olive oil into the bottom of a 10-inch

cast iron skillet or a 10-inch round cake pan. If
you want to bake your pizzas simultaneously,
you'll need a pan or skillet for each ball of dough.

Alternatively, you can store unused dough balls

in sealed containers in the refrigerator for up to
three days (leave room in the container for the
dough to expand) or in the freezer indefinitely.
Place the dough you want to bake in the middle
of the pan.

Turn the dough over a few times until it's coated

on all sides with oil, then swirl it around the pan
to get oil into all the corners and the sides of the
pan. Cover the whole thing with plastic wrap,
and let it sit in your kitchen for a couple of hours.
Watch a movie, do your laundry, take your third
bath of the day, you get the idea. Just leave it
alone and let it do its thing.