I’m pretty much a pizza addict. I want it all the time. Thin pizza, thick pizza, frozen pizza, artisan pizza, I want it all. I love exploring the pizza frontier, which is why I decided to test out this No Knead Pan Pizza technique. I’ve seen the technique quite a few places around the web, but this post from Serious Eats has a really excellent tutorial with photos.
The idea is simple. Make a basic batch of no knead bread dough (I used my awesome Focaccia Roll dough), plop it into a well oiled cast iron skillet, top it with your favorite goodies, then bake at a really high heat. The outer crust gets nice and crispy from all the oil, the inside dough is thick and bubbly, and the whole thing is just divine. Plus, as always, it’s super cheap! Hooray pizza night!
As mentioned before, I used the Focaccia Roll dough for my no knead pan pizza (halved to fit my skillet, plus added a little olive oil), I had some left over sauce and cheese in my fridge, and I stopped by the salad bar at the grocery store to get a handful of vegetables for toppings (my salad bar pizza method). This no knead pan pizza is great for using up leftovers, so keep this trick tucked up your sleeve. You can use leftover BBQ sauce as a base instead of red sauce, use up extra beans, cheese, veggies, or meat, whatever you have on hand. Just keep in mind that the dough needs at least 12 hours to do it’s thing, so you have to plan it out at least one day ahead.
No Knead Pan Pizza
Servings 3 two slices eachIngredients
DOUGH
- 2 cups all-purpose flour ($0.30)
- 1/8 tsp instant or bread machine yeast ($0.02)
- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 3/4 to 1 cup water ($0.00)
PIZZA
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 1/2 cup sauce ($0.40)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella ($0.99)
- Toppings of your choice ($0.84)
Instructions
- The day before, combine the flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl. Stir until they’re very well combined. Add 1 Tbsp of olive oil and 3/4 cups water. Stir until the dough forms a ball. If there is still dry flour on the bottom of the bowl or the dough doesn’t form a single, cohesive ball of dough, add more water, 1 Tbsp at a time until the dough comes together. The dough should be slightly sticky and shaggy in appearance.
- Loosely cover the dough in the bowl and allow it to ferment for 12-16 hours at room temperature. This develops the gluten, making kneading unnecessary.
- When it’s time to make the pizza, begin preheating the oven to 450 degrees. Oil a cast iron skillet with another tablespoon of olive oil. Use the excess oil from the skillet (there will be a lot) to oil your hands and the dough in the bowl. Pull the dough out of the bowl and place it in the oiled skillet. Press it down into the skillet until it covers the entire bottom of the skillet (it will be very loose and soft).
- Top the pizza with sauce, cheese, and your desired toppings. Cover the pizza edge to edge with the sauce, cheese, and toppings. The dough will be very thick, so there is no need for a dry edge or crust around the outside.
- Bake the pizza in the fully preheated oven for 18-22 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Pan Pizza – Step by Step Photos
Begin the dough the day before so that it has time to “ferment” for at least 12 hours. In a bowl, stir together 2 cups all purpose flour, 1/8 tsp instant or bread machine yeast, and 1 tsp salt. Once those are well combined, add 1 Tbsp olive oil and 3/4 cups water. Stir until the dough forms one cohesive ball. See how there is no dry flour left in the bowl and the dough is all in one piece? If needed, add more water 1Tbsp at a time until it forms this sticky ball of dough.
Loosely cover the dough and let it ferment at room temperature for at least 12 hours. During that time, it puffs up and becomes light and airy. It’s still very sticky, though…
Begin to preheat your oven to 450 degrees. It needs to be FULLY heated before you put the pizza in there. Add 1 Tbsp olive oil to a 10 or 12 inch cast iron skillet and spread it around. There will be a LOT of oil, but that’s what gives pan pizza that awesome crispy crust.
Use some of that excess oil to coat your hands and that sticky ball of dough, then transfer it from the bowl to the skillet. Press it out until it covers the bottom of the pan. The dough will be VERY loose and should be easily manipulated.
Instead of buying a bunch of things to add to the top of this pizza, I stopped by the salad bar and got a small scoop of black olives, bell peppers, mushrooms, and red onion. The small handful of toppings was only 84 cents! Much better than buying a whole package or item of each then trying to figure out how to use up the leftovers.
Top the pizza with sauce, cheese, and your veggies (I used leftover sauce and cheese from my fridge). Go ahead and spread the sauce, cheese, and toppings ALL the way out to the edge. The dough will be thick once baked, so you need all those toppings to go to the edge to balance all the bread and keep things moist. By this time the oven should have finished preheating, so go ahead and pop the pizza in the oven. Bake it for about 18-22 minutes (depends on your pizza, toppings, skillet, and oven), or until the edges are browned and the cheese is bubbly all over.
Like this! Yummm… smells like a real pizzeria in here. (take my word for it)
You’ll want to run a knife around the edges to loosen any cheese that has stuck to the side. Because we used so much oil in the pan, nothing should really be too difficult to loosen. Once loose, I suggest sliding the pizza out onto a cutting board to slice, rather than leaving it in the pan like I did for the photos. It’s rather hard to cut while in the pan and you may damage the finish on your cast iron!
Crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy inside, all around moist and delicious.
Judging by what I’ve read re: this and other pizza recipes, I can’t wait to make this and your others. You have a really nice blog and your recipes look great and are well thought out. I, too, am a pizza fanatic, and this is a really good collection of mouth-watering offerings. Keep up the good work, Beth!! I’ve just signed up for your email alerts.
The salad bar idea for toppings is brilliant! Thanks for another great recipe!
Great recipe! My oven quit on me halfway through and I had to finish it on the bbq. It was a resounding success! I will do it on the bbq again when we want pizza in the summer but I don’t want to crank up the oven. Thanks for another great recipe.
I live in NJ, so we have REALLY awesome pizzeria pizza, hard to beat. However, I do occasionally make-my-own using a Boboli crust. at about $2.75 per crust (household size requires 2 made at a time), it’s a less expensive alternative to ordering pizza and tastes pretty good. I would say this recipe is on par with a Boboli. I did purchase pepperoni to put on one pie and I used fresh mozzarella to really give it a great taste but there was something different I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I’m not a great cook so I couldn’t quite figure it out, my best guess was that perhaps I needed to add a little more salt to the dough mix. Would definitely make this again.
Can I use active dry yeast for this recipe?
No, unfortunately you really need instant yeast for this since the yeast is added in dry and not proofed in water first.
If i don’t currently have a cast iron skillet is there an easy substitute?
You can use a different type of baking dish, but the way the heat transfers through different materials like ceramic or glass can change the way the crust turns out or the cooking time. You may just want to keep an eye on it to get the correct cooking time.
I have made this many many times for my family. Everyone absolutely LOVES it. Thank you for delicious affordable recipes.
Awesome! I use a bigger skillet and adjust the heat down a bit plus bake a few minutes longer. We have this pizza often!
I wonder if this dough is freezable–has anyone tried? It’s so, so good.
I think no-knead dough is the only type that I haven’t tried to freeze. Now I’m curious.
It worked perfectly. This is a delicious recipe. Thanks Beth, everything on this site is fantastic.
This is so good! Made it for lunch today and my family devoured it! Has to start a second crust for tomorrow. Thanks for the great and easy recipe!
I wanted to add to my original review: I have made this pizza three times in four days! It is THAT good. The third time I used white whole wheat flour since I ran out of regular all-purpose. Turned out great!
Is it much of a big deal if I have put the whole packet of yeast? !? I went to measure it and the whole thing fell in the bowl with flour and stuff??
It might over ferment if left for 12 hours with that much yeast, but I haven’t tested that theory. I hope it worked out okay for you!!
Wonderful recipe, thank you!
I didn’t have any sauce but I’m not a big fan of pizza sauce anyway, but I did have fresh garden tomatoes. Recently, my store had a buy 1 get 2 free special on high quality balls of mozzarella so I scooped ’em up.After spreading the fermented dough on a pizza stone, I drizzled the dough with a little olive oil and sprinkled some Italian seasoning over it. I seeded and chopped the tomatoes, tore the mozzarella into pieces with my hands…and oh my word, the finished product was delicious! It was much better than delivery which usually packs a $20 punch I can rarely afford. YUM YUM YUM…make this recipe!
I got a great tip on cast iron once. I was told you can pick up old rusted looking ones at thrift shops & yard sales and them recondition them pretty easily. The Lodge website tells you how or maybe even a “how to” video.
STRONGLY agree with this comment! I collected cast iron pieces for a while and found some WONDERFUL antique stuff for pretty cheap and much better than Lodge. Look for Wagner or Griswold pieces if you can, they are thinner than Lodge and that is not a bad thing. They are usually much smoother on the cooking surface, I have reconditioned some that have a near-glass finish and they are SUPERB.
This was wonderful and easy!! And my college kid loved it. I made the dough the night before and let it sit out for 12 hours. It was still early so I put it in the frig until about 2 hours prior to preparing. Turned out perfect, I might have to go buy a second skillet though.