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.
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Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
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.
I wanted to try out my new cast iron skillet so made this pizza last night and it was really great however the whole pizza bubbled up in the middle while it was cooking. I’m not sure what I did wrong, any suggestions?
Hmm, I haven’t had that issue, so I’m not sure how to prevent that. Maybe poking a fork in the center of the raw dough a few times once it’s in the pan to prevent large bubbles from forming?
Love this recipe! I’ve made it several times now and it’s always turned out perfect! Crispy edges, soft thick crust, extra cheese and toppings. Can’t ask for an easier homemade pizza dough recipe.
I made this for our lunch today and it was delicious! Yesterday for the dough I used 1 1/2 cups all purpose and a 1/2 cup semolina. I put my 12” cast iron skillet in the oven as it preheated and let it heat an additional 10 min. When I took it out of the oven I added a roasted garlic olive oil to the pan and then dropped in the crust I had rolled out and all the toppings. The crust immediately sizzled and started cooking in the hot pan so when it had finished baking it was baked all the way through and wonderfully crispy on the bottom. Thanks for the recipe!
Does the cast iron pan need to pre heated before placing the dough on it ?
Nope no need to preheat
I preheated mine because we like a really crispy crust but I’ve done it without preheating too
Delicious!! Super easy, my family is begging for this recipe to be made weekly.
Any way to manage this with whole wheat flour – even if only partially? All purpose flour is hard to find right now.
It sure is hard to find! Up to 50% whole wheat usually works pretty good with this dough, although I notice it does take on a strange grey-ish color. So, as long as that doesn’t bother you. :)
I tried this with 1/2 whole wheat bc we were out and now I find I prefer it that way!
Has anyone tried this with gluten free ( measure for measure) flour?
We just loved this. It was super easy and delicious. We didn’t have any issues with the crust not fully cooking in a 10” cast iron pan.
Thank you Jonie!
I made this and I found that the dough didn’t really bake all the way through, I’m wondering if I used too many toppings?? I also found that the one side of the dough got a sort of crust on it after sitting after 15hrs and it didn’t really go away after baked? Any tips??
Adding a lot of sauce or too many wet toppings can prevent the center from cooking all the way through, so that might be the issue there. As far as the crust while to dough fermented, did you have the bowl loosely covered? I find plastic wrap works well because it helps hold in the moisture. Sometimes I even have condensation on the plastic in the morning.
The family LOVES this!! I need to make 2 pizzas but only have one cast iron pan – could I use a pie pan?? Or do you have another recommendation??
Yes you definitely could use a pie pan or a 9×13 dish.
Going to try this soon. However, this isn’t Chicago style! It’s just a pan pizza. Google Gino’s East Pizza for a real Chicago deep dish.
I bought a 14″ cast iron pizza pan. Would this recipe work as a thin crust? We spend way too much money on ordering pizza so time to make my own!
The no-knead dough is really loose, so it may be hard to work with if stretched really thin, but you can certainly give it a try! :)
Thank you again for this great recipe!! I made it in a 12 inch pizza pan and it turned out perfect. A definite keeper😋
This was tasty, but it was a little doughy in the middle even though I cooked it five minutes longer (in a 12″ skillet). I’m not sure what went wrong.
My family ended up loving it even though a little doughy. I could only have one bite since I’m doing low carb. They want me to make two next time ( using my 10″ skillet too). Thanks Beth for these great recipes! My family loves you. LOL
Awww, thank you! :)
Recipe worked great and was the first time I had ever made pizza dough from scratch. Only alteration I made was heating the cast iron on medium-low heat before adding the dough to it. I believe this made for a crispier crust.