Want to make a make a cast iron griddle pan pizza? Maybe, you should try this recipe!
Cast iron pan pizza is a lot more different than the usual pizzas you make at home by buying a ready made base for pizza. These ready made bases never give the soft texture that is needed by the pizza. These pan pizzas are the secret recipe behind the most famous pizza restaurants in the world.
Not an expert dough kneader? Not a problem
There are two methods that are suggested to make this pizza. One can buy the already kneaded dough from the market if you are not comfortable with making the dough or you can knead the dough by yourself if you can knead better all by yourself. This recipe would help you learn to make pizza step by step so that it is of a great use to those who don’t even know the A, B, and C of cooking.
What do you need to make this pizza?
For the Dough, you will need
- 2-4 cups of All Purpose Flour (a) Bread Flour (It depends on the number of pizzas you want to make) 2 cups would make a large pizza that generously serves 2 and can provide 4 medium slices.
- 1 cup of Warm Water
- 1 tbsp. of Honey
- One Package of Dry Yeast
- Salt-To taste
- Olive Oil 1-2 tbsp.
For the toppings, you will need:
- Marinara Sauce, you can make it at home and store it in the refrigerator or you can also buy it from the stores.
- Garlic Powder and Pepper Powder 1-2 tbsp.
- Chopped Garlic Cloves 2-3, you can add up to 5 if you like the taste of burnt garlic
- Mozzarella Cheese (up to 3 cups)
For the glazing, you will need
- ¼ cup of Hot Water
- 1 tbsp. of Honey
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- Few Cayenne or Chili Flakes
How to make this pizza?
Let us start with the dough.
- Take a huge bowl that can accommodate double the size of the kneaded flour.
- Add some warm water, honey, dry yeast, salt and olive oil (the ingredients mentioned under “For the dough” except the flour)
- Mix it thoroughly for 2 minutes
- Once the froth arises, add in the flour and do not add extra water. Knead the dough with a spatula. Once the flour gets thoroughly mixed with the ingredients remove it from the bowl and place it on the floor that is smeared with flour.
- The dough has to be sticky in nature. Slowly one must knead the dough such that you keep adding flour little by little and water is not added.
- There are certain tricks to get the exact texture of the dough, do the butterfly stroke. Pull out the dough and push in. And make cuts often in the dough using a spatula and bind them together. This is how a soft spongy and a smooth dough is kneaded.
- The dough has to be kept in a warm place. Preheat the oven and place this bowl of dough inside the oven after covering the bowl with a soft muslin cloth.
- Take the bowl out after 15-20 minutes; one could see that the dough has become more than half of its size.
- Take the dough out and cut it into two equal halves.
Next to the pizza making
- Take a cast iron pan and keep the ball of dough exactly in the middle of the pan.
- The pan should be brushed with some generous amount of olive oil, butter to avoid the dough getting stuck to the pan.
- Pull out the dough equally in all the directions. You can make the base very thin if you like it as a thin crust pizza. Or keep the dough thick in texture. Keep pulling out the pizza dough to the sides and there is no problem if it sticks too. The caramelization can be made to remove the sticky edges.
- Keep the pan inside the oven for few minutes so that the dough gets cooked. Since it is raw dough and not a readymade base, this step is mandatory.
Now with the dressing of the pizza
- After you fix in the pizza, smear a large amount of pizza sauce on the pizza. You should not be able to spot any white area of the flour. Smear in such a manner.
- Once done, cover the entire sauce with oodles of mozzarella cheese. You can add grated cheese to cover it fully or if you like it when the white patches of the cheese are known, you can add cheese blocks.
- Add few pieces of chopped garlic too. The idea of adding garlic to fat-rich foods is because the garlic works very hard to dissolve the fat present in the cheese. This aids easy digestion.
- Add the toppings of your choice, it can be onions, capsicum, pepperoni etc.,
- Sprinkle some garlic powder if you wish to.
- Keep the pan inside the preheated oven and cook till the cheese melts.
The glazing of the pizza
- Now, glaze the pizza using a mixture of honey, hot water, Garlic Powder and Chili Flakes.
- The hot water will remove the part of the dough that is sticking on to the edges of the pan.
It is better to serve the pizza hot as it tastes better when it is hot.
You can have it with tomato sauce or sprinkle some seasoning over the pizza and then eat it.
This is one of the simplest methods that are available online to make pizza. The quality of the pan plays a vital role here. So, make sure to get the best quality of pan from the market.
For those who are worried about the excessive calories of the pizza can substitute certain ingredients.
You can use wheat or multigrain flour in the place of all-purpose flour and low-fat mozzarella in the place of mozzarella cheese.
The best part of this pizza is the burnt texture which one cannot get it easily when made at home. This recipe fulfills that wish of the person.