Bob's Pizza Tour Crispy Pan Pizza
The pizza experts behind Bob's Pizza Tour—known for finding the best pizza joints in NYC and Baltimore—bring you their recipe for the ultimate crowdpleaser pepperoni pan pizza.
by Bob's Pizza Tour / @bobspizzatour
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast
3/4 cup water, lukewarm
2 tbsp Sizzle
6 oz mozzarella cheese, grated
1/3 to 1/2 cup tomato or pizza sauce
1/2 to 1 cup pepperoni slices
Freshly grated hard cheese and fresh herbs for sprinkling on top after baking, optional
Tips from the Bob's Pizza Tour team: Buy a food scale: Baking is a science and it's worth the investment. Refrigerate for 72 hours: This recipes also calls for you to prepare your pan 3 hours before cooking. If you follow these steps I'm sure you'll wind up with great results.
Instructions
Mix your flour, salt, yeast, water, and 1 tbsp of Sizzle in the bowl of a stand mixer or another medium-large mixing bowl.
Stir everything together to make a shaggy, sticky mass of dough with no dry patches of flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to gather the dough into a rough ball, covering the bowl.
After five minutes, uncover the bowl and with a wet hand, scoop down under the dough ball and stretch the bottom of the dough up and over its top. Repeat this three times, turning the bowl 90 degrees each time.
Recover the bowl, and after five minutes do another fold. Wait five minutes and repeat, then another five minutes, and then do a fourth and final fold.
Cover the bowl and let the dough rest undisturbed for 40 minutes. Then refrigerate for a minimum of 12-72 hours. It'll rise slowly as it chills, developing flavor.
About 3 hours before you want to serve your pizza, prepare your pan by adding 1 and 1/2 tbsp of Sizzle to a well-seasoned cast iron skillet that's 10-11" in diameter across the top.
Transfer the dough to the pan and turn it once to coat both sides with oil. Then press the dough into the edges of the pan, dimpling it using the tips of your fingers in the process. If the dough shrinks back, you can repeat the process up to three pans to get your dough to cover the base of the pan.
Cover the crust and let it rise for two hours at room temperature. The fully risen dough will look soft and pillowy, and should jiggle when you gently shake the pan.
About 30 minutes before baking, place one rack at the bottom of the oven and one toward the top. Preheat the oven at 450F.
When you're ready to bake your pizza, sprinkle about 3/4 of the mozzarella evenly over the crust until nothing is showing. Then drop spoonfuls of sauce over the cheese to prevent a soggy base. Top with the remaining mozzarella and pepperoni pieces.
Bake the pizza on the bottom rack of the oven for 18 to 20 minutes until cheese is bubbling and the bottom and edges of the crust are a rich golden brown. Troubleshoot to make it work with your oven—if the bottom is brown but the top is pale, transfer the pizza to the top rack. But if the top seems fine but the bottom's not cooking, leave it on the bottom rack for another 2-4 minutes.
Remove your pizza from the oven and run a table knife or spatula around the edges to prevent the cheese from sticking. Let the pizza cool briefly before transferring to a cooling rack and slicing it up!
