Genius Recipes
A Crispy, Cheesy Pan Pizza Anyone Can Make
This no-knead, beginners-welcome dough is King Arthur Flour's recipe of the year (so, of course, it’s a Genius Recipe).
Every week in Genius Recipes—often with your help!—Food52 Creative Director and lifelong Genius-hunter Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that will change the way you cook.
When King Arthur Flour’s team of bakers sets out to create their Recipe of the Year, they spend months developing and cross-testing to make exactly what they want—with the hopes of ending up with a recipe that will be loved by everyone who tries it, from pro bakers to first-time flour buyers.
For 2020, inspired by the pizza nights they’re known for hosting in their local community in Norwich, Vermont, they were looking for a very specific type of pizza: one with the crispy edges of Detroit-style (or, yes, Pizza Hut-style), the fluff of focaccia, and the sauce-atop-cheese inversion of Chicago deep-dish (there’s a smart reason for this simple rebellion, as you’ll see).
For this crispy-cheesy-floofy cloud of pizza, you won’t need any dough skills, but you will need a bit of time. Not active time, mind you—each step takes roughly 10 seconds of your attention. But the passive, let-it-be sort of time (namely, a cold rise overnight in the fridge, plus a two-hour rise before hopping in the oven) to make the dough do the lion’s share of the work while you settle in with a good book or puzzle (or follow your toddler from room to room, if you’re me).
It’s the thoughtful, well-planned style of recipe that, in my tendency to not think about dinner until 9 p.m., I might have bookmarked and forgotten about. That is, until I made it three times in the past week. And I’m already wondering when I can have it again. (1)
There are so many Genius elements to this recipe that I feel compelled to write them in list form:
There’s no kneading, only folding.
Just like a T-shirt. This move is all you need to create enough structure for the dough to capture air pockets and puff up in a hot oven. In only four folds, you’ll see the dough turn from stiff and shaggy to glossy and loose (like the kind you might buy at the grocery store), as the flour hydrates and the gluten relaxes. (2)
A slow, cold rise makes for the best flavor and most flexible timing.
Because it has little risk of overproofing, the dough can hang out in your fridge anywhere from 12 to 72 hours before you pull it out to rise in the pan. So if you realize—oops—no time for that last 2-hour rise in the pan tonight? Tomorrow it is!
The pan is a very supportive friend to pizza (and you).
Baking in an oil-smeared pan means that there’s no need for shaping a very wet dough, or sliding it from peel to pizza stone. It also means the crispiest edges imaginable.
And while the recipe was designed for the heft and even heat of a cast-iron skillet, it will work in all sorts of square and round cake pans, too. “It’s pretty much indestructible,” King Arthur Content Editor (and longtime Food52 contributor) Posie Brien told me.
Cheese before sauce is a legitimate reordering.
Because a thorough melty barrier against sauce means no soggy crust. And by sprinkling the cheese layer all the way to the edges, it melts and toasts at the sides of the pan, forming the most glorious, crackly, frico-like crust.
You’ll only modestly dollop on the sauce, which won’t feel like enough, but it means you’ll get little caverns of tomato with molten mozzarella, and well-poufed cheesy focaccia all around them (you'll see exactly what I mean in the video above).
Because it’s their Recipe of the Year, King Arthur has been making variations every month on their Instagram, from fennel and radicchio to chili cheese fries. So, while I’m partial to the pure joy of the jarred pizza sauce and gooey cheese, you can tap your own fridge stores and creativity every time you make it.
| 2 | cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour (such as King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour) |
| 3/4 | teaspoon fine salt (like table salt or fine sea salt) |
| 1/2 | teaspoon instant yeast or active dry yeast |
| 3/4 | cup (170 grams) lukewarm water |
| 1 | tablespoon (13 grams) olive oil plus 1 1/2 tablespoons (18 grams) olive oil for the pan |
| 6 | ounces (170 grams) low-moisture mozzarella, grated (about 1 1/4 cups, loosely packed)* |
| 1/3 to 1/2 | cups (74 grams to 113 grams) tomato sauce or pizza sauce, homemade or store-bought |
| Freshly grated hard cheese and fresh herbs for sprinkling on top after baking, optional* |
| 2 | cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour (such as King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour) |
| 3/4 | teaspoon fine salt (like table salt or fine sea salt) |
| 1/2 | teaspoon instant yeast or active dry yeast |
| 3/4 | cup (170 grams) lukewarm water |
| 1 | tablespoon (13 grams) olive oil plus 1 1/2 tablespoons (18 grams) olive oil for the pan |
| 6 | ounces (170 grams) low-moisture mozzarella, grated (about 1 1/4 cups, loosely packed)* |
| 1/3 to 1/2 | cups (74 grams to 113 grams) tomato sauce or pizza sauce, homemade or store-bought |
| Freshly grated hard cheese and fresh herbs for sprinkling on top after baking, optional* |
(1) If you’re in an area with yeast shortages, here are a number of breads you can make at home without store-bought yeast.
(2) We’ve seen this trick before, in Jessica Fechtor’s Five Fold Challah—another rewarding, very beginner-friendly dough.
Got a genius recipe to share—from a classic cookbook, an online source, or anywhere, really? Perhaps something perfect for beginners? Please send it my way (and tell me what's so smart about it) at [email protected]—thank you to King Arthur Flour Content Editor & Food52er-for-life Posie Brien for this one!
From our new podcast network, The Genius Recipe Tapes is lifelong Genius hunter Kristen Miglore’s 10-year-strong column in audio form, featuring all the uncut gems from the weekly column and video series. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss out.
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Written by: Kristen Miglore
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121 Comments
How would I freeze the dough?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCQ0maTaTMA&ab_channel=VitoIacopelli
One quick note about this recipe in general... as much as King Arthur like to take credit for it, there has been an almost identical recipe for cast iron pan pizza on the Serious Eats website since 2013, just want to give credit where it is due.
Happy New Year everyone! May 2021 be better than 2020, I can't see how it could ever be worse! LOL
One thing I do is move my dough around in the pan, and lift the edges up to remove any large air pockets, before dressing it and putting it in the oven to make sure the oil has really spread everywhere. This is a tip I picked up on Serious Eats which I have found to be quite helpful.
Everybody loves Italian food!
https://order.hungryhungry.com/donantonioitalianrestaurant/menu
Also, if you want to add a little extra pizzazz to the steel pan pizza swap the olive oil for butter then dust that with Parmesan (like you'd use flour for a greased cake pan). That's how Chicago-style deep dish pans are prepped.
I saw the video, and had pre-read the instructions...Just finished making my dough. I liked this recipe, because I cannot have whole-wheat/whole-grain (gout), so AP is my friend. Easy is another friend of mine. And finally pizza is a realllly good friend of mine. I plan on making tomato based sauce, mozzarella, half mushroom, half pepperoni, and turkey sausage crumble.
I saw a very similar version of this on Jamie Oliver's show too....
Thanks, for providing this recipe and "how to"!!!
Gary
This is why I always prefer such measurements to be provided in weight, preferably grams, instead of volume, especially when it comes to baking. It can make the difference between a successful outcome and wasted ingredients.
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