cast iron skillet pan pizza

Mix yeast into warm water and let bloom for around 10 minutes. Halfway through this, combine flour, salt and sugar, in a stand mixer or by hand. Pour wet ingredients into the dry mixed dry ingredients and mix at a medium ~ medium-high speed for eight minutes.

Transfer to a well-greased bowl, tossing the dough around and making sure it gets coated well. Holding a majority of the dough down into the bowl, take one side of the dough and stretch it until it is about to break, then fold it over the top of your other hand, back onto the rest of the dough. Repeat this process three or four times, rotating the dough for each attempt. (This is called a shrink-building fold). Flip dough over so the seam side is now facing the bottom of the bowl, cover and let rise in a refridgerator for 24 hours.

Add tomato sauce into a mason jar. Sprinkle in sugar, basil and oregano. Drop in tomato paste, and mix well for around two to five minutes. Place this in a refridgerator as well.

After 24 hours, take the dough and sauce out of your refridgerator. Uncover the dough, and firmly punch once the top of the dough in order to let the gas escape. Lightly flour a work surface and drop dough down onto it. Cut into three equal pieces. Roll each into doughballs, and place one aside for us to use today. The other two can be placed in a freezer and thawed out later for additional pizzas, if desired.

Go ahead and grate A Significantly Large Amount™ of cheese. You will be using more than you might think, and if not then at least you have some leftover for the next time you want to cook another pizza. If you have a dog, now is probably about the time they would be begging for some food and/or attention. Tell em you love em.

Begin to preheat an oven to (500° F). Coat the bottom and sides of a 10 or 12 inch skillet with olive oil, be very liberal with the amount used. While oven is preheating, place doughball into center of skillet. Press dough out with your fingertips, starting from the center and working to the outside. Stretch this dough as far as it will let itself go without stretching, then cover the skillet and let it rest for around 10 minutes. Come back and continue to stretch the dough outwards. The dough should start to come up the sidewall of the skillet just a bit by the time you are done working the dough.

Place desired amount of sauce onto dough, evenly coating. Concentrate a good solid ring of cheese towards the sidewalls of the skillet. Here you can also add desired amounts of any other type of pizza topping, should you have them on hand.

Cook in oven for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Please use an oven mitt, don't burn yourself. Once done, take the pizza out of the pan and check if the bottom of the crust is cooked fully. You can use a rubber spatula around the edges to lift it and check. If crust is not fully done, you can place the skillet onto an oventop burner and cook on medium heat for a few minutes. Any hard cheeses you wish to use should be sprinkled on top at this point.

Enjoy with your favorite drinks, sides, and company.