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Make delicious homemade pizza with your favorite toppings in a cast iron skillet with my pan pizza dough recipe. Bake it the same day or let it rest overnight for a fluffy chewy texture. This is an easy mix together dough that does not require a pizza stone or special oven.
My friend and I used your recipe to make pizza with her son and we loved it! The crust was the perfect balance of crispy and fluffy. Thank you for the recipe. It was delicious
Key Ingredients & Test Notes
- Pizza Flour aka 00 Flour: When it comes to making pan pizza dough, I always use Italian 00 flour with about 13% protein for a stretchy dough and a classic pizza flavor.
- Test Note: My favorite brand and the one I used for this recipe is Caputo Pizza Flour.
- Instant Yeast: No need to bloom instant yeast in warm water, just toss it in with dry ingredients and mix the dough.
- Water: Room temperature water works great with instant yeast, but if you warm it slightly it will help the honey dissolve.
- Honey: I’ve always added a touch of sugar to all my bread recipes to give the yeast a little jump start.
- Test Note: It won’t make the dough sweet and can be omitted if you don’t have any on hand.
- Olive Oil: A touch of olive oil, adds fat to the dough, helping to tenderize it slightly for that perfect chewy texture.
- Semolina Flour: Totally optional, but trust me if you add this to your pan before stretching the dough, you’ll have a lovely crispy bottom crust.
How to Make Pan Pizza Dough
- Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a dough hook. Knead the dough on medium speed for 5 minutes until it clings to the hook and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and either let rest for 2 hours to double in size or refrigerate overnight for a superior dough.
- Press down the risen dough and divide into halves or thirds. Three dough balls will give you thinner crusts, while two dough balls gives you a thicker pizza. Shape into rounds and let rest for half an hour.
- Lightly coat the bottom of a 10-inch cast iron skillet with olive oil and a generous sprinkle of semolina flour.
Shaping Tip
Only use a light dusting of flour to shape the dough into balls. A clean workspace or countertop will give a bit of grip to the dough, making it easier to form.
- Place a single ball of dough into the center of the coated skillet.
- Dimple and stretch the dough with olive oil coated fingertips across the bottom of the pan. The large dough balls will completely cover the pan and be slightly thicker.
- Spread a thin coating of tomato sauce across the dough, leaving a bare rim for the outer crust.
- Cover the tomato sauce with shredded and fresh mozzarella cheese, plus your favorite toppings.
- Place the pizza on the lowest oven rack for an even cook on the bottom crust.
- Bake until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.
Jenn’s Tips
- Weigh your ingredients to be exact. Adding too much flour will make your dough tough.
- If you can be patient, make the dough a day ahead and let it rest in the fridge overnight. You’ll have any even better tasting pizza!
- Add dry herbs like rosemary or oregano to the flour before mixing in the water. Or sprinkle them across the pizza just before baking.
- Don’t overload the pizza with toppings. Excess tomato sauce or cheese can inhibit the rise of the crust.
★★★★★ Please leave a star rating and review below if you make this recipe! THANK YOU!!
Homemade Pan Pizza Dough Recipe
Easy pan pizza dough recipe for baking homemade pizzas in a cast iron skillet with your favorite toppings.
Click for Ingredient Details
Equipment
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
- 520 grams 00 pizza flour, 13% protein
- 6 grams (2 teaspoons) instant yeast
- 15 grams fine sea salt
- 1.5 teaspoons garlic powder, optional
- 360 grams water
- 14 grams (1 Tablespoon) olive oil
- 21 grams (1 Tablespoon) honey
Additional
- olive oil
- semolina flour, for dusting the pan
Instructions
Make the Dough
- Add the flour, yeast, salt, and garlic powder to the bowl of a stand mixer and hand whisk together.520 grams 00 pizza flour, 15 grams fine sea salt, 6 grams instant yeast, 1.5 teaspoons garlic powder
- Combine the water, honey, and oil together in a measuring cup.360 grams water, 14 grams olive oil, 21 grams honey
- Using the dough hook attachment on low speed, begin mixing while slowly pouring in the liquid ingredients until the dough comes together.
- Increase the speed to medium and knead the dough for 5 minutes. It should cling to the dough hook, while pulling away form the sides of the bowl.
- Same Day Pizza Dough: Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl, lightly coated with olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
- Overnight Pizza Dough: For a chewy pizza dough a long cold fermentation overnight improves the texture and the flavor. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Then, place the bowl in the fridge for 18-24 hours.
Shaping Dough
- If you refrigerate the dough, remove the bowl of dough 1-2 hours before you want to make pizza. Allow the dough to come to room temperature.
- With a lightly oiled fist, slowly punch down the air in the dough. Transfer to a lightly floured work surface. Take a sharp knife or bench scraper, divide the dough in half for two thick crust pizzas (~500 grams each) or into thirds for three thinner crust pizzas (~310 grams).
- Shape the dough halves into smooth balls by folding the edges inwards onto itself and rolling the dough on the counter with cupped hands.
- Loosely cover the dough balls with a thin kitchen towel and lest rest for 30-40 minutes.
Bake
- Preheat oven to 550°F (290℃), if you're oven doesn't go quite that high, try the next highest temp. Give it time to completely heat up. Adjust a rack in the lowest position of the oven to crisp the bottom of the crust.
- I bake one pizza at a time, so I keep one dough covered while I make the first pizza.
- Lightly oil the bottom of a 10-inch iron skillet with olive oil. Then sprinkle a light coating of semolina flour on top of the oil for a little added crunch.olive oil, semolina flour
- Place one dough ball into the center of the pan and gently flatten it with your hands.
- Coat your fingertips in olive oil and gently dimple the dough outwards towards the edges of the pan. Leave it a bit thicker around the edges for more crust. If the dough shrinks back, let it rest for a 5-10 minutes, then stretch again. If you divided the dough into thirds, it may not cover the entire bottom of the pan and that's just fine.
- Brush the outer edges of the dough with olive oil. Then, spread a thin coating of your favorite thick tomato sauce across the center, cover with mozzarella and then add your favorite toppings. Careful not to overload the pizza with toppings or it can crush the crust and make the pizza soggy.
- Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, until the crust is golden and cheese is bubbling.
- You can also lift op on the pizza with a metal spatula to check for crispiness, if you want a darker crust return the pizza to the oven for a few more minutes.
Tried this recipe?Mention @twocupsflour or tag #twocupsflour!
Is it possible to use a 12″ cast iron pan if you only divide the dough in two?
Sure, the dough just won’t cover the whole pan, but that’s totally fine.
My friend and I used your recipe to make pizza with her son and we loved it! The crust was the perfect balance of crispy and fluffy. Thank you for the recipe. It was delicious.
oh yay! So glad you loved the crust, I made a few over the weekend too 🙂