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One thing I've recently discovered with my cast iron pan (now 20 years old!) is cooking pan pizza at home with it. I follow the America's Test Kitchen recipe h

One thing I've recently discovered with my cast iron pan (now 20 years old!) is cooking pan pizza at home with it. I follow the America's Test Kitchen recipe here and it comes out unbelievably good, just like Pizza Hut from the 80s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-srfPL5CWZs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-srfPL5CWZs It's super trendy to obsess over getting the hottest pizza oven--something that gets up to 800 degrees, etc--so you can get super authentic restaurant pizza at home. That's great and a fun hobby for some folks I'm sure, but a cast iron pan with a long overnight fermentation of the dough is a game-changer for from scratch pizza for me.

chihuahua 4y ago
I've had the same experience. It's really a game-changer. Start the pizza in the cast iron pan on the stovetop first, then move it to the oven. You can get such a good crust that's any shade of brown you want.
- jhatax 4y ago
  Great idea that I will incorporate into my pizza-making process. Here are two methods that I used to get the crust to brown: a) Pre-topping: Prep just the crust by putting the pan into the oven for 5-minutes as the temp rises from 400 to 500-degrees. Top the crust with sauce, cheese, and toppings post the prep stage. b) Post-baking: Once the pan is out of the oven, I put the hot pan on the stove for a few minutes if the crust needs some more cooking. For what it’s worth, I use Kenji’s recipe for pan pizza [1]. I prefer his method of measuring ingredients using grams vs. other units of measure (teaspoons, cups) that I tend to get wrong. 1. https://www.seriouseats.com/foolproof-pan-pizza-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/foolproof-pan-pizza-recipe
SoapSeller 4y ago
You can also do neopolitan-style pizza in cast iron(and oven): https://www.seriouseats.com/hacker-free-neapolitan-pizza-for-a-home-kitchen-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/hacker-free-neapolitan-pizza-for... We have a Ooni(koda 16) and I'll occasionally do the cast iron one. Using basically the same recipe. It's very similar but different, we like both.
dlevine 4y ago
I recently bought a cast iron pizza pan (https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/lodge-bakeware-pizza-pan https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/lodge-bakeware-pizz...) after my pizza stone broke. I had a lot of trouble transferring the dough to the stone without messing it up, but it's easy with the cast iron. You can take the pan out of the oven when it is hot, which makes it much easier than using the stone. I preheat the pan in the oven, pull it out, transfer the dough to the stone, and put on the toppings. The pan stays hot, so the dough starts cooking while I prepare the pie. Then after cooking for 6 minutes in the oven, I can take the pizza out of the oven again, put on the cheese, and cook for a few more minutes to melt. The cast iron is also super easy to clean, unlike the stone, which was pretty much impossible to get fully clean. After it cools, I rinse it off and coat with a thin layer of oil. Then it's ready for the next use.

chihuahua 4y ago

I've had the same experience. It's really a game-changer. Start the pizza in the cast iron pan on the stovetop first, then move it to the oven. You can get such a good crust that's any shade of brown you want.

jhatax 4y ago
Great idea that I will incorporate into my pizza-making process. Here are two methods that I used to get the crust to brown: a) Pre-topping: Prep just the crust by putting the pan into the oven for 5-minutes as the temp rises from 400 to 500-degrees. Top the crust with sauce, cheese, and toppings post the prep stage. b) Post-baking: Once the pan is out of the oven, I put the hot pan on the stove for a few minutes if the crust needs some more cooking. For what it’s worth, I use Kenji’s recipe for pan pizza [1]. I prefer his method of measuring ingredients using grams vs. other units of measure (teaspoons, cups) that I tend to get wrong. 1. https://www.seriouseats.com/foolproof-pan-pizza-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/foolproof-pan-pizza-recipe

SoapSeller 4y ago

You can also do neopolitan-style pizza in cast iron(and oven): https://www.seriouseats.com/hacker-free-neapolitan-pizza-for-a-home-kitchen-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/hacker-free-neapolitan-pizza-for... We have a Ooni(koda 16) and I'll occasionally do the cast iron one. Using basically the same recipe. It's very similar but different, we like both.

dlevine 4y ago

I recently bought a cast iron pizza pan (https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/lodge-bakeware-pizza-pan https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/lodge-bakeware-pizz...) after my pizza stone broke. I had a lot of trouble transferring the dough to the stone without messing it up, but it's easy with the cast iron. You can take the pan out of the oven when it is hot, which makes it much easier than using the stone. I preheat the pan in the oven, pull it out, transfer the dough to the stone, and put on the toppings. The pan stays hot, so the dough starts cooking while I prepare the pie. Then after cooking for 6 minutes in the oven, I can take the pizza out of the oven again, put on the cheese, and cook for a few more minutes to melt. The cast iron is also super easy to clean, unlike the stone, which was pretty much impossible to get fully clean. After it cools, I rinse it off and coat with a thin layer of oil. Then it's ready for the next use.