Pan Pizza

I loved pan pizza growing up but the last few years I have stopped eating it because it is so greasy.  Awhile ago I found a recipe for it at America’s Test Kitchen.  It didn’t seem as bad at I thought.  I gave it a try and was very impressed!  As usual I went easy on the cheese to please Hasan.  The amount of sauce they recommend was too much for me.  Next time I will use less.  But I’m thinking it might because I used so little cheese which made the sauce too much.  Sorry about the bad pictures…Hasan was hungry so I didn’t have much time to take a nice picture but wanted to share it regardless.  Looking forward to making this again soon!

Pan Pizza
Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen

2 2/3 cup all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
7 ounces (205 ml) 1% milk (warm)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sugar

3 cups part skim mozzarella, divided (I used much less and used marble cheddar instead)

Sauce (makes more than want you need)
1 tin crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced or pressed
salt and freshly ground black pepper

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix together flour, salt and yeast.  Combine milk, olive oil & sugar in a separate bowl.  On low speed, slowly add milk mixture.  Turn up mixer speed slightly.  Once all the four has been incorporated, increase speed to medium-low.  Knead for about 5 minutes until dough is smooth.

Lightly flour a board and knead dough a couple of times and shape into a ball. Put in a greased bowl and turn around to coat with oil all over.  Cover with plastic.  Put in a warm oven (To warm your oven heat it to 200 F and then turn off once temperature has reached 200 F).  It will take 30 minutes to proof.

Meanwhile make the sauce:
In a cold pan, add oil and garlic.  On low heat cook for 2 minutes until you can smell the garlic.  Add crushed tomatoes.  Cook till thick.  Season with salt and pepper

In two round cakes pans (2 inches high) add 3 tbsp of olive oil in each pan.  Swirl oil being careful not to let oil go on sides of pan.  Lightly flour board.  Put your proofed dough on.  Divide in half.  Don’t work dough too much.  Roll out to about a 7 inch circle.  Pick up dough and drape on knuckles and pull apart and rotate dough.  This will shape it into circle. You want a thin centre and thick edge. Make a circle that is 9 ½ inches.  Place in prepared pan and pat dough to the side.  Don’t let oil come on top. Cover plastic & let rise 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 F with rack on bottom.  To assemble pizza add 2/3 cup sauce on each pizza (I found this to be too much but it may be because I used a lot less cheese) and spread leaving ½ inch around the edge.  Sprinkle with 1 ½ cup part skim mozerella on each.  I also topped one of the pizzas with olives.  Bake 20 minutes.  Cool in pan for 1 minutes.