Cooks Illustrated Cast Iron Skillet Pizza Recipes

Steps:

• Place a 12-inch cast-iron skillet in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees F.
• Meanwhile, roll or stretch the dough into a 14-inch circle. Carefully remove the skillet from the oven. Drizzle two thirds of the olive oil into the skillet, then carefully transfer the dough to the skillet, pressing the dough up the edges. Spread the sauce over the dough, making sure to get all the way to the edges. Shingle the pepperoni over the sauce and top with the mozzarella pearls. Brush the exposed dough with the remaining olive oil. Bake on the bottom rack until golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes.
• Transfer to a cutting board, top with torn basil, cut into slices and serve.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Brush a 12-inch (30.5-centimeter) cast-iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of the oil.
• Mix the yogurt, flour and salt together in a medium bowl with your hands until it becomes a ball, then flatten into a disk and press into the skillet.
• Brush the pizza dough with the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Spread the pizza sauce over the dough, leaving a 1-inch (2.5 centimeter) border around the sides, for the crust. Sprinkle the cheeses evenly over the sauce. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until bubbly and lightly browned, then let cool in the pan for 3 minutes.
• Carefully slide the pizza out onto a cutting board. Top with more grated Parmesan, slice and serve.

Steps:

• We started with a simple stir-together dough of bread flour, salt, yeast, and warm water; the warm water jump-started yeast activity so that the crumb was open and light. Instead of kneading the dough, we let it rest overnight in the refrigerator. During this rest, the dough's gluten strengthened enough for the crust to support the toppings but still have a tender crumb. Baking the pie in a generously oiled cast-iron skillet "fried" the outside of the crust. We also moved the skillet to the stove for the last few minutes of cooking to crisp up the underside of the crust. For the crispy cheese edge known as frico, we pressed shredded Monterey Jack cheese around the edge of the dough and up the sides of the skillet. For the sauce, we crushed canned whole tomatoes (which are less processed and therefore fresher-tasting than commercial crushed tomatoes) by hand, which allowed some of their juice to drain so the sauce would be thick enough to stay put on the pie, and then pureed them in the food processor with classic seasonings-no cooking required.