Can you believe it, August 1st!?! Normally, I’d never make any type of pizza at home, being that Ben is a professional pizzaiolo and so the last thing he wants to see or eat when he gets home is anything that looks, smells, or tastes like a pizza. But he’s currently off for the summer, so…pizza time!! One of my favorite things growing up was having a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut! I used two 7″ cast iron skillets, but you can also use one 10″ cake pan if you wanted to make just one large pan pizza! I hope the summer is treating you well and I will come back here with another recipe soon!

personal pan pizzas for two

ingredients

2/3 cups lukewarm milk (110-114 degrees F.)

1 and ⅛ teaspoons active dry yeast

1 and 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1/4  teaspoon salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon olive oil, plus more for greasing the bowl and the pans

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (optional)

8 ounces mozzarella cheese

About 4 ounces pepperoni slices

1 cup tomato sauce, store bought or homemade*

Fresh basil (optional)

Additional toppings of your choice: sausage, bell peppers, olives, mushrooms, anchovies, ham and pineapple, etc.

*for homemade tomato sauce, smash about a cup of canned san marzano tomatoes seasoned with a little salt and pepper, plus some chopped basil leaves and about 1 Tablespoon of oil mixed into the tomato sauce.

method

In a bowl sift add the flour and salt. Stir with a whisk several times. Add the olive oil and butter(if using) by simply pouring on top of the dry flour. Set aside. 

In a small bowl, add the milk and sugar and stir, then add the yeast and stir. Set aside undisturbed until frothy and bubbly.

Add the yeast/milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a spatula until a dough forms. Then add to a clean counter and place a piece of plastic or a bowl over the dough and let rest for about 15 minutes.

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic, then oil the bowl that you used initially for the flour, and place the ball of dough back into the bowl and turn it once to coat all sides of the ball of dough. Wrap the top of the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough double in size for an hour or two. Punch down dough and reshape into a ball, place back into bowl and wrap tightly again with plastic wrap and place the bowl into the fridge for a day or two.

Take the bowl with the dough out of the fridge, punch the dough down and leave on a counter for about an hour and a half to get the dough back to room temperature. Do any prep for toppings and pizza sauce.

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.

Divide dough into two balls. Grease two 7” cast iron skillets with a generous Tablespoon of olive oil for each skillet

Place each ball of dough to the center of the skillet and press down until the dough is evenly spread out to the edges of the skillet and goes up around the edges about half an inch or so.

Place about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce unto the center of each pizza in each skillet and spread around evenly, then add about 4 ounces of mozzarella cheese evenly to the tops of each pizza, followed by the pepperoni slices, (about 5 large pepperoni slices overlapping each other, or more slices if using mini pepperoni slices.)

Bake for about 20-22 minutes in the center rack of the 450 degree F. oven. When done, let pizzas rest in each skillet for about 5 minutes before slicing and consuming. Garnish with fresh basil leaves.