No big pizza pie this week, but don’t worry, there’s still amore with these little pizza pies I made in my small skillet.
One of my favorite summer meals is homemade pizza. It doesn’t take a lot of prep or cooking time, so I neither spend a lot of time in front of a hot stove nor heat up the house baking for hours. Plus, who doesn’t love pizza anytime?
Homemade pizza also means I can put anything on it without having to pay specialty prices.
This last time I made my homemade crust adapted from Betty Crocker, I made an extra serving to see how well my homemade pizza would taste and work in a 9- to 10-inch skillet.
As I’d hoped and expected, about half of one crust flattens into a 9- to 10-inch skillet. Thus, as hoped and expected, you need about half your typical pizza topping ingredients for a smaller skillet.
Or, if you’re me, you use both your 9- and 10-inch skillets and have two options for toppings, and you and your sweetie have your Book-It-style personal pan pizzas. No reading required. (Though obviously recommended, as reading is fun!)
Like with most of my homemade pizzas, I don’t really keep track of the amounts of toppings so my guide below will be both based on a full-size pizza so halve accordingly and also will be estimates. However, feel free to use your own toppings to your desired levels, though I have loved my adapted Betty Crocker crust for years and highly recommend adopting it as your own go-to crust recipe.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients
For the crust:
*Will make 2 pizzas in 9- to 10-inch skillet
- 2 ¼ t. active dry yeast (1 package)
- ½ c. warm water
- 1 t. honey
- ¾ c. whole wheat flour
- ½ to ¾ c. all-purpose flour
- 1 T. olive oil
- ½ t. salt
For the toppings:
*Will make 2 of the same pizza, so halve or have a variety of toppings available
- Oil or oil spray
- ¼ c. tomato paste or tomato sauce (I use either, depending on my mood)
- 3 c. mozzarella, shredded
- ½ small bell pepper, chopped
- 4 pepperoncinis, chopped
- 8 slices salami
- 1 t. basil
- 1 t. oregano
- ½ t. garlic powder
Directions
For the crust:
In a medium bowl, mix together the warm water and honey, and add the yeast. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes until the yeast has started to activate.
Add the oil and salt, and then the whole wheat flour. Use a large spatula or your hands to begin to mix together the dough, adding all-purpose flour as necessary until the dough comes together into an easy-to-handle mixture. Turn the dough out onto a (all-purpose) floured purpose, and begin to knead, adding more flour as necessary. Knead until the dough is smooth and springy.
Place into a clean, greased medium bowl, turning to coat all sides of the dough in grease. Cover and let rise about 20 minutes until roughly doubled in size.
Punch down, and divide. Place smaller dough balls into Ziploc bags or smaller covered bowls, preferably greased, and refrigerate at least 2 hours but no longer than 48 hours (I actually like it better if it is at least overnight but it works fine after 2 hours.)
For the pizza:
Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
Lightly oil a 9- to 10- inch skillet, or if you have two, oil them both.
Take 1 dough ball, and slowly press into the skillet. It at first will not stretch well, but as you keep pressing and working to form a flat surface that covers the skillet, it will begin to give more. Once it covers the bottom, with a little lip around the edges, spread about half of the sauce. Top with ½ the peppers and ½ the salami. Cover the toppings with half the cheese. Add half the herbs and spices.
Bake for about 15 minutes until the crust and cheese are lightly browned. Remove from heat, and enjoy your personal pan pizza.
Repeat with the remaining ingredients after the skillet has cooled, or use a second similarly sized skillet, and enjoy a second personal pan pizza!
