Deep Pan Pepperoni Pizza

The trend in Pizza doughs these days is leading towards thin crust, NY Style Pizzas. That’s all good and well, but sometimes you want your Pizza to be a significantly hearty meal. That’s where the Classic Deep Pan Pepperoni Pizza comes into its own. This delicious recipe shows you how to make the most amazing tasting Deep Pan Pizza at home, consisting of a thick, crusty Pizza Dough that is light and pillowy on the inside. This is a simple recipe that can easily be made at home, and all you need is a Cast Iron Pan and a little bit of time and it’ll be yours for the eating!

For any good Pizza recipe, it’s all about the dough

We developed this dough recipe after many homemade Pizzas in varying shapes and consistencies over the years. The perfect Deep Pan Pizza dough is one that meets somewhere in the middle between a thin-crust NY Style Pizza dough and a Focaccia. It has the chewy, pliability of that famous NY Pizza slice, but with the thickness and body that is more typical of a Focaccia

Finding the right balance without making the dough too ‘cakey’ is the trick, and it all comes down to two main factors, the amount of water that is added, and how long you knead the dough for. We add more water to this dough than a typical Pizza dough, which ultimately gives the dough more body and thickness. The dough is kneaded a lot longer than a thin-crust Pizza, which allows the dough to become light and airy

The result is the perfect Deep Pan Pizza dough that is chewy and light, yet still much thicker than your typical Pizza slice. The dough can easily be made at home and doesn’t require any special ingredients. Flour, Water, Olive Oil, and Salt is all that’s required. We do recommend using a 50/50 blend of AP Flour and 00 Flour. 00 Flour is a super-fine flour that is very commonly used in Bread and Pizzas, and works great in our Deep Pan Pepperoni Pizza recipe

A higher water quantity is the key to success with this dough

For our classic NY Style Pizza recipe we use a total of 300g of Flour and 150g of Water. So essentially half the quantity of Water to Flour. That quantity works great for a thin-crust Pizza in the NY Style, with a beautiful chewy, crispy crust. When it comes to a deep dish pizza, however, the Water quantity needs to be increased quite a lot

We keep the flour quantity the same at 300g (half being AP Flour, the other half being 00 Flour), but the Water quantity increases significantly, to 250g. What this results in is obviously a much wetter dough. The kneading time increases a lot, as it will take more time for the Flour to take its stretchy form that is required for a good pizza dough

So, where you will only need to knead the dough for about 5 total minutes with a thin-crust pizza, you need about 15 minutes total kneading time for our Deep Pan Pepperoni Pizza dough. After the dough has formed it needs time to prove. So set it in a large bowl filled with a few tbsp. of Olive Oil and leave it at room temperature for about 6 hours

You’ll notice when it’s time to make the pizza the dough has significantly increased in volume. The Yeast has activated, and the dough is alive with stretchy, amazing gluten. This is the sign of a great Pizza dough, which means its ready to make your Pizza!

A Cast Iron Pan is the only way to cook a Pan Pizza at home

You can try with other devices, but the best pan-pizza cooking device is the mighty Cast Iron Pan. It will conduct heat better than any other pan, which is important when cooking Pizza Dough. You want the Pizza to cook at an astronomically high temperature so that it forms its beautiful outside crust and fluffy inside. Given how well a Cast Iron Pan conducts heat, it is obviously the best choice

The same goes for the oven too. You want to heat your home oven to the highest temperature it can get too. Depending on the brand that will range anywhere between 450F – 500F. Just crank it as high as you can.  Remember, the Pizza ovens in your local Pizza shop run upwards of 800F!

 Before adding the toppings, cook the dough in the oven for about 10 minutes

This little trick ensures your dough will cook through completely without the toppings burning. Because we’re using a thicker dough, it will take longer to cook than a regular Pizza. So once you shape your dough out to fit the Cast Iron Pan, pop it in the oven for about 10 minutes to cook

Once it’s turned a light brown color on top it’ll be ready to add the toppings. It’s not completely cooked, so getting it back in the oven for a further 10 minutes with those wonderful toppings will finish it off. Another trick you can use is to place the Pan over the stovetop on high heat once the whole Pizza is cooked. This is a good way to get the base of the Pizza nice and crusty once everything else is cooked

The best Pepperoni Pizza uses thick-cut slices of Pepperoni

It goes without saying that the best Pepperoni to use for Pizzas are the thick-cut pieces. You can either get your hands on individual Pepperoni cups that have been already cut up at the store, or alternatively, just buy a large piece of Pepperoni and cut the slices yourself

I prefer the latter (slicing up your own Pepperoni pieces) as you can have complete control over how thick the pieces are. The thicker slices are great and work a lot better when being placed on a deep pan Pizza such as this. Because the base of the Pizza is a lot breadier than a NY Style Pizza, the Pepperoni really needs to hold its weight. So, thick cut it and don’t be shy about how much to add!

Classic toppings complete this amazing Pizza

The remaining toppings we use on our Deep Pan Pepperoni Pizza are traditional. Create your own simple Tomato Sauce using Canned Tomatoes, Shallots, Olive Oil, and some Tomato Paste. You can add some fresh Garlic in there too if you like

After the Tomato has been layered onto the Pizza dough, add a generous amount of Mozzarella. I just like to tear chunks off and place them around the Pizza. Don’t cover it completely, aim for a little over half the Pizza to be covered with Cheese. Finally, we add some Red Peppers, Red Onion, and the Pepperoni

Once cooked you can even go so far as to adding some White Anchovies to the dish. Personally, we love Anchovies on Pizza. They add a beautiful briny, salty flavor that really brings the slice of Pizza to life. That’s what’s so great about making homemade Pizza, you can completely personalize it to your own tastes!

Deep Pan Pepperoni Pizza Recipe

Ingredients

Dough Ingredients

• 150g AP Flour
• 150g 00 Flour
• ½ tsp. Salt
• 250g Water
• 1 tsp. Dry Yeast
• Olive Oil
  
  

Pizza topping and baking ingredients

• Olive Oil
• 14 oz. Canned Tomatoes
• 1 Shallot, finely diced
• 1 tbsp. Tomato Paste
• 1 cup Pepperoni slices / cups
• ½ Bell Pepper
• ¼ Onion, finely sliced
• 6 oz. / 180g Mozzarella Cheese
• Salt
  
  

Instructions

1. Combine AP Flour, 00 Flour and Salt in a large bowl and mix well. In a separate bowl mix together the Water, Yeast, and 1 tsp. Olive Oil
2. Pour the Water mixture into the Flour and place in your stand mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides to ensure all the Flour is incorporated
3. After 5 minutes of mixing, leave it to rest in the mixer for 20 minutes, then mix for a further 10 minutes, or until the dough starts to slightly pull away from the edges of the bowl
4. Remove dough from pan and place it in a large bowl filled with 2 tbsp. or Olive Oil. Cover with cling film or a wet towel and leave at room temperature for 6 hours
   
   

Make the Tomato Sauce

5. Add 1 tbsp. of Olive Oil to a saucepan over medium heat. Once hot, add Shallots and cook until tender
6. Add the Canned Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, and ½ tsp. of Salt and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool
   
   

Assembling and cooking the Pizza

7. Add 2 tbsp. of Olive Oil to a large Cast Iron Pan then place the dough on top. Allow it to rest in the pan for 1 hour, then press the dough out to fill the entire surface area of the Pan
8. Bake the dough in the oven set to its highest temperature (450 – 500F is fine) for 10 minutes. Remove dough and allow it to cool before adding toppings
9. For the toppings, layer Tomato Sauce, Cheese, Peppers, Pepperoni, and Onions in that order. Bake for 15 minutes at the highest oven temperature until cooked and the cheese begins to brown
10. Check the base of your dough. If it is still white, place the pan over the stovetop for a few minutes on high heat to brown the base of the dough. Check every minute or so. Once browned, remove from pan, slice, and serve
    
    

Recipe Notes

• An optional addition to the toppings are fresh White Anchovies. They add a wonderful salty, briny flavor to the Pizza. Simply add them to the cooked Pizza right before serving
• You can add whatever other toppings you like. Even Pineapple works great on this Pizza recipe!
• To make additional Pizzas, you can double the dough recipe and divide the finished dough into two Cast Iron Pans
  
  

Our delicious homemade Deep Pan Pepperoni Pizza is a hearty meal that tastes so good. One Pizza will be more than enough for 2 ample portions for dinner. If you’ve got a larger group to feed, simply double the ingredients so you can make two Pizzas

For more easy home cooked recipes like this one, check out some of these tasty meals:

• Green Chicken Enchiladas
• Braised Oxtail with Red Wine
• Fried Eggplant Lasagna
• Cast Iron Tarragon Chicken
  

Happy Cooking!