Quick and easy pan pizza - Cast Iron skillet
I had posted here, years ago, about using an oven steel to make pizza. And I do still prefer that style of pizza - but the drawback to the oven steel is that you need to heat the oven for at least an hour before you put a pizza in.
This past week, I've been making pizza in a cast iron skillet where it cooks on the stove-top for 7 minutes and then under the broiler for 4 minutes to brown the top. Instead of having a normal, puffed up pizza edge -- this method has the sauce and cheese and toppings going right to the edge where they get caramelized by the cast iron pan.
The advantages to this method is you don't need to preheat and you don't need a pizza peel - after shaping the dough into a round, same as you would for a normal pizza, you put the dough into a room temp, olive oiled, cast iron skillet and let it rise for 30-40 minutes in the skillet (just until it has risen a bit - it isn't going to "oven spring" so you need to let it rise before starting the heat). Then Medium flame on the stove-top for about 7 minutes (start the broiler heating at same time you start the stove-top heat). You spread on the sauce and cheeses and toppings as the bottom is browning - then under the broiler for 4 minutes to melt and brown the cheese and toppings.
Another advantage of this method is that I sprinkle some herbs and salt onto the pan before adding the dough - so the bottom of the crust has a bit of seasoning. Pretty interesting approach, I thought, and really tasty for very little effort.
You will need to use a knife to release the edges - at least on my cast iron pan - but once the edges are free the bottom doesn't stick at all. My cast iron is well seasoned on the bottom but the sides are not.
If you time it right (your stove flame may be different than mine) the bottom should be very brown and leopard spotted but not burnt. For me that's 7 minutes on my largest burner set to medium flame.