The Fastest Pan Pizza

When you proof your dough low and slow (a few days in the fridge, say) you develop both its flavor—from various bacteria having time to develop—and its structure, as the yeast process builds the gluten network further. And that’s rad. But sometimes, you just want pizza this afternoon. Here’s how to get an impressive pie on the table in 3 hours or so. Ready, set… dough!

Neven’s Fastest Pan Pizza

Servings: one 9 × 13" pizza. 4-6 people?
Time: 10 min mix + 2-3 hr proof + 15 min bake

INGREDIENTS:

  • 315 g all-purpose flour (you can do 100 g high-gluten flour)
  • 5 g yeast
  • 5 g salt
  • 5 g sugar
  • 255 g water
  • 20 g olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

In the bowl of your chosen appliance (see below) combine the flour and yeast and stir well. Add the salt and sugar and stir again. Add the water and oil.

  • If using a stand mixer: mix 2 minutes on low; stop, scrape down, then mix another 2 minutes on medium-low; scrape down again and mix another 2 minutes at a medium speed; this is quite an aggressive speed for dough.
  • If using a food processor, process for 30-60 seconds until a cohesive ball is riding around the blade.

When the dough looks smooth and integrated—it will still be very wet and sticky—move it to a large, oiled bowl and cover it.

On a warm day, this bulk proof will take only about 1 hour; keep an eye on it for the last 15 minutes of that, as it may threaten to jump out of the bowl. On a cold day, you might have to go as long as 2 hours. (You can always find a warm spot, or make your oven into one by heating it for a brief minute, then turning it off.)

Oil your 9 × 13 pan thoroughly, brushing to cover every spot; a nonstick aluminum pan will work well. Once the dough is more than doubled, puffy and light, gently scrape it into the middle of the oiled pan. Oil the top of the dough a little and spread the dough to the corners a bit; you still want to use gentle movements, but make sure you’re covering at least 70% of your pan with dough, and get it even-ish in thickness. With a wet, airy dough like this, you don’t want to beat it up. That said, the time to stretch it is now and not later after it’s even more gassy.

Cover the whole pan with something tall (as the dough will rise up a lot). Use a bigger, taller pan turned upside down, or a huge bowl maybe? Even a clean plastic box will work, really—it won’t touch the food anyway. Proof for another 30-90 minutes. The dough should fill the pan aaaalmost fully, and it should look extremely alive and inflated.

In the meantime, preheat your oven at 550ºF with a rack in the middle.

When the dough looks great, drizzle a little more olive oil on top. Pop into the oven for 5 minutes, rotating it halfway through the bake. Remove from the oven when it looks “dry”; it needn’t look golden brown or anything. This par-bake will make sure your crust gets a good vertical rise before it’s weighed down by toppings.

Let it rest for 5 minutes in the pan, then top. My preferred approach goes like this, from the bottom to the top:

  • Sliced cheese (aged mozzarella, provolone, muenster…)
  • Light sauce
  • Dry cheese (Romano, parmesan…)
  • Fresh cheese chunks (fresh mozzarella, ricotta…)
  • Toppings

Move that middle oven rack to the top third of the oven. Bake the pizza for 5-10 minutes, until the whole thing makes delicious frying sounds and the top looks done.

Wait 5 minutes, or eat hours later at room temp.

Tips, tricks, and tomato sauce

With quick-working yeast recipes, it is very important that your yeast is super healthy and alive. A packet of Fleischmann that’s been in the pantry for months is a risky proposition. Buy the really good stuff and store it in the freezer; use straight from the freezer.

Having published several pizza recipes, I’ve never explained what tomato sauce I use. So here’s my general-purpose tomato sauce recipe!

Neven’s Simple Tomato-Butter Sauce

INGREDIENTS

  • 14 oz can good canned, crushed tomatoes (Bianco di Napoli, Carmelina’s, Sclafani, Pomi…)
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp butter

DIRECTIONS

Put all the ingredients in a skillet at the same time. Heat at medium-low for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally; you want to see a steady simmer, but without the sauce popping out of the pan. When the sauce is thickened, it’s done.

For a punchier variation, sauté diced garlic in the pan at very low heat until fragrant; add dried herbs (thyme, oregano, marjoram) and red pepper flakes; then add the ingredients as above and proceed.

That’s it for fast pizza!

P.S. More baking recipes are available at https://mrgan.com