Cast Iron Personal Pan Pizza
It probably costs as much to make homemade Pizza as it does to buy Pizza. But think of all the fun you’ll have making your own and there is nothing like the taste of homemade pizza.
The kids like this because everybody can make their own pizza exactly how they want it. How many times as a kid do you remember picking off the onions, pepperoni, green pepper……..well you get the picture.
Even if you don’t have a supply of Cast Iron Pans, make your own pizza on any pizza pan, just give it a try. However, if you have a set of different size Cast Iron Pans, even better! Everyone can determine what size pizza they want by the pan size. You can reuse the hot pan. My husband made his Personal Pan Pizza first, then I made mine in the same Cast Iron Pan that he did. There was no need to wash it or even cool it down. That’s why I love Cast Iron Pans, season them correctly and they are virtually non stick!
Start by preheating your oven to
425 degrees. Grease your pan with oil.
I use bacon grease but olive oil is good too.
Once the oven is preheated put the
pan in for about 10 minutes.
While the oven and pan are preheating,
prepare your dough and ingredients.
Shape your dough to the size you want
before you put it in the hot pan. The
amount of dough you use depends on
how thick you like your crust.
Make an edge all around the dough.
Remove the pan from the oven after about
10 minutes. Immediately place the formed
dough into the HOT pan. If you heated the
pan properly it will sizzle when you drop
the dough into the pan. Don’t worry about
how it looks, you won’t see it once
you add your ingredients.
Use your favorite pizza sauce and spread
the amount you want onto the pizza dough
leaving about 1/2″ of the edge uncovered.
I like to add most of my cheese next. I do
this because it glues all my ingredients
together so they don’t fall off when I eat a
piece of pizza. I still add cheese on top too,
but the majority goes on now. Of course you
can make your pizza any way you like!
PEPPERONI – Now the fun part. Start
adding your favorite ingredients.
MUSHROOMS – These mushrooms may
look a little strange to you. That’s because
I used my dehydrated mushrooms on my
pizza. They were on sale a while back so I
washed them, sliced them and dehydrated
them. I soaked them for about 6 hours to
rehydrate them, drained and added to my pizza.
BACON – My bacon came right out of my
freezer. We cook up bacon 2 pounds at a time.
I save the bacon grease for future use, crumble
the bacon and put it in a freezer bag and
then the freezer. It is so easy this way and I
always have bacon for adding to any dish.
ONION – My last ingredient is onion.
I don’t like raw onions so I either cook
larger pieces ahead of time and then
place them on my pizza before baking or
cut them up really small, add them
to my pizza and then bake. Keep in mind
you want to do all these steps as quickly as
possible so that the Cast Iron Pan doesn’t
cool off too much. That’s where
preparation comes in handy.
Place your pizza into a 425 degree preheated oven. For this 10″ Cast Iron Pan Pizza, it takes exactly 18 minutes in our oven. So once you figure out the perfect time in your oven, it shouldn’t change. I took me a few times of making pizza to get my set time for a perfect pizza every time.
Now that your pizza is cooked, remove it from the oven and sprinkle more cheese on top. Even with all these ingredients, I was able to pick up a piece of pizza and nothing fell off.
The last step is VERY important. Remove your pizza from the Cast Iron Pan. Cast Iron will retain its heat and if you do not remove the pizza from the pan, it will continue to cook and possible burn your pizza crust. We use a rubber spatula to make sure the pizza is completely free from the pan and then slide it onto a large cutting board. Let it sit for a few minutes and cut into serving size pieces.
The pizza on the left is mine and the pizza on the right is my husbands. My husbands pizza has almost a many ingredients on his pizza as mine, however, he placed most of his ingredients under the cheese so you don’t see them.
Cast Iron Personal Pan Pizza
http://www.InDianesKitchen.com
Ingredients
- 1 can pizza dough or make your own, use only the amount you need for your pan.
- 1 can pizza sauce, about 15 oz
- Any pizza topping you would like to use like onion, cooked sausage, green pepper, mushrooms, pepperoni…etc
- 8-12 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
- Bacon grease or olive oil to grease the pan.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Grease a cast iron pan with bacon grease, olive oil or your favorite oil.
- Once the oven preheats, place your greased cast iron pan in the oven for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare your pizza dough and toppings.
- Remove the pizza dough from the can and place it on a lightly covered counter with either cornmeal or flour. Only use what you need for your size pan. Roll the dough to the size and shape of the pan you will be using. Make about a 1/2” edge.
- Chop all of your toppings so they can be spread on the pizza dough quickly.
- Remove Cast Iron Pan from the oven and carefully place the pizza dough into the HOT pan spreading to the edge with a slight lip on the edge. Be very careful not to burn yourself.
- Pour pizza sauce on the dough, sprinkle with cheese, add all of your chopped ingredients and put back into the oven. It takes exactly 18 minutes for our 10″ Cast Iron Personal Pan Pizza to cook perfectly. Keep an eye on your pizza until you determine the perfect time in your oven for your size pizza. The crust should turn a golden brown when done.
- Remove the Cast Iron Pan from the oven and sprinkle on more cheese. Immediately slide a rubber spatula under the entire pizza making sure it is loose. Slide the pizza out of the pan onto a large cutting board. Let the pizza sit a few minutes before cutting into serving size pieces.
Categories: Pizza
Very cool! My boyfriend and son LOVE pizza so this recipe is perfect! Thanks! I really like the putting it in a pan idea!
Thanks you! I have made them in every possible pan and every possible way, this is my favorite.
If I use a larger pan we could probably just share it. Nah, my boyfriend would eat a whole one! Lol.
Hahaha that’s what we did when I started making them in the cast iron pan. I only had one large pan back then. I fell into an huge set of old CI pans by luck so now I have enough now that we make our own pan pizza. So good!
My mom is going to make pizza soon. So I came here to see if it will be helpful. And it did! Thank a lot.
Awe you’re so sweet! Let me know how hers turns out.
The first pizza that my mom made has too much olive oil, the second was too little pizza sauce, but the third was perfect. I guess you need to make the pizza a couple times until it’s perfect. Your post helped a lot, it gave my mom a lot of tips.
Sounds like the story of the three bears! Hahaha Do you know that story where you live? Anyhow, I’m happy it helped Mom out!
Three bears? (I had to run it in google). Oh, it’s Goldilocks and the Three Bears, yes I know that story.
Oops left out Goldilocks…lol
Great recipe and using the cast iron pan sounds like a great idea!
Thank you! The cast iron pan cooks it perfectly!
Well, I never thought to use my cast iron! I bet the crust is amazing.
Do you know if it’s safe to use cast iron on a ceramic stove top? All of my cast iron is packed away for now and I miss using it.
Yes you can but you have to be VERY careful not to slide the Cast Iron as it will scratch your ceramic.
Thank you so much for the info! 🙂
You’re welcome!
Thanks for the recipe. I sometimes make a personal size tortilla crust pizza. Gotta precook the tortilla till it’s crispy, then add the precooked toppings and cheese, put a lid on and melt the cheese. Very few Weight Watchers points, but still yummy.
Oh my that sounds delicious! Thank you for the great idea!
I like your pizza photo best. i have tried heavy cast iron pan but not in oven so shall take on your tip for next pizza day Thanks
You’re welcome! It turns out so good. If ever the top needs more browning but the rest is cooked, flip the oven to broil.
Cool.
Thanks!
I’ve a round cast iron griddle with a handle that I love to use for pizzas. The shallow edges make it easy to slide the pizza off the pan and onto a serving plate.
I am so jealous! I love to make pizza in my cast iron but I have frying pans. It comes out really well but I would love the griddle to add to my collection! I never thought about a griddle for pizza. Thank you! Also….you are so talented!
Thank you for your kind words! I got my 10.5 inch round griddle with a short handle directly from the Lodge co. http://www.lodgemfg.com/search?search=griddle – and I use it for everything: pizza, nachos, grilled cheese sandwiches, toast, egg in the middles…. just about anything that I’ll need to slide off and onto a serving dish. Though for nachos I just serve it directly on the griddle and cover the short handle with an oven mitt. Keeps the nachos warm while we eat. 😉 Love love love this griddle. I hope you’ll be able to get one for yourself! You are a very talented cook and I like your posts with recipes and directions! Thanks for sharing!!
Aw thanks Sue! You are so kind!
I made individual pizzas last night, but they were all alike. I have four little Calphalon perforated pizza pans that are really slick, but I still need to take each pie out and put it directly on the baking stone after they have set up a bit.
Raw onions – Ewwwww! I gotta throw in with you on THAT! But they cook up enough on pizza. Also, because I am lazy, I usually use sliced scallions on pizza. Our pizza always comes out looking entirely brown instead of red, white, and green – I’m thinking maybe I should tone down the temperature of the oven, which I crank up to 500°. Will try your temperature recommendation next time. They taste fine, delicious even, but not so appealing to the eye.
Virtual hugs,
Judie
Oh heck Judie, if it tastes great don’t mess with it…lol Not everything has to look perfect to eat it. I think preheating the cast iron skillet is what makes this one so good. I never thought about using sliced scallions or green onions on my pizza. I love them! Thanks for the tip and have a great Wednesday!🌹🌸🌷
Aaaaaah! My genuine Italian grandfather would love this. Mamma mia! That’s a-pizza.
Hahahaha I wish he would have been my grandfather too! You are very lucky!
This looks amazing Diane, now I’m going to have to try the dough after all! I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks for your detailed instructions and inspiration for my repetitious meal plans! C
You are very welcome Cheryl! I can’t wait to see how you like it. Thank you!
Yummmmmm Diane!!!!! We have one small cast iron pan. Not sure if it’s 8″ or 10″. I might need to give this a try on the long 4th of July weekend! Mine will be pepperoni, pineapple, onion, black olives with a side of Ranch to dip it all in.
Not you too? My grandkids put Ranch on everything, especially pizza….lol Let me know how it turns out. I burnt my first one because I didn’t know how long to cook it. Once I figured out the time it never changed. Thanks! ❤️
I love cast iron, but have never tried cooking pizza in it. Great idea!
You must try it they taste so good!!!
I bought my first cast iron frying pan before Christmas and still have not used it. I think this might be a great start to using it. Pinning this post.
Cast iron pizza is the best! Just make sure you follow the directions by preheating the pan first. It took me 3 tries to get the cooking time right. First it was undercooked, then overcooked and finally just right. Sounds like the Three Bears story…lol
Well, I guess I will put on my chef hat and experiment then.