Anyone do this?

Yes


 

That's the recipe I saw before posting this. I also saw a short video on Bon Appetit that shows a cast iron skillet being lined with a thin layer of flour and cornmeal. The dough is then pressed into the skillet and allowed to rest until bubbles form. Add sauce, cheese, and slide into a preheated 525F oven.

Yes. All the time. I mainly use it when I make a deep dish.

Damn that looks good. I'm going to have to try that.

When I was younger I would get one of those Chef Boyardee pizza kits and mix up a double batch of dough and spread out in a big cast iron skillet. That thing would rise up like a cake, but it was good.

Cheese on the bottom? I've seen that done.

I've made that recipe.  The crust seems to get better the longer you let the dough sit in the refrigerator.  Also, I overcooked the cheese both times.  I wonder if par cooking the crust would help with that.  Maybe I'll give it a try.

Yup. Cheese, meat, sauce.

I do it for pan pizza.

Roll out the dough, olive oil in the pan, Lay out the dough in the pan and pre-cook 5 minutes. Sliced mozz around the side of the pan and the dough, top w/ sauce, cheese, and toppings, finish for 15-17 minutes, take a sharp knife and run it around the inside of the pan, then pop the pie out.

The cheese slices form that cruchy, cheesey goodness that makes the crust. My son who never eats the crust eats this crust. Every, single, time.

interdasting...seems it would take forever in the oven

that grill pic looks promising


my new kink is pizzastone on the grill--yes even the gas one....man that adds a lot of flavor (may take a while to season the stone....and it WILL break no matter what you do

Works for derp-dish pizza, which isn't really pizza, anyway.


A flat plate of either steel or iron is great for real pizza, though.


 

Cast-iron skillet may work well for deep-dish (I like the above "derp-dish" reference because deep dish really isn't pizza, it's more of a casserole) but it won't work for real NY or Neopolitan pizza.

As said in the quoted post, a steel plate is the best for cooking a real, NY or Neopolitan style pizza. Neo requires some modifications to your oven to get it to insanely hot temps, but NY style can be done with most home ovens.

That being said, what has been discovered through the course of many people converting over to steel plates from stones for cooking pizzas is that steel transfers the heat just a tad on the fast side to get a proper top/bottom cook so it takes a bit more work to control bottom heat vs top heat.

I have a few thoughts on ways to fix this but they are all more expensive than steel & stone.


Heat Transfer Coefficients of some materials:
AL: ~250
Carbon Steel: 47
Cast-Iron: 55-60
Stainless Steel: 19
Most stone products are 2 to 8

As you can see stone is around 2-8, stone-like substances marketed as baking stones can be anywhere on the spectrum but are likely close to stone. If carbon steel plate is too high at 47, we need something that falls in the middle. What, on the above list falls in the middle? Stainless steel!!!! Stainless steel = $$$$ when you are talking about a big, thick sheet of it.

For now I have 1/2" A-36 hot-rolled steel that I'm happy with and I will continue using. I just can't preheat it to full temp before starting. My typical process is to heat the steel to 400 for at least 1 hour to ensure it's fully heated. Then I crank the over temp up to 525 or 550 (depends on what kind of pizza I'm making. At that point the "thermal inertia" of the steel keeps it down around 425 even though the over temp is well above that. Once the pizzas start flying in the oven it keeps the steel temp lower than the air temp and as long as the pizzas continue to hit the steel somewhat consistently I can keep the steel temp at my target range of 425-450. If I take a break I have to kick the oven back down so it doesn't overheat the steel.

It would be easier if I didn't have to do that and I've wondered if SS would fix that issue but it's too expensive for me to get some just to try it.

I have used cast iron to rewarm pizza.  I use a thick cake pan to make deep dish.  It heats faster.

Now why have I never thought of using cast iron as a pizza pan? It works great, made a simple pizza in a 10in cast iron skillet baked at 450 for 20 minutes and it was just about perfect. That crust was amazing,  never had home made pizza crust like that before out of the oven.

Always for home made deep dish

Cast iron skillet on the stove, set to medium-low, loosely covered with foil.  About 8 minutes makes a crispy crust and melted top (assuming a regular crust.)  It's the only way to reheat pizza.
 

Interesting, I usually preheat my cast iron in the oven, then toss in the pizza to reheat...

This seems faster, i'll try it.

I made one using the recipe from seriouseats.com posted above. For the sauce, I got a can of Cento crushed tomatoes and added some Penzey pizza spice.

I was concerned that the crust wouldn't get done in the short amount of time in the oven but that was no problem. I took the sauce and cheese all the way to the edge so I guess thats why it's a little burnt.

I have a pizza stone in my oven and using a temp gun I set the skillet on the stone when it reached 550°.

Pepperoni and chopped ham

Sweet Mother of God!!!!!!!!!!!!

OP, have you ever been to a Pizza Hut?