Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

I've been sick with the flu and bronchitis for a month-- hence, the lack of blogging.  However, I am on the mend and interested in cooking again.  I had a yen for pizza the other day, but I really didn't want to heat up the oven for a long period of time at high heat for just two little pizzas.  I remembered reading about pizza cooked in cast iron pans on the stovetop in a bread baking book, so I thought I'd give it a try. Now I'm hooked! (And you will not have to buy a $200 stovetop pizza maker!)

You can make the no-knead dough the day before or a week before and the cold dough will be easy to handle. I've never made pizza so fast and with less fuss and bother than this, and I have made alot of pizza in my time.  It's perfect for 2-4 people.

And I love that I don't have to have the oven on for so long-- saves energy.

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This method may take a bit of adjustment, depending on your stove burners.  I have an electric stove and the burners tend to be VERY hot, so I was not going to heat the pans any higher than on medium heat. (More details below.) It's also worth remembering that cast iron heats faster and retains heat longer than a pizza stone.

NOTE: If you have time to do a trial run with one piece of dough , it might be helpful, so that you can see how the dough responds to 3-4 minutes cooking on your particular burners (with the lid on the pan), and then you can adjust the heat accordingly.



So, when you are ready to make pizza....

1.) Have your toppings ready (and you want to go easy on the toppings): I saute some thinly sliced onions, peppers and mushrooms, and a bit of vegan sausage, thinly sliced, and then I use Daiya mozza shreds (but use any kind of vegan melty cheese you like) and a bit of Go Veggie! soy parmesan. For the sauce, use whatever kind you like.  If I'm in a hurry, I just use some bottled tomato passata with basil and add a bit of salt and garlic to it.

2.) Measure out the dough (see info below and recipe links) and have your rolling-out set-up ready and waiting.

3.) Now pre-heat your skillets: I use well-seasoned cast iron skillets. I have read that you can use a heavy stainless steel skillet as well, and I would think that you could use a carbon steel skillet, too, since you can actually season both of those pans just like cast iron. See the end of the blog post for how to season all these types of skillets.
The first time I made the stovetop pizzas, I heated my pans at medium heat for 5 minutes on the two largest burners (#5 for the front one, and #4 for the back burner, which is very hot).  It worked okay, but the bottoms burned a bit.  The second time, I turned the front one to #4 and the back one to #3, which worked better.) PS: I didn't grease the pans at all.

You can heat the pans while you roll out the dough.

WARNING:  I use silicone hot handle covers on the handles of my skillets, but you will still need really good oven mitts when moving these hot pans around.

4.) Move the top rack of your oven to about 4-5 inches below your oven broiler and turn the broiler to high. You will be quickly broiling the top of the pizzas after stovetop cooking.

5.)  I used 6 oz. of cold dough for each personal pizza, rolled out to fit an 8-inch cast iron skillet.  The no-knead dough should be fresh out of the refrigerator (after at least an all-night stay) and will need a good sprinkling of flour all over before rolling out on a piece of baking parchment or a silicone mat.

I used the no-knead version of my 3/4 whole wheat flatbread dough, or you could use my 100% whole wheat no-knead flatbread dough-- both doughs will keep refrigerated for a week or two. Or use your own favorite dough.





6.) Quickly place the rolled-out dough into the hot pans.  Quickly spread with some of your sauce (dump about 3 tablespoons in the center of the dough and spread it outwards in a circular motion with the back of a soup spoon), top with a small handful vegan cheese shreds, a sprinkle of vegan parm and a handful of your toppings.  Drizzle with a bit of olive oil from a squirt bottle, if you like.  Cover with a lid and let cook for about 3 more minutes.

NOTE: If you are making 2 more pizzas, you can roll out the dough during this cooking time.

7.) Lift the lid and check the bottom of the dough-- it should be lightly browned with maybe some dark spots.  If it's burning, the heat is too high-- you might want to move the pan off the heat for the last bit of cooking.

8.) Finishing off: now, you can slightly brown the top and melt the cheese thoroughly by moving the pans from the stovetop to the top rack of your oven, under the broiler. 1 or 2 minutes under the broiler should do it-- watch carefully.





Remove the skillets to the stovetop again and use a large spatula to move the pizzas to racks or plates. Repeat with more dough, etc, if you are making a couple more pizzas.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SEASONING SKILLETS, AND KEEPING THEM SEASONED, SO THAT THEY ARE VIRTUALLY NONSTICK

Instructions for seasoning a carbon steel skillet here, here and here.
here and here.

Instructions for seasoning a cast iron skillet here.

If your cast iron skillet is really a mess, here is one way to restore it. If it is a rusty mess, it needs to be stripped and re-seasoned. I had an old pan like this and I did not want to use lye or oven cleaner to scrub it.  I used the self-cleaning oven method described at the beginning of this article. This treatment stripped it right down to the grey iron. Then I did thorough oven-seasoning-- rub oil on all parts of the pan, including the handle; make sure there is no dripping oil; bake at about 350 degrees F for 1 hour; cool completely; repeat 3 more times. This may seem excessive, but you can do it when you are baking something at the same time, and the pan was like new!

To keep your cast iron pans well-seasoned, after cooking, add some HOT water to the pan (do not use cold) and let them soak for a few minutes.  Then clean with a scrub brush (no stainless steel scrubbers, please!).  Anything is stuck, use the edge of a plastic (not metal) dough scraper or the special polycarbonate pan scraper that Lodge sells for this purpose.

Dry the pan thoroughly.  Rub a little oil all over the inside of the pan.  Rub it in well and don't leave any excess oil.  Place over low heat on the stove for 5-10 minutes.  Let it cool and store.

PS: You do not need to use an expensive oil like flax oil, or even coconut oil.  Your favorite neutral smelling/tasting oil will do just fine.

Enjoy!

Photo by Dianne  Radmore/Fireweed

A LITTLE EXPERIMENT THAT WENT QUITE WELL: NO-KNEAD PIZZA DOUGH BAQUETTES--

I had some leftover no-knead pizza dough in my refrigerator yesterday. We had our fill of pizza for a while, so I considered freezing the dough, but then thought, "Why not try making a couple of baguettes out of it?" Why not, indeed. It's a similar simple dough (see the recipe for the dough at the end of this post).

I have a baguette pan, but it has a hook on one end, which makes it difficult to place inside even my largest roaster.


I decided to line the baguette pan with 3 layers of foil, line the troughs with baking parchment and let the dough rise in that setup (for about 2 hours because the dough was cold).


When I heated up the oven (to 450 Degrees F), I also heated up my big rectangular granite ware roaster.


I stretched and folded the refrigerated dough a few times before shaping it into two loaves.


When the time came to bake, I slid the foil form out of the baguette pan onto the bottom of a baking sheet and then carefully slid that into the shallow bottom of the hot roaster.



The foil kind of spread outward at this point, so I quickly rolled up some more foil into two long "sausages" and used those to prop up the outside edges of my makeshift baguette pan liner (I saved all this foil for another use, BTW).

I scored the tops of the dough with a serrated knife before baking, but not deeply enough, evidently, because you couldn't see the scoring at all after it was baked (I'll use a razor blade on the soft dough next time). However, as you can see, it turned out well, had wonderful flavor (it was in the refrigerator for 2 nights), and disappeared very fast with a vegan stew I made for friends who came for dinner.

Photo by Dianne  Radmore/Fireweed

I'll be doing this again!

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BRYANNA'S NEAPOLITAN-STYLE NO-KNEAD PIZZA CRUST ( or about 4 baguettes)
Servings: 36
Yield: makes about six 11"-square pizzas

This is our current favorite pizza dough-- partly whole wheat and no oil added, but very tender.

6 cups unbleached white flour or unbleached bread flour (use bread flour in the USA-- Canadian all-purpose unbleached flour has the same gluten content as USA bread flour)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 Tbsp sea salt (fine)
3 cups warm water
1 Tbsp instant yeast

In a large bowl, mix together the two flours and the salt.

In a 1-quart/L container, sprinkle the yeast into the water and let sit for a few minutes.  Stir and pour into the flour mix. Have ready another large bowl, oiled lightly.

Stir the mixture with a Danish dough whisk or large spoon.  Use your hands to mix/knead in the last bit of flour.  Using a dough scraper, scoop the dough into the oiled bowl.  Cover and let rise at room temperature for 2 or more hours (this is flexible). Refrigerate in the same bowl, either covered, or placed inside of a food-safe plastic bag (it won't touch the dough if the bowl is big enough), or in a covered container such as a dough bucket or large storage container. Place in the refrigerator.

You can keep the dough in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks, although, in my experience, it gets kind of "soggy" by then.  It does taste marvelous after a long stay in the refrigerator!

Make as many pizzas as you like (refrigerate any leftover dough again) as usual and bake at the highest heat your oven can reach (500-550 degrees F) for 8-10 minutes, using a baking stone or cast iron skillet heated up in the oven as it comes up to temperature.

See these blog posts for tips about rolling out and baking pizza:
http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.ca/2006/05/vegan-pizza-night.html
http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.ca/2011/10/cast-iron-skillet-pizza-perfect.html

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per 1/6th of one square 11-inch pizza): 93 calories, 3 calories from fat, less than1g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 189.1mg sodium, 47mg potassium, 19.6g carbohydrates, 1.2g fiber, less than 1g sugar, 3g protein.