Recipe: Chef John's Pourable Pizza Crust

Chef John's Pourable Pizza Crust

Ingredients

   3 cups all-purpose flour

   1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

   1 teaspoon kosher salt

   2 cups warm water (105 degrees F/41 degrees C)

   1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more to oil pan

   1 ½ teaspoons honey

   Pizza sauce

   Favorite pizza toppings

Directions

   Place flour in a mixing bowl with dry yeast and salt. Add warm water, olive oil, and honey. Whisk together for about 5 minutes. This will be a very thin batter-like dough. Cover and let rise, 1 1/2 hours. Dough should be bubbly. Stir with a ladle to eliminate bubbles.

   Generously oil a cast-iron skillet with olive oil off heat. Pour batter in a squeeze bottle or zip-top bag with a bottom corner snipped. Slowly pour the batter into the skillet starting from the center of the pan and working in circles toward the edge. Try to avoid mixing batter with the oil. If small bubbles of oil appear on the surface, use the tip of a paring knife to gently stir them into the dough.

   Place pan over medium-high heat. Wait for the dough to form bubbles over the entire top surface and the crust starts to dry out a bit. Flip over and continue cooking one side and the next. The bubbly side should be dry and achieve a golden brown color; the bottom should be well browned, about 4 to 5 minutes total per side. Doneness times will depend on how thickly the batter was poured. Remove from heat.

   Spread with pizza sauce and top with your favorite pizza toppings. Try to avoid topping too heavily.

   Set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and preheat the oven's broiler.

   Place pizza under the broiler until toppings are cooked, 3 to 4 minutes.

Chef's Notes:

I weigh my flour and used 14 ounces for this recipe, or approximately 3 cups.

If using a stand mixer to make the dough, use a whisk attachment, not a dough hook!

You can also finish the pizza in a preheated 500-degree F oven (260 degrees C). Toppings should be cooked through after about 4 or 5 minutes. Some favorite pizza toppings may include mozzarella cheese, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, pepperoni, etc.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/254280/chef-johns-pourable-pizza/

Anne,   Do you think many crusts can be made at once and frozen for use later?  Would be  great way to have pre-cooked homemade pizza crust on hand when time is short.  Thanks!

Sure, why not try that!  

I am planning to use this in the air fryer so I bet this recipe will make extra crusts that can be frozen.

I wonder if this crust recipe could be converted to sourdough.

Could I decrease the flour and water and replace with equivalent amount of starter then let it sit for a couple hours?

I am sure that sourdough could be used.  

I use Chef John's sourdough recipe so he knows sour dough.

The recipe says:

This will be a very thin batter-like dough. Cover and let rise, 1 1/2 hours. Dough should be bubbly. Stir with a ladle to eliminate bubbles.

So to me, experimenting with your sourdough would be great.  I hope you will let us know how it turns out.

This recipe makes a thin crust which is what dear hubby likes.  

I like thin in the middle with nice fat edges because the crust tastes so good.

I think this could work well for sourdough. The amount of flour + water to replace with starter would depend on how slow you want it to ferment - replace 5% to 10% of the flour and it would ferment slowly overnight, or use a bit more to have it ready in a couple of hours instead.

He uses 14oz flour, which is slightly over 400g, plus 2 cups (480g) water, so you could even use all sourdough starter for this, with a little extra water added to make it more pourable.

Thank you, Kate.

I will try it out today, starting with my starter smeared jar 😆