My Best Sicilian Pan Pizza
A simple pizza dough technique that yields a super crispy crust and a light, airy center. The flavor is outstanding too. Fermentation is room temperature so there’s no refrigeration needed.
Mix together the all-purpose flour and instant yeast, then add the measurement of room temperature water. Use your hands and gently toss the ingredients together until you have a fairly dry and shaggy mixture. Place the biga in an air tight container and let it rest at room temperature for 15 hours. There's no need for concern about any left over flour. It will absorb water as the biga ferments.
Once rested, the biga should have puffed up a bit from fermentation. Add it to the bowl of a stand mixer along with the measurements of flour, water and instant yeast. Mix the ingredients on medium-high speed for about 10 minutes until you have a nice smooth dough. The higher mixing speed will do a great job of beating up the dough and activating the gluten.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. With floured hands, work the dough in a circular motion until it becomes tight and very smooth in appearance. There shouldn't be so much flour on the counter that your dough slides around. The friction of the wet dough and counter will make this steps easier to do. A little bit of flour is helpful though.
Place the finished dough in a lightly greased mixing bowl and cover it up. Let it rest a room temperature (around 70°F or 21°C) for a few hours until the dough has doubled in size. The fully fermented dough should look like my image below. Still very smooth, but larger...much larger.
Now it's time to turn the dough out into a generously oiled sheet pan. The pan I'm using for this recipe is a 14"x14" pre-seasoned Lloyd Pan. They might seems pricey, but well worth the investment. Trust me.
Use a dough scraper, if you have one, and transfer the dough. Use your fingers tips and gently push the dough out as best you can. It will not spread to the edges of the pan just yet. You'll have to cover the pan and let the dough rest for about 10 minutes, then repeat the pushing process. Eventually, the dough will co-operate and you'll have a pan filled with pizza dough.
Cover the dough up, and let it rest one more time at room temperature. It should take about 2 hours (70°F or 21°C) for the dough to proof and double in height. Tip: To speed the proofing process up, place the dough in your oven (turned off) with the oven light on. This is creates a warm environment that's suitable for resting dough.
Your dough is now ready for cheese, sauce and other delicious ingredients. Traditionally, Sicilian pizza is topped with sliced, low-moisture, full-fat Mozzarella cheese and a cooked pizza sauce (recipe included), in that order. The theory is that the cheese will protect the thick crust from the moisture of the sauce so it doesn't get too soggy.
Go straight cheese or feel free to top the pizza with other items. For this recipe, I've decided on a "meat lovers" theme that includes pre-cooked sweet Italian sausage, Pepperoni, and sliced ham. Finish the pizza with a generous amount of grated parmesan cheese.
Bake your pizza in a preheated 475°F (256°C) oven on the middle rack for 20 minutes. If your oven is convention, reduce the heat to 450°F (232°C). When done, the crust should have pulled away from the sides of the pan, the edges should be a very dark brown (almost burnt) and the cheese should be shades of golden brown and bubbly.
The inner crust should be light and airy with tons of little bubbles.
The bottom crust should be extra crispy and moderate to dark golden brown in color. Once of the most redeeming qualities of this recipe is that the crust remains crispy for days should you have leftovers. Just pop a slice in the oven for a few minutes to warm it up and boom, round 2.
A simple pizza dough technique that yields a super crispy crust and a light, airy center. The flavor is outstanding too. Fermentation is room temperature so there’s no refrigeration needed.
