Inspired by several things, notably: Cook’s Illustrated article/recipe about Cast Iron Pan Pizza, and Dan’s adventures with “South Shore Bar Pizza” (and his amazing Facebook photos!), I decided to wing it and try to make a sourdough version.

I started with a one-loaf batch of Tartine bread, but increased the proportion of bread flour slightly (+25g), then divided it into two parts to make two pan pizzas.

I was interested in Cook’s Illustrated’s suggestion to build the pizza in an unheated cast iron skillet and had received conflicting advice from a friend that the pan should be preheated, so I handled the two pizzas differently to see what would happen. Here’s the first one, built in an unheated pan then baked with the pan placed directly on the preheated baking stone. For both pizzas, I followed the Cook’s advice to finish the bottom of the pizza by placing the pan (with pizza in it, of course) on the stovetop for 1-2 minutes. Note the frico cheese edge, which was excellent, but I overbaked this by about 5 minutes (anyone else sensing that this is a theme for me??) so the frico got a little crunchier than would be ideal.

And here’s the second pizza. I built it on a piece of parchment on a pizza peel. I was just barely able to fit it under my largest bowl for the rest, and this was the exact size of the cast iron pan. The high-hydration dough definitely adheres to the parchment, but since the whole thing (including parchment) will get transferred to the cast iron skillet, the sticking doesn’t matter at this point. The parchment was easy to remove before putting the pizza on the stovetop for finishing. I decided not to make the frico on this one, but I guess I could have. It might be a little perilous to put the cheese around the edge with the pan already really hot, but it should be possible.

So the bottom line is that both methods worked! And, making two pizzas kinda dictates that a mixed method is necessary (since the cast iron pan will be cool for the first one and already hot for the second one).

Throughout my Tartine Sourdough Bread adventure it has proven consistently true that whenever I start to get confident that I might know what I’m doing, something happens to remind me that I really don’t. Winging it on pizza made with sourdough but without a recipe was pretty bold, but it seems I got away with it this time!