Years ago I went to a cookware party. I KNOW, I can hear you groaning from all the way at your house. I did the same thing when my friend Julie said, “Oh Maureen, I need another bum on the seat, you don’t need to buy ANYTHING, I promise, please say you’ll come?”
My friend Julie has her photo in the dictionary under “hell on wheels” and nobody would say no to her. She would share her last cent with you, would dig in your garden for hours just because you needed a hand and would drink the last beer in the fridge with wild abandon. Everyone needs a Julie in their life.
So I went. The name of the company is Chef’s Toolbox and it had just started selling its wares in Australia. They’ve since gone on to sell in New Zealand and in the US too. This is NOT a sponsored post so don’t leave now. I’m really heading to something good.
Their range of cookware and bakeware and utensils are all sold through a party plan and they do that so people can see how the cookware works. All the parties are about cooking and eating and the most requested dish is the stove top pizza. I was definitely NOT going to buy anything at this party. I didn’t need a thing in my kitchen.
The demonstrator or whatever the consultants are called put the pan in front of us, dumped in self raising and plain flour, a teaspoon of honey, a pinch of salt, a heaping teaspoon of yeast and a cup of warm water and started mixing. I thought she was nuts.
The dough came together and then she patted it out with her fingers, spread the pizza sauce over it, added the cheese and the toppings and put it on the stove. It couldn’t have taken 5 minutes.
She cooked it on medium heat for 5 minutes with the vents closed and then opened the vents and cooked for 20 minutes while she went on to make jam doughnuts.
In 20 minutes she opened the cover and BAM it was pizza.
I bought the pan. In fact, I bought two of them and a bunch of other stuff. It’s been more than 5 years and my pans still look brand new and are still non-stick. They aren’t cheap but good knives and cookware are a wise investment. These pans work equally well on my stove top or my induction cooktop that I used today.
I’ve changed the recipe and the method just a bit but the original recipe works just fine. I like my pizzas with the cheese golden brown so before I start mixing the dough I put the pizza stone in the oven and turn it on to 230C. I also add some olive oil to the dough recipe.
Once I open the vents, I cook the pizza on low for 10 minutes until the crust is nicely risen and done, then I use a spatula and the pizza slides right out onto the pizza stone. 5 minutes in the hot oven and the cheese is golden and bubbly.
If you’ve got any kind of a saute pan with a cover, this pizza will work for you. We have two pans and two pizza stones so pizza is ready in under 30 minutes from start to finish and not much to clean up.
I certainly won’t win this month’s cooking club challenge with this one but everyone needs an easy pizza recipe.
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- 1 cup plain flour
- Big pinch of salt
- 1 rounded teaspoon of dried yeast
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ⅓ cup pizza sauce (or as much as you like)
- Any pizza topping ingredients that you like
- In a non-stick pan with a cover, combine all dough ingredients and mix well.
- Once combined, wet fingers with olive oil and press dough evenly across the bottom of the pan.
- Add ⅓ cup (or however much you like) of pizza sauce over the base, right up to the edges.
- Sprinkle with shredded mozarella cheese or sliced bocconcini cheese
- Top with anything you like.
- Cook on medium heat with the pan's vent closed for 5 minutes
- Open pan's vent and cook for an additional 20 minutes
- or
- Cook with vent open for 10 minutes and then transfer to a hot oven with pizza stone for 5 - 10 minutes until golden brown.
Check out my cooking club pals at The Deep Dish, Dinner or Dessert, Simply Sweet Justice and Grad School Chef.