Garlic Butter Pan Pizza
A thick, fluffy pan pizza with a garlic butter brushed crust. Think Pizza Hut, but actually good.
Recipe by ThePizzaPlanet.com · Published
Essential tool for this bake
This is the pizza you make when you plan a day ahead but don't want a Neapolitan-length project. Mix the dough the day before and let the calculator's cold ferment do the work overnight; the next day, press it into a cast-iron pan, top it, and bake for dinner. The garlic butter brushed into the pan creates the fried-bottom crust that distinguishes a real pan pizza from a lazy frozen-pizza imitation. Brush more garlic butter on the exposed crust after baking — that's the move. Give the pressed dough its full rise before you top it; a pan pizza that never rose bakes into a cracker. Need it on the table tonight instead? The same-day no-knead pan pizza skips the overnight wait entirely.
Flour: King Arthur Bread Flour (12.7% protein) — read the review
Dough Formula
| Ingredient | Grams | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour (12.7% protein) | 218 g | 100.0% |
| Water | 131 g | 60.1% |
| Salt | 4.4 g | 2.0% |
| Yeast | 1.1 g | 0.5% |
| Oil | 11 g | 5.0% |
| Sugar | 4 g | 1.8% |
Makes 1 ball of ≈370 g
Ingredients
Dough
- Pizza dough (see formula above)1 ball
Garlic Butter
- Butter, melted42 g
- Garlic, minced3 cloves
- Dried Italian herbs1 g
Toppings
- Tomato sauce200g
- Low-moisture mozzarella250g
- Parmigiano30g, grated
Instructions
- 1
Make the dough: mix per the formula above, then follow the calculator schedule for Pan — 14 h bulk/cold ferment before shaping (hands-on 20 min).
- 2
Mix garlic butter: melt butter, add minced garlic and herbs.
- 3
Brush garlic butter generously into cast iron or sheet pan.
- 4
Press dough into pan, cover, let rise 30-45 min.
- 5
Add sauce, mozzarella, and parmigiano.
- 6
Bake at 245°C (475°F) for 18-22 minutes until golden and bubbly.
- 7
Brush exposed crust edges with more garlic butter after baking.
Tips
- →Hands-on time is about 35 minutes; allow the dough its full ferment — see the calculator schedule
- →The garlic butter in the pan creates the crispy, golden bottom
- →Cast iron gives the best crust
- →Don't skip the post-bake garlic butter brush
Video by Quang Tran · 114K views · 4 min · on YouTube
Shop this bake
Flour
King Arthur Bread Flour
The first bag to buy if you bake in a domestic oven. At 12.7% protein with added amylase on the label it gives you chew and colour at 250 °C, which is exactly what an unmalted 00 will not.
$13.42· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the review →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Ingredient
Polly-O Low Moisture Whole Milk Mozzarella
Thick enough to cube for a Detroit rim, where shreds burn to lace — and four ingredients against a coating of rice flour, cellulose and natamycin that no bake removes.
$39.00· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the review →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Ingredient
SAF Instant Yeast
Instant, so it goes in dry with the flour: no warm-water step means no step at which the yeast can be cooked, which is where an active-dry dough most often dies.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Equipment
Original Baking Steel
6.4 mm is the home compromise: enough stored heat to bake two pies back to back, in a slab that will never crack the way a cordierite stone eventually does.
$139.00· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the review →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Equipment
Greater Goods Single Sensor Baking Scale
One model behind one listing, on the maker's own page: 5 kg (11 lb) of capacity, reading down to 1 g. What the listing sends is what the maker documents — rarer here than it ought to be.
$19.99· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the buying guide →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
If this goes wrong
Pizza base is soggy in the middle
Not enough heat is reaching the centre of the base fast enough to drive the water out before the crust sets. Bake on a fully preheated steel or stone rather than a tray, give it 45–60 minutes at maximum, and cut the water you put on top.
Pizza dough didn't rise
Either the yeast is dead, it was killed by hot water or direct salt contact, or your kitchen is simply too cold for the amount of yeast you used. Proof the yeast to find out which, then match the dose to your temperature and timeline.
Pizza crust is dense and bready, not chewy
Dense crust means the gas never got in or never got out of the dough into the crumb. Proof to the peak, keep the rim untouched, stop adding bench flour, and bake on a surface hot enough to give you real oven spring.
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