Pizza Hut Clone Pizza Revisited

My mom’s pizza: tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, jalapeños, onions, sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

In May of last year, I made this clone recipe of Pizza Hut’s Pan pizza and was instantly hooked on it. I love thick and thin dough, but my favorite is the thick, pan variety. Even though this recipe doesn’t yield a pan pizza exactly like that of Pizza Hut, it is fabulous and less oily. I didn’t have any tomato sauce, so I watered down some tomato paste and added Italian seasoning, garlic salt, a little sugar, and pepper. That worked like a charm.

Another burnt creation thanks to my beloved oven. It all still tasted amazing, including the crust. My pizza: pepperoni, sauce, and mozzarella cheese

The maintenance workers came to fix my oven two times, and now it seems to be worse than before. Consequently, I burned my meat pizza and had to watch my mother’s pizza like a hawk; hence, there are more photos of my mom’s pizza than mine. I probably could have cooked the pizza a couple of minutes more to get more color on the crust, but my mother was pleased with how it looked, and it was well-cooked. Even my gently-burnt pizza was still amazingly good.

My mom “decorated” this pizza all by herself haha. I’m so proud of her.

In the original post, I had promised my mom that I would make this pizza for her in July of last year. Well, I am one year late in my promise, but the month is July, so I’m happy I could make this for her. She said this pizza was the best pizza she had ever eaten, and my mom is a pizza addict who has eaten pizza in New York, Chicago, and various parts of Italy. So, that is a major compliment!

I had only one cast-iron skillet, so I split the dough into two pieces. Once I baked my pizza, I transferred it to a plate and started working on my mom’s pizza in the same skillet. I really like making pizza in a cast-iron skillet; it is much easier than making it in a pie plate or on the back of a jelly roll pan.

My mom’s favorite part of the pizza was the crust on the top left part of the above photo, so I had to take a shot of it haha.

I hope you make this one day soon; it is a fantastic recipe. I am submitting this post to yeastspotting!

Pizza Hut Clone Pizza
adapted from Real Mom Kitchen

Sauce:
1 (8 oz) tomato sauce (I used one 8oz tomato paste + 1/4-1/2 cup water)
1-2 Tbsp Italian seasoning (or 1 tsp dry oregano; 1/2 tsp marjoram; 1/2 tsp dry basil; 1/2 tsp garlic salt)
1/2 tsp sugar (to offset the bitterness of the tomato sauce)

Combine the ingredients. Allow the mixture to sit for 1 hour while the dough rises.

Pizza:
1 1/3 C Warm water (105F/40C) (OR you could use 1 1/2 cups of WARM milk in place of water and dry milk)
1 pk (2 1/4 tsp) dry yeast (I used active)
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 C non−fat dry milk
2 Tbsp vegetable oil (for dough)
1/2 tsp salt (I used kosher)
4 C AP flour
approx. 6 Oz Vegetable oil (3 oz. per pan)

Preheat oven to 475F (I cooked at 450). Put yeast, sugar, and dry milk in a large (2 qt.) bowl or mixing bowl of stand mixer. Add the warm water, and stir to mix well. Allow mixture to sit for two minutes.

Then, add oil and stir again. Add flour and salt, and mix until dough forms and flour is absorbed. Turn out on to a flat surface and knead for about 10 minutes (If using a stand mixer, mix the ingredients with a dough hook and then knead the dough for 5-6 minutes.)

Divide dough into two balls (about 450-460 grams each). In two cast-iron skillets (or you can use two 9′ cake/pie plates or one 9-inch pie plate and one 9 x 13 dish), put 1-2 Tbsp of oil in each skillet/plate making sure it is spread evenly. Using a rolling pin or your hand, roll/pat out each dough ball to about a 9″ circle in the skillet (you probably won’t be able to spread the dough to the edges at this time).

Cover with a towel or a plate. Place in warm area and allow to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Then, pat the dough once more to the edges of the skillet.

Poke holes in the crust or use pie weights, and parbake the crust for 2-5 minutes to prevent sogginess of dough after adding the sauce.

Spoon 1/3 cup sauce on dough. Distribute 1 1/2 Oz. shredded mozzarella cheese on sauce. Place toppings of your choice. Top with 3 oz. mozzarella cheese. Cook until cheese is bubbling and outer crust is brown about 15 minutes. Then brush outer edge of crust with garlic butter.

Copyright – Memoria James – http://www.mangiodasola.com

Memoria is a polyglot xenophile from Texas who currently lives in Germany. She teaches English by day and Spanish by night and works on her food, language, and travel blog and Local Language eCourse in between. She speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, some German, and a little French. She loves to travel and learn the local language for every country she visits and hopes that she can pass this linguistic desire to others.

Author: Memoria James

Memoria is a polyglot xenophile from Texas who currently lives in Germany. She teaches English by day and Spanish by night and works on her food, language, and travel blog and Local Language eCourse in between. She speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, some German, and a little French. She loves to travel and learn the local language for every country she visits and hopes that she can pass this linguistic desire to others.

0 thoughts on “Pizza Hut Clone Pizza Revisited”

  1. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you! Even though I am an English prof, I can hardly begin to express how absolutely delicious this pizza was. With the first bite, it literally took my breath away. I mean from the beginning of you making the sauce and shaping the dough to me chopping and adding the toppings to the sprinkling of the cheese, I am in love with this dish.

    I absolutely love it–I promise you all that it really is the BEST pizza I have every had in my life (and I am a pizza connoisseur)!! Just smelling the yeast started me salivating! The crust was phenomenal and so are these photos! Love you :o)

  2. Those pizzas look so yummy. I never knew that pizza can be prepared in a skillet…what a great idea that is! Oh, and your comments underneath the pictures are sooooo funny. Your Mom has to be gorgeous, I love reading about her – it's always something smile-inducing…Love that! Have a wonderful weekend – you and your Mom too. 🙂 Petra

  3. I'll have to give your pizza a try – while I love a cracker thin crust, my husband loves the thicker dough pizza. Thanks for sharing!

  4. I've been craving pizza lately and this only makes me want it that much more!

    Glad you were finally able to make this for your mom.

  5. I have never baked pizza in a cast-iron skillet. Such a great idea. Lo sentimos, usted está teniendo problemas con su horno. That must be so frustrating.

  6. Awesome! The pan pizza is my favorite too! It never really occurred to me that it was made in a cast iron skillet though. Duh. I guess you learn something new every day huh?? LOL!

  7. Wow oh wow. This looks AWESOME!! I grew up eating Pizza Hut pizza and LOVED it. As I got older, I did find it a bit greasy, so your version sounds PERFECT. Hi to Memoria's mom!

  8. My favorite part of a pizza is the crust, and this one looks amazing! Love the idea of baking in a skillet- I'm going to try it. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

  9. That looks really delicious. I never thougth of making pizza in a cast iron skillet – we always put is directly on the oven rack. Then again our oven is a disaster.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog to read Sarah's guest post.

  10. Hey you! This looks so awesome. I have a thing for scorched crusts. Yum! I checked out your old post of it too. I love the update. Thanks for sharing as always! 🙂

  11. this pizza looks amazing and i want to try out this crust recipe but i don't want to purchase dried milk just for this one application. some websites state that you can just substitute milk for some of the water called for – would you recommend that here ?

  12. Rebekah – Thanks to your comment and my craving for pizza, I made this again with warm milk in place of powdered milk, and it worked out just fine. I started out with 1 1/3 of milk and needed to add a bit of water to the dough because it was so dry. So, I would do the same or measure out 1 1/2 cups of milk. I hope this helps!

  13. I am very much impressed from your post.It has amazing information.I learned lot of new things which explores my knowledge in various developments.So i must appreciate your efforts on posting these information.

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