Cast Iron Skillet Perfect Baked Potato Pizza

The BEST pizza dough with a spin on the potato pizza: Baked potato style! Topped with thin sliced potato, chives, bacon, sour cream.

As advertised: truly the perfect pizza dough paired with a baked potato flavor cooked in a cast iron skillet. This pizza dough is no-knead, springy, fluffy with a snappy crust. It takes 15 minutes from dough in the pan to pulling it out of the oven!

First let's talk pizza dough. I'm not re-inventing the wheel here. In fact, we used to buy our pizza dough at the deli in town. But then we saw Bon Appétit make cast iron pizza and we were like...we should do that. And also, it's time to make bread of some kind again. We had the bread itch. So we researched something that wouldn't require met to have a bread starter (which I no longer have and killed). All pizza dough answers point to Jim Lahey's pizza dough as on Serious Eats and a bajillion other sites. Often times you see a recipe called 'best' or 'perfect' and you think "well that's an ambitious title", but this one is the real deal. You mix the ingredients with a spoon until they look like a hot mess, then leave it for 18 hours, cut out a bit of dough, plop it on the counter and ALL OF A SUDDEN IT'S PERFECT. Unbelievable. All hail Jim Lahey's pizza dough. 

So why potato vs traditional perfect tomato and cheese? Chris and I were thinking back to a potato pizza we had in Copenhagen. Truthfully, there are plenty of potato pizza recipes online. You don't need another one. BUT you do need a baked potato pizza. You and I didn't know we needed one, but we do. The toppings are simple but strong: sour cream drizzle, chive, bacon and little potatoes. You could also sprinkle on some Trader Joe's Everything Bagel seasoning.

The only downside to this recipe is it's not instant gratification. The dough requires an 18 hour ferment. Let the yeast do the work for you. Think of it like a slow cooker. Set it and forget it.

Note: No-Knead Pizza Dough recipe by Jim Lahey as on Serious Eats

Cast Iron Skillet Perfect Baked Potato Pizza 

INGREDIENTS

dough: Makes enough for 4, 10 inch pizzas

• 500 grams (17 ½ ounces or about 3 ¾ cups) King Arthur Bread Flour

• 1 gram (1/4 teaspoon) active dry yeast

• 16 grams (2 teaspoons) fine sea salt

• 350 grams (1 ½ cups) water

toppings

• 1/2 teaspoon cornmeal

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

• 1 pinch all purpose flour

• 6 small yellow creamer potatoes, about 1/2 cup sliced thinly on a mandoline- NOTE: you can use other small yellow potatoes like dutch babies or little yellows

• pinch kosher salt

• 1/8 teaspoon garlic salt

• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1/4 cup parmesan, freshly grated

• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

• 2 strips bacon, cooked and chopped

• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives

• 1 Tablespoon sour cream

• 1 teaspoon skim milk

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium bowl mix dry dough ingredients. Add water and mix well with your hands or a wood spoon. 

2. Cover with plastic wrap and rise at room temp for about 18 hours. Dough should double (may take more or less time depending on how hot your house is-warmer=faster)

3. Flour your counter and scrape out dough. Divide into 4 even parts and shape into a round. Cover what you're not using and refrigerate up to 3 days (to use after refrigerating, pull out at room temp 2-3 hours before needed, covered with a damp cloth).

4. Slice potatoes and place slices in a kosher salt and water solution (taste it- it should taste like salt water- about 1 teaspoon salt for 2 cups ish). Soak potatoes for 30 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 450-500 F. Basically as hot as your oven can go, and place a rack at the top.

6. In a small bowl mix corn meal, flour and sugar. Stir together and set aside.

7. Heat cast iron skillet on medium low.

8. Shape dough into a disc and begin to work/thin it out with your hands.

9. When the skillet is hot, turn off heat and remove skillet. Add a pinch or two of the flour sugar mixture over the bottom of the pan. It should be a light coating, not a full coverage. 

10. Push dough into pan and partially up the sides (careful- it's hot!) Sprinkle with garlic salt.

11. Add rows of potato slices, sprinkle with cheese and pepper flakes. 

12. Drizzle olive oil around the outside of the crust down the inner sides of the cast iron.

13. Bake for about 10 minutes until crust is brown. Broil for a few seconds if desired.

14. Remove from oven and top with bacon and chives.

15. In a small bowl mix milk and sour cream to thin it out. Drizzle over top.

Note: No tomato sauce for umami? Use potatoes with salt, pepper, MSG and herbs for this international inspired potato pizza dish. To keep your sodium levels in check and make this extra delicious, swap your salt for a blend of 50% MSG, 50% salt which can reduce your sodium content by about 40%!