Cast Iron Deep Dish Pizza!

With so many wedding gifts, we love trying recipes to use all of our new kitchen 'stuff'!  Future posts will include my beloved Paderno spiralizer (zucchini pasta here I come!), Kitchen Aid mixer, etc.  But today I will focus on the Lodge Cast Iron pan that we received.  We love using it for eggs, hash browns, sausage, steaks, veggies, etc.   We haven't made a deep dish pizza ourselves yet, but really wanted to try it... Because... they're... delicious!

Here is the recipe- I adapted it from the 'A Beautiful Mess' blog- 
http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2013/03/deep-dish-cast-iron-pizza.html

Instead of using BBQ sauce (which I hate), we used regular pizza sauce.  I also added yummy vegetables.  I sauteed portabello mushrooms, green peppers, red onion, and garlic together in a pan... This makes the pizza SO GOOD.

Crust: I made it with my Kitchen Aid with the dough hook attachment and it was so easy!
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (one package) 
a generous pinch of sugar (I used brown sugar)
1 1/8 cups warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt

In a small bowl stir together the water, sugar and yeast. Allow this to sit and foam up (aka activate) for 10 minutes. Slowly add the flour (a half cup at a time) into the mixture.  Let the mixer do all of the work, or turn out onto a floured surface and knead until the dough becomes elastic-like (5-6 minutes by hand, less if you use a mixture). Place in a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

The recipe shows using cheese sticks in the side- this looks delish but I didn't have any. 

Add pizza sauce, and then 1/3 cup of mozza.  Then add the veggies, then the meat (I used pepperoni).  Then top with tons of cheese.  We used mozzarella and some pepperjack cheese.  Bake at 400 degrees for around 25 minutes.  Then get yourself a glass of wine and set up some House of Cards on the TV (that's what we did).  

Bon appetit!