Making Pepperoni Pizza With a Biscuit-Dough Crust — Photos

This past week’s cooking projects from my collection of recipes included yet again more bran muffins for mom, crisped rice treats (which will be the subject of a future post since I also took photos of the process, to keep for future use), and the subject of this post, my pepperoni pizza.

A post that is an ancestor to my current project of creating photo posts of my personal recipes was for my pepperoni pizza, the same recipe for this post; however, it was a simple posting with only some photos of a few of the steps, and the post was created more on a dare after I randomly texted said photos to my brother, who replied “A blog post, perhaps?”

Note that in this post, while some photos below may betray the order in which they were actually taken relative to the others (although all were taken in the same session), some ingredients’ preparation steps are presented at the beginning as part of the mise-en-place steps for the sake of the narrative. Also note that these pizzas were made at the cottage, hence the use of different kitchen equipment.

Making the pizza:

An oven rack was placed on the top position in the oven, and the oven was preheated to 450F:

Oven preheated to 450F

Olive oil was added to two #8 cast iron skillets:

Olive oil added to a cast iron skillet

… and the olive oil was evenly spread over the skillets’ surfaces with a paper towel:

Spreading the olive oil with a paper towel
Two oiled cast iron skillets

I keep cooked bacon in the freezer; a few slices of which were taken out (or at this point, cook some bacon):

Bacon cooked in advance taken out

The cooked bacon was sliced:

Cooked bacon sliced

… and then the bacon was chopped finely:

Bacon finely chopped

The finely chopped bacon was transferred to a bowl and kept at hand:

Finely chopped bacon placed in a bowl

An onion was taken out:

Onion taken out

The onion was trimmed:

Trimmed onion

The onion was halved:

Onion halved

The onion was then sliced thinly:

Onion sliced thinly

And the onion was chopped finely:

Onion sliced finely

Then, the onion was transferred to the bowl with the chopped bacon:

Chopped onion transferred to bowl with chopped bacon

And the chopped onion and chopped bacon were mixed together:

Chopped onion and chopped bacon mixed together

The bowl of chopped onion and chopped bacon was then put aside.

Mozzarella cheese, a grater, and a bowl were taken out:

Mozzarella cheese, grater, and bowl taken out

The mozzarella cheese was grated:

Grating mozzarella
Grated mozzarella cheese

… and the mozzarella cheese was put aside.

I use pre-sliced pepperoni purchased at the store; if you are slicing your own pepperoni, now would be a good time to slice 30 slices of pepperoni, and place the sliced pepperoni on a plate or in a bowl, to be put aside.

Sliced pepperoni

Flour was measured out:

Flour measured out

The flour was placed in a mixing bowl:

Flour placed in mixing bowl
Flour in mixing bowl

Baking powder was measured out:

Baking powder measured out

The baking powder was added to the flour in the mixing bowl:

Baking powder added to mixing bowl

Shortening was measured out:

Shortening measured out

The shortening was added to the flour and baking powder in the mixing bowl:

Shortening added to mixing bowl
Shortening in mixing bowl

Salt was measured out:

Salt measured out

The salt was added to the flour, baking powder, and shortening in the mixing bowl:

Salt added to other ingredients

“Italian style seasoning” was measured out:

Italian seasoning measured out

The Italian seasoning was added to the flour, baking powder, shortening, and salt in the mixing bowl:

Italian seasoning added to other ingredients
Italian seasoning added to other ingredients

The shortening was broken up with a fork …

Breaking up the shortening with a fork

… until the shortening was broken up to roughly the size of peas, and the rest of the ingredients were well mixed:

Shortening broken up to the size of peas

Milk was measured out:

Milk measured out

An egg was taken out:

Egg taken out

The egg was cracked into the measuring cup of milk:

Egg cracked into milk

The egg and milk were mixed together with a fork:

Egg and milk mixed together with a fork

About a third of the liquid was added to the flour mix:

Egg and milk mixture added to the flour mix

The wet and dry ingredients were mixed together:

Wet and dry ingredients mixed

The rest of the liquid was added half at a time, mixing after each addition of liquid, resulting in a sticky to somewhat stiff dough:

Wet and dry ingredients mixed to make a dough

The dough was divided between the two oiled cast iron skillets:

Dough divided between the two oiled cast iron skillets

The two dough balls were lightly floured:

Dough balls lightly floured

The dough was flattened out in the skillets by hand, covering the entire surface of the bases of the skillets:

Dough flattened out by hand

Edges were formed in the dough along the edges of the skillets:

Edges formed in dough along edges of skillets

Pizza sauce was taken out:

Pizza sauce taken out

The sauce was spooned out of the can:

Sauce spooned out

The sauce was transferred to the pizzas:

Sauce transferred to pizza

… and evenly split between the two pizzas:

Sauce split between pizzas

The sauce was evenly spread over the two flattened dough in each skillet, within the edges created around the pizzas:

Sauce evenly spread over dough
Sauce evenly spread over dough

The pepperoni was taken out:

Pepperoni taken out

Pepperoni slices were layered on top of the sauce, generally not overlapping over each other:

Pepperoni layered on top of the sauce
Pepperoni layered on top of the sauce

The chopped onion and chopped bacon mix was divided between the pizzas:

Chopped onion and chopped bacon mix divided between the pizzas

The chopped onion and chopped bacon mix was evenly spread over the surface of the pizzas:

Chopped onion and chopped bacon mix evenly spread over the surface of the pizzas

The grated mozzarella cheese was divided between the two pizzas:

Grated mozzarella cheese divided between the two pizzas

The grated mozzarella cheese was evenly spread over the surface of the pizzas

Grated mozzarella cheese evenly spread over the pizzas

The two pizzas, skillets and all, were placed on the top rack of the preheated oven:

Pizzas placed on the top rack of the preheated oven

A timer was set to 23 minutes:

Timer set to 23 minutes

The pizzas’ positions in the oven were switched partway, and after 23 minutes, the baked pizzas were removed from the oven using oven mitts — the skillets are VERY HOT! — and placed on a cutting board:

Baked pizzas removed from oven

The pizzas were removed from the skillets using an egg flipper, and returned to the cutting board:

Pizzas removed from cast iron skillets

The pizzas were sliced (in this case, in six pieces each):

Pizzas sliced

A yummy lunch is served:

Lunch is served!

Lunch was yummy!

The rest of the pizza slices were placed on a cookie sheet:

Pizza slices placed on cookie sheet

The cookie sheet was placed in the freezer:

Tray with pizza slices placed in freezer

Once frozen, the extra pizza slices were placed in a freezer bag and returned to the freezer, to eat during future lunches:

Frozen pizza slices in a freezer bag and returned to the freezer