Exploring Sheet Pan Pizza, from Grandma, to Sicilian, to Tomato Pies
For our fifth style of pizza, we looked at simple pies baked on sheet pans, extending the exploration we started in our Roman unit. We didn’t seek restaurants for as standard bearers for us for this style of pie. Unlike the East Coast, where this style of pizza is popular, Cali pies tend to have adopted and adapted the round Neopolitan and New York style pies, so we don’t have a lot of options. These also tend to be more homestyle pies, so we thought it was okay to strike out on our own.
Grandma Pie
We started with the Grandma Pie dough in The Elements of Pizza which is based on the fine low gluten Caputo flour, and hand mixing, much like a Neopolitan pie. But there is a big difference when it comes to the shaping phase, because it involves stretching out the single mass of dough into a oiled sheet pan.
The pie is first parbaked with tomato sauce, topped with cheese, and then baked again. We enjoyed the pie, but we weren’t blown away by the texture of the dough — it had a very crisp outer crust and a soft interior without much chew due to the low gluten flour.
Sicilian
For our next try at a sheet pan pizza, we looked to the Pizza Bible which has a full chapter on Sicilian style which is generally pointed to as the original. We were hoping that this version, with a high gluten All Trump’s flour, some kneading in a standing mixer, and a 24 hour cold rise, ,might provide more texture for the crust. This dough was stretched directly on an oiled sheet pan, and was very sticky and stretchy.
After parbaking, we topped with pesto and did a vegan section for this pie as well.
Like our first pie, the dough was thick, and spongy, with a very crisp crust with a fried texture from the oil. This version has more chew, but still felt airy and oily in a way that we were not thrilled with.
Trenton-Style Tomato Pie
Not so satisfied with our results so far, we decided to give the sheet pan pie one last try, with the tomato pie from The Elements of Pizza modeled on the Trenton pie. For this, we used the New York style dough, and divided into three dough balls which were rolled out into thin rectangular pies then loaded onto parchment-lined sheet pans.
Following Trenton style, cheese goes before tomato sauce. We added some pepperoni. The pies were tasty, and had the lighter, crisper crust that we preferred over the breadier pies. Still, none of us felt we would choose this style of crust over Neopolitan or New York style.
What We Learned
Our biggest learning was probably that our family is not a big fan of sheet pan pizzas. The focaccia styleones — Grandma and Sicilian — were too bready and oily, and the flavor of the topping got drowned out by the volume of bread.
The crunchy exterior that results from the dough sitting in olive oil at high heat was also distracting. Unlike the light exterior of a Neopolitan pie, it felt more crunchy than crisp which was not a positive.
The thinner crust ones — Roman and Tomato Pie — were more to our liking, but wouldn’t win over the more traditional round pie with the nice contrast between the thin topped part of the crust and the thicker chewier outer crust.
A lot of this may just be our family preference for lighter pies. We weren’t crazy about Chicago style either. But we probably aren’t the only ones, if we consider how much more popular round pies are at least in places where we’ve lived.
