Wood Fired Pepperoni Pizza Recipe

Pizza is just one of those comfort foods that makes everyone feel good. For me, pepperoni pizza is the king of pizza. Don't get me wrong, I make all kinds of pizza and several recipes can be found below. Pepperoni pizza is just my hands-down favorite.

There are two pizza dough recipes on this site. One is for pizza made in a wood-fired oven and the other is for pizza made in a conventional oven. Both require overnight fermentation so plan accordingly. The difference between the two is the amount of water in the dough. Because a wood-fired oven cooks a pizza at 900˚F in 90 seconds, it needs less water in the dough. If one uses the conventional oven dough with more water in a wood-fired oven, it will make a huge mess. The bottom of the dough will not dry out enough by the time the top has cooked and it will tear when trying to remove it from the oven.

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This is a true Neopolitan pizza dough from Naples. I have tried every dough recipe in the book and like this one the best, it's easy and hard to mess up. Form the dough into a disc by first gently pressing with your finger tips from the inside out. Then, hold it vertically and gently stretch the rim while letting gravity work and expand the pizza dough.

Wood Fired Uncured Pepperoni Pizza

The pizza sauce is simple and fantastic. It is made from whole canned San Marzano tomatoes and a little sea salt, that's it. If you have extra, doctor it up and make pasta sauce.

Most of my pizzas are made with a blend of four cheeses. This pizza is made with 50% low-fat mozzarella, 25% asiago and 25% fontina. Then a bit of parmesan or pecorino romano is added at the end. Mozzarella is, of course, on practically every pizza made. The asiago adds a little bit of a nutty flavor and the fontina is just creamy and good.

There are two things to know about pepperoni. First, most store-bought pepperoni is too thin to make pizza and will just curl up and die in a wood-fired oven. Second, pepperoni is greasy and you have to plan on doing a little cleanup before serving.

Pepperoni

Wood Fired Pepperoni Pie

I solved the first problem by buying a pepperoni log rather that sliced pepperoni. It gets sliced on my meat slicer nice and thick. I want the pepperoni to cook on the edges and curl a bit, but nothing more. Thick pepperoni is the ticket, cut it on a meat slicer for consistent slices.

A wood-fired oven will cook a pizza in 90 seconds. With the coals pushed to the back of the oven, the part of the floor closest to the burning logs will be about to 950˚F. The area 20 from the logs may be only 750˚F. Place the pizza about 6 from the logs. Then, using a small metallic pizza peal, rotate the pizza ¼ turn every 20 seconds. This will cook FAST, there is NO time to go get a beer. After a full rotation check the bottom and the edge of the pizza. If there is an area on the edge that needs a little more heat, put it back in with that area closest to the fire 10 seconds at a time until done. The bottom of the crust should show some small dark areas particularly near the edge.

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If using a conventional oven, place a pizza stone in the middle of the oven and set the oven to its highest setting, probably 500˚F. Let it warm up for about 30 minutes. Thick pizza stones (about ½ thick) seem to hold heat better and cook more evenly. Place the pizza in the center of the stone and cook for 6 - 10 minutes, depending on your oven. There is no need to turn a pizza cooked in a conventional oven.

Iceland Wood Fired Stonebaked Hot Honey Pepperoni Pizza (374g)

Remove the pizza from the oven and let it setup for a few minutes before slicing. In the meantime, gently lay a sheet of paper towel across the pepperoni and blot up as much grease as possible. Then, cut, serve and enjoy.

Both pizza dough recipes are from the 24-48 Hour Pizza Dough recipe in the book The Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home by Ken Forkish.

This is one of my family's go-to pizzas in my house. Cut the pepperoni thick to prevent it from curling and burning. Blot up any grease from the pepperoni with a paper towel before serving.