Grandma Pie Pizza

5 from 7 votes

Grandma Pie Pizza is a style of pizza made in a large sheet pan that is baked in the oven for 20 minutes and serves a large crowd in one easy go. The bottom is crispy, crunchy, and coated in olive oil, the middle is light and airy, and the top is saucy and melty.

Prep Time1

Rising Time1 1

Total Time1 2

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Servings:

Calories: 664kcal

Author: Lauren Skardal

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

1 ¾ cups water
1 package yeast
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
2 ½ teaspoon salt
4 cups flour (all-purpose or bread flour)

Tomato Sauce

1 28 oz can San Marzano tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoon olive oil
pinch salt

Toppings, etc.

½ cup olive oil
8 oz low moisture mozzarella, shredded
fresh basil, optional
pinch flaky sea salt, optional

Instructions

Pizza Dough

Microwave the water in a large bowl for about 30 seconds or until warm, but not hot. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the yeast and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes until it starts to bubble.
Add the olive oil, salt and two cups flour and combine roughly with a spoon. Add the remaining two cups flour and again combine roughly with a spoon. Turn out onto a flat surface and knead the dough for ten minutes.
Place the smooth ball of dough back in the bowl and cover in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise in the fridge for 24 hours, or at a warm room temperature until doubled in size 1-2 hours.

Tomato Sauce

Add the can of San Marzano tomatoes, the garlic cloves and olive oil to a blender. Blend until smooth. This will make enough sauce for 3-4 pizzas. You can freeze the remaining sauce for later use.

Assembling the Pizza

If you made the dough overnight, remove the dough from the fridge a couple of hours before you plan to make the pizza to allow it to warm up to room temperature.
Pour ½ cup olive oil onto a large baking sheet. Move the dough from the bowl to the baking sheet and using your hands gently start to spread the dough out to fill the shape of the rectangular baking sheet. The dough will be elastic and will pull back towards the center. If it is particularly difficult to stretch, let the dough rest for 10 minutes and then stretch it again.
Keep working the dough and stretch it all the way to the edges and corners of the baking sheet. This will take a little persistence and you’ll get lots of olive oil on your hands – that’s part of the fun!
Once the dough is stretched out to cover the baking sheet, cover it in plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 40 minutes in a warm place. I put it towards the back of the stove with the oven on 350°F so that it warms up that part of the kitchen especially in cooler months.
Preheat the oven to 500°F or as high as it will go. You will drop the temperature down to 400°F before baking the pizza.
Once the dough has risen to about the top of the rim of the baking sheet, remove the plastic wrap. Using a spoon, place dollops of the tomato sauce on the pizza. You do not need a lot of sauce and you do not need to spread it over the dough. It will do that on its own in the oven. I place spoonfuls of sauce down on the dough similarly to how I would arrange cookie dough on a baking sheet.
Top the pizza with the grated fresh mozzarella. Resist the temptation and do not add too much cheese. It will weigh the dough down and cause it to collapse when baking. One of the best parts of the pizza is how light and fluffy it is, so protect that by limiting the cheese that you put on top or any other toppings that you are considering using. This also helps to keep the bottom nice and crispy, the second best part of the pizza.
Reduce the temperature to 400°F and bake on the lowest rack for 20-25 minutes. The crust should be medium brown in color and the cheese should brown, but not burn.

Video

Notes

Bread Flour vs. All-Purpose: It helps to use bread flour, but it doesn’t help that much. If you have it, use it. If not, don’t worry about it.
San Marzano Tomatoes: The San Marzano tomatoes, however, are important. Do not accept any substitutes.
- I have made this sauce with the extra tomato sauce in the can and without and I do not notice any significant difference. You can also blend a few pieces of torn basil into the sauce if you like.
Kneading: Kneading can be done by hand or with a stand mixer. I've done it both ways and either is fine, though I prefer kneading by hand.
First Rise: Letting the dough rise in the fridge overnight lets the flavor of the dough develop more, and it frees up your hands the day of. This is completely optional, same-day is great too. If you are letting the dough rise at room temperature (same day) and your room is on the chilly side, you can either let the dough rise in front of a sunlit window or preheat your oven to 350°F and let the dough rise on top, back of the stove (this works if you have a stove/oven combo, not wall ovens).
Stretching the Dough: If the dough is tight and difficult to stretch, let it rest for 10 minutes to allow the dough to relax. Then stretch the dough again all the way to the corners.
Second Rise: Do not let the dough rise higher than the sides of the baking sheet. If it does, it will become too light, and it will not be able to support the weight of the cheese. If you were to top it with cheese and bake it, the cheese would be heavy enough to sink through the dough (delicious, but not the texture we're going for).
Topping the Pizza: Covering the entire pizza in sauce, or adding too much cheese does not allow excess water to evaporate from the dough, which prevents a crispy crust. Go light on the toppings to facilitate a crispy crust.
Oven Temperature: This pizza is baked at 400°F degrees after fully preheating it to 500 and then dropping it down. 400°F is lower than you would expect for pizza, but it helps to get that crispy crust, yet not burn the cheese or dry out the dough. Bake the pizza on the lowest rack and start checking at around 20 minutes, remove when the cheese browns.

Nutrition