Hand-Tossed vs. Pan Pizza: What’s the Difference?

Pan pizza is baked on a cast-iron skillet or a cake pan, which yields a thick-crust pizza. Chicago-style pizza, also known as deep-dish pizza, and Detroit-style pizza are made using a cast-iron pan. Another type of pan pizza, Sicilian pizza, is baked on a rectangular sheet tray.

Follow these steps to make a homemade pan pizza:

1. 1. Oil your pan and the dough. Oil the bottom of the cast-iron skillet or baking sheet in vegetable oil or olive oil. Take a ball of pizza dough and oil it before placing it on the pan.
   
2. 2. Spread the dough. Spread the dough out with your fingers until it covers the entire button and sides of the pan.
3. 3. Add your toppings. You can then place the tomato sauce, cheese, veggies, pepperoni, oregano, and any other toppings you'd like onto the pizza dough.
4. 4. Bake your pan pizza. Place the pizza in an oven heated to 500 degrees Fahrenheit for 25–35 minutes, or until the toppings are brown and bubbly and the crust is crispy and golden brown.

A hand-tossed pizza is a pizza where the dough is stretched by tossing it in the air. After hand tossing, you bake the pizza on a slab in a hot oven. This technique yields a thin crust pizza, such as the New York-style pizza, Brooklyn-style pizza, and traditional Italian Neapolitan pizza.

Hand-tossed pizza requires some skill to make at home. Follow these steps to learn how to hand toss a pizza:

1. 1. Prepare your pizza dough ball. Flatten the dough ball on a floured work surface.
2. 2. Knead the pizza dough. Work the dough gently with your fingertips, kneading the dough until it is stretched out to about the size of your hand. Make a crust around the perimeter of the dough by squeezing the dough on the outside edges.
3. 3. Hand toss the pizza. Add flour to the dough ball. Pick up the dough, rest it on the back of your hands, and rotate your arms in a circle towards your body while tossing the dough upward. After the dough rotates, catch it with your fists. Repeat this step until the dough is thin and at least 12 inches across. If the dough tears, pinch it back together.
4. 4. Add the toppings. When the dough is thin enough, place it back on your work surface and add the pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese. Next, add pepperoni, veggies, oregano, or any other toppings you like.
5. 5. Transfer the pizza to the oven. Using a pizza peel, transfer the pizza to the oven. You can also use a baking sheet to place the pizza into the oven. Most professional pizzerias bake their pizza on a hot pizza stone or steel. You can approximate this by placing a sheet tray or pan on the bottom of your oven while it is preheating and placing the pizza directly on it.
6. 6. Bake your pizza. Bake the pizza at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for 10–15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the pizza dough is puffy and slightly brown.

Hand-tossed and pan pizzas use the same kind of room temperature pizza dough made of all-purpose flour, dry yeast, warm water, salt, and olive oil. The key difference between a hand-tossed and pan pizza is the technique, which yields varying results:

• Crust thickness: Hand-tossed pizzas have a thinner crust, while pan pizzas have a thicker, chewy crust. Hand-tossing a pizza tends to burst the air bubbles in the dough, so the hand-tossed crust has fewer bubbles and doesn’t rise as much as the crust of a pan pizza. The pan pizza crust has a fluffy texture, similar to focaccia.
• Crust crispiness: Both pizzas feature crispy crust. Pan pizza crusts tend to be crunchier and more golden because the crust is essentially fried in oil in the oven. Hand-tossed pizza can also be crispy, but it is drier and softer than pan pizza.
• Toppings: The crust on a pan pizza is thicker and can accommodate more toppings. For example, a hand-tossed pizza normally contains one kind of cheese, usually mozzarella. Pan pizza can hold up to a blend of cheeses, such as mozzarella, white cheddar, provolone, asiago, and fontina.

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