Preheat your oven to 500-550 Fahrenheit. In this recipe we used the Gusto wood oven. If you are using a single chambered oven, you will want to maintain that temp by controlling the size of your fire (whether wood or gas).
To Make the Dough in a Stand Mixer: Combine all dry ingredients (flour, yeast, and salt) in a mixer and begin by mixing by hand. Add dough hook and start mixer at LOW speed. Slowly add the water while the mixer is running. Mix on low until flour and water have combined to make a uniform dough ball. You may need to scrape the sides of the bowl from time to time to assist in incorporation (make sure to turn the mixer off if scraping the bowl). Turn the mixer off once dough ball is created and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Start the mixer again after resting and set to medium/low speed and mix for another 10 minutes. Dough should be fully incorporated at this point and should not stick to the sides of the bowl. Remove dough hook, reform the dough into a nice ball and place into a bowl and cover either with plastic wrap, or a damp cloth. Allow to rest and rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
Stretching the Dough Into Place
After the 2 hour rest, take your sheet pan (in our case a standard cake pan which was approx. 9” x 13”) and pour olive oil into the pan (approx. 2 Tbsp). Evenly coat the pan with oil and then place the dough ball into the pan and stretch it as much as possible to fill the pan. Cover with a cloth and allow to rest for another 30 minutes. After the resting, stretch the dough again to fully fill the pan.
Make the Sauce
To make the sauce, add the olive oil to a pan with the garlic. Preheat until the garlic begins to saute and sizzle. At this point add the crushed tomatoes and the rest of the spices. Simmer for 15 minutes or so making sure to stir often.
Assembling pizza
Once the dough has been stretched into the pan, evenly top the dough with pepperoni, followed by sauce and then finished off with the mozzarella cheese (cubed into ½ - 1” cubes). Make sure that the cheese goes all the way to the edges of the dough so that as it melts it caramelizes on the sides of the pan.
Placing in oven
Place the pizza on the center rack of the gusto oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until it is nice and golden brown. (If using a single chambered oven, you may want to cover your pizza with some aluminum foil for the first 10 minutes or so, and then remove it to brown the toppings for the remaining 2/5 minutes).
