Garlic Pizza

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The deliciousness of cheesy garlic toast on a thin crust pizza dough? Yes please!

Garlic Pizza

Garlic makes for a wonderful pizza topping and it can be added to conventional pizza sauce, your favorite pizza toppings – but today we’re going to make ours as a Pizza Bianca.

Pizza Bianca

Pizza Bianca is simply Italian for “white pizza“. The obvious biggest difference is that you either leave out the tomato sauce and/or replace it with something else – often butter or olive oil. Sometimes pizza bianca will have béchamel or Alfredo sauces, but those are getting away from what we’re doing here today.

Garlic Cheese Pizza

Ingredients You’ll Need for Garlic Pizza

Your garlic options
Fresh garlic is recommended but you can use pre-minced garlic or even garlic powder.
  • 1 dough ball (I used our thin crust pizza dough recipe today). This recipe assumes a 8-9 ounce dough ball making a pizza between 10-12 inches in diameter
  • 2 teaspoons of flour for your work area
  • 1 teaspoon of oil if using a pizza pan
  • 4 ounces of shredded cheese of your choice (Mozzarella or an Italian blend are recommended)
  • 1.5 teaspoons of melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon of Parmesan cheese
  • Sprinkle of salt and pepper
  • Garlic! You can use any of the following but I’d recommend not all of them! Depending on your own personal love for garlic, you can certainly adjust up or down.
    • 2 fresh garlic cloves or
    • 1 teaspoon of minced garlic or
    • 1 teaspoon of garlic powder

Since garlic is the highlight of this pizza, I do strongly encourage you to use freshly minced garlic.

How to Make Garlic Pizza

Stretching the Dough

Add some flour to your workspace and begin hand stretching the dough. Once you have a small disc, you can switch to a rolling pin, if you prefer. You’ll probably find using a rolling pin will help make the dough flat and uniform with less chance of a tear! Flip the dough frequently as you work it.

Start from the center of the dough and stretch/roll outward.  Regularly lift, turn, and flip the dough. Add flour to keep it from sticking to the work area or your rolling pin.  Be patient to avoid creating folds or tearing the dough.  Don’t fret too much if the pizza isn’t round.  Getting a consistently thin crust while keeping it perfectly round is no easy feat, so let the pizza be the shape it needs to be if you can get the thickness right.

Continue to stretch out your dough until it’s 12” in diameter and continue to lightly flour the dough so that it’s not sticking.

Oiled dough stretched to 12"

Once the dough is rolled out, you’ll need to transfer it to your pizza pan or your pizza peel. Do this before you add the sauce and toppings to avoid a mess!

Additional Crust Tips

  • It may not be the first thing you think of, but making sure your hands are clean is really important.  Don’t use scented soaps and don’t use moisturizer.  So, get those hands surgeon-clean before you touch the dough!
  • Many people prefer to let the dough rise for 24 hours (or more) and one might worry that will introduce more air and make creating a really thin pizza a tad more difficult. In fact, this isn’t true. Letting the dough develop overnight (or even a couple of days) will help develop more flavor. The pizza you see here rested for 24 hours before being rolled out, so we can put that worry to bed! And since this recipe makes two pizzas, you might be doing the second one tomorrow!
  • Buying pre-made dough is fine too, but a really thin crust is going to take a lot more elbow grease.
  • You don’t want your dough cold – room temperature dough will stretch more easily and it will be less likely to pull back as you roll it out.  Give refrigerated dough at least 30 minutes to come up to temperature before you start to stretch it.
  • If you’ve got a small hand rolling pin like this one, it can come in handy to focus on rolling out small areas that are a little too thick without over-rolling the rest.
  • If you tear a hole, you can generally fix it by pinching it back together or tearing off a piece from the edge and pressing it back in.  Patched holes are going to make launching a pizza from a peel more challenging, so don’t force the pizza to be too thin or too round.

Add The Toppings

Although garlic is a strong flavor, your pizza is going to benefit from focusing on the super-star.

  • Melt your butter in the microwave (perhaps as little as 20 seconds will do).
  • Add your garlic to the butter.
    • If you are using fresh garlic, you can choose to sprinkle the minced garlic on the pizza after you’ve spread the butter.
    • Add the salt and pepper to the butter and garlic.
  • Pour your butter/garlic/salt/pepper into the center of your pizza dough.
  • Use a brush to spread the butter in a spiral from the center towards the outside.
    • Do not butter the edge crust before cooking since butter can burn at temperatures at 450 and up.
  • Distribute your cheese over the pizza.
Garlic and butter on the pizza before cooking
Spread out the butter and garlic but don’t get it on the edges of the crust or else it will likely burn.

Tips for Garlic Pizza Toppings

  • It’s important to cover the garlic with the cheese or else the garlic could burn. Burnt garlic will truly ruin your pizza!
  • You can get a lot more out of this pizza by adding simple seasonings rather than a lot of toppings. Feel free to add a little more salt, some pepper, garlic, oregano, and other Italian seasoning!

Garlic Pizza Cooking Instructions

We’re cooking with a Solo Stove Pi outdoor pizza oven, but naturally this recipe can be cooked in your oven on or off of a pizza stone or pizza steel.  The biggest variation will be cooking time. If you’re using a wood burning outdoor pizza oven, it’ll take a little effort in managing the wood to get the proper temperature (especially if you’re also making and topping the pizza).

Garlic pizza in the oven

Note that if you are planning to use a pizza stone, this thin crust recipe is going to be hard to launch with a hot oven in front of you.  You’re far better off starting the pizza on a steel or a cookie sheet and then transferring to it to the pizza stone.

Cooking Time: Outdoor Pizza Oven

  • Cook at >800°F
  • 2-4 minutes
  • Rotate a quarter turn 4 times.
  • Rest for 5 minutes before cutting and eat immediately.

Cooking Time: Pizza Stone Indoor Oven

  • Cook at 450° on a pizza pan or cookie sheet
  • 7 minutes, then rotate
  • 7 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer the pizza to the pizza stone
  • The top of the pizza should already be browning, in which case turn the oven off.
  • Leave in oven for 5 extra minutes (on a pizza stone if you have one)
  • Remove and rest for 5 minutes before cutting and eat immediately.

Rotate the Pizza!

With the Solo Stove Pi or an Ooni Pizza Oven, get the stone to about 800°F-900°F degrees at the back (measured with an infra-red thermometer) and the front will generally be above 600°F – and that’s a big difference from front to back. That’s why it’s important to rotate the pizza during cooking.  Even in a conventional oven there is still generally variation, so it’s good to rotate your pizza at least once while cooking.

If you are using a gas-heated outdoor pizza oven, just prior to launching, make sure the oven is not at max heat. That likely results in overcooking the top before the crust has cooked through. Turn it down!

Garlic pizza in the oven
Rotate often and don’t let the garlic on top burn!

Once the pizza is launched, you’ll need to rotate. The first rotation is the most critical – the entire pizza needs to have firmed up enough that you can turn it without it losing its shape or tearing a hole – but you also can’t see the hottest side, so you don’t want it to burn. That’s why you don’t want the oven to be at maximum heat.

In a conventional oven, you probably only need to rotate your pizza once.  In an outdoor oven, you generally want to rotate it a quarter turn at a time. Before that first turn, use your turner or peel and nudge the end closest to you to make sure it’s going to keep its shape.

Check the Bottom

Check the bottom of your pizza

Prior to pulling the pizza out, use your turner to lift the pizza and check how firm it is and how well done the bottom is. Make sure it has some stiffness and some browning.

Time to Eat

Remove the pizza and sprinkle your parmesan cheese on top.

Let the pizza stand for at least three minutes before cutting.

Cut, serve, and enjoy this delicious garlic pizza bianca you’ve made yourself!

Slice of Garlic Pizza

Garlic Pizza Variations

Because today’s garlic pizza doesn’t have any sauce, if you find the pizza needs a little something extra, you can add additional seasoning to the pizza once it’s cooked. Feel free to add a little more parmesan cheese, salt, some pepper, oregano, and other Italian seasonings to the top after!

Garlic Oil Pizza

Another twist on a garlic pizza is to drizzle garlic olive oil on the pizza just before serving. You can readily find this at the grocery store or make it yourself by infusing garlic into olive oil using an infusing dispenser.

How to Store It

Let the pizza cool before placing it in a container, but place it in the fridge within two hours. There are specific pizza storage containers, but you can use any container that will fit the pizza, wrap it in tinfoil, or place it in a plastic bag. Place it in the fridge and eat it within 4 days. You can also place it in the freezer for up to 60 days. 

How to Reheat It

If the pizza is from the fridge: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once it reaches temp, place it on a pan or the pizza stone for 15 minutes. Alternatively, you can heat the slices in a skillet on the stovetop – no need to preheat the pan! Place the skillet on the stovetop over medium heat, place the pizza in, and let heat for 6-8 minutes.

Garlic Pizza

Garlic Pizza

Todd Mitchell
Pizza bianco (white pizza) with garlic, butter, and parmesan cheese.
No ratings yet
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine American, Italian
Servings 2 people
Calories 543 kcal

Equipment

  • 1 Outdoor pizza oven Optional
  • 1 Pizza Peel Optional
  • 1 Basting Brush
  • 1 Pizza pan or cookie sheet (if cooking in regular oven)
  • 1 Pizza Cutter

Ingredients
  

  • 1 dough ball This recipe assumes a 8-9 ounce dough ball making a pizza between 10-12 inches in diameter
  • 2 teaspoons flour for work area
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil if using a pizza pan
  • 4 ounces Italian blend cheese Shredded
  • 1.5 teaspoons butter melted
  • 1 teaspoon Parmesan cheese grated
  • ¼ teaspoon Sea Salt
  • teaspoon Pepper fresh ground

Garlic. You can use fresh garlic (recommended), pre-minced garlic, or even garlic powder. Depending on your own personal love for garlic, you can certainly adjust up or down.

  • 2 cloves fresh garlic minced

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven

Prepare Your Dough

  • Stretch/roll out the pizza dough to make a pizza ~12 inches in diameter
    Easy Peasy Dough stretched out
  • If you use a pizza pan, add thin coat of olive oil.

Prepare the butter and garlic

  • Melt your butter in the microwave (approximately 20 seconds)
  • Add the garlic to the butter
  • Add the salt and pepper to the butter

Prepare the pizza

  • Place the dough on the peel or pan. You may need to straighten the edges with your fingers.
  • Pour your butter/garlic/salt/pepper into the center of your pizza dough.
  • Use a brush to spread the butter in a spiral from the center towards the outside.
    Garlic and butter on the pizza before cooking
  • Do not butter the edge crust before cooking since butter or garlic can burn.
  • Sprinkle the Italian shredded cheese (or your cheese of choice) evenly over the top.

Cooking Time: Pizza in an Indoor Oven

  • Cook at 450°F on a pizza pan or cookie sheet
  • 7 minutes, then rotate
  • 7 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer the pizza to the pizza stone
  • The top of the pizza should already be browning, in which case turn the oven off.
  • Leave in oven for 5 extra minutes (on a pizza stone if you have one)
  • Remove and rest for 5 minutes before cutting and eat immediately.

Cooking Time: Outdoor Pizza Oven

  • Cook at >650°F (unless the crust is very thin, in which case ~900ºF)
  • 6-8 minutes
  • Rotate a quarter turn 4 times.
  • Remove and rest for 5 minutes before cutting and eat immediately.
    Garlic pizza in the oven

Nutrition

Calories: 543kcalCarbohydrates: 69gProtein: 25gFat: 20gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 12mgSodium: 1502mgPotassium: 17mgFiber: 2gSugar: 10gVitamin A: 4IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 133mgIron: 4mg
Keyword Parma Ham Pizza, pizza, Prosciutto di parma pizza
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Garlic Pizza

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