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Short-Order Kitchen

School Cafeteria Sheet Pan Pizza

By Wes Ellis2 min read
A rectangular pepperoni pizza cut into squares, with one slice being lifted on a spatula against a red background.
Recipe card
Servings
About 100 squares (5 sheet pans)
Prep
45 minutes
Cook
30 to 35 minutes
Method
Sheet pan
Heat
475°F (425°F convection)
Difficulty
Medium
Jump to ingredients & directions ↓

Part 10 of the thread Drive-thru copycats, lightened up

THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • This is a crowd recipe: five sheet pans, about 100 squares.
  • The crust is a pourable batter, not a dough you stretch.
  • Prebake the crust, then sauce, cheese and back in at 475°F.
  • Cornmeal on the oiled pans gives it that bottom.
THE RECIPE · SCHOOL CAFETERIA SHEET PAN PIZZA

Ingredients

Pourable crust

Sauce and cheese

You'll need

  • Large stand mixer (commercial size helps)
  • 5 full sheet pans, 18 x 26 x 1 inch
  • Large pot
  • Large-volume measures (quarts and gallons)
  • Ladle and spreading spatula
  • Pizza cutter or big knife

Directions

Crust

  1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let it stand 4 to 5 minutes.
  2. In the mixer bowl, blend the flour, dry milk, sugar and salt on low for about 4 minutes.
  3. Add the yeast mixture and oil and mix on medium about 10 minutes, until you have a thick, lumpy, pourable batter.
  4. Oil the five sheet pans and dust each one with cornmeal.
  5. Pour 3 lb 6 oz of batter into each pan and let it rest about 20 minutes.
  6. Prebake at 475°F for 10 minutes (or 425°F for 7 minutes in a convection oven).

Sauce

  1. While the crust rests, stir the tomato paste and water together in a large pot.
  2. Add the onion, garlic powder, pepper, basil, oregano, marjoram and thyme.
  3. Simmer until the flavors come together, adding a little more water if it's too thick to spread.

Finish

  1. Spread the sauce over the prebaked crusts and cover every pan with mozzarella.
  2. Bake at 475°F for 10 to 15 minutes (or 425°F for 5 minutes convection), until the cheese melts and the crust is done.
  3. Cut each pan into 20 squares.
Notes Cool the pans completely, then refrigerate the squares covered for up to 4 days, or freeze single squares or whole trays. Reheat in the oven for the best texture. For a normal household, scale everything down before you start; one-fifth of the recipe is one pan.

wesellis.com/blog/school-cafeteria-pizza/

The rectangle pizza, cut into squares, with the slightly sweet, bready crust and the cheese that stretched halfway across the lunch tray. If you grew up with it, you know exactly the one. It was never great pizza, and it didn't need to be.

It starts as a batter

The defining thing here is the crust. You don't knead it or stretch it. You beat it in a mixer for ten minutes until it's a thick, lumpy batter and pour it straight into the pans. Dry milk and a good amount of sugar are what give it that soft, faintly sweet cafeteria flavor.

The cornmeal on the oiled pan matters too. It gives the bottom its slightly gritty, crisp texture, and it keeps a batter crust from welding itself to the metal.

Heads up

These amounts are institutional. A gallon of water, thirteen pounds of cheese. Read the whole list before you shop, and scale it down unless you're feeding a building.

Scaling it down

Dividing by five gets you a single sheet pan. The quarts-and-gallons measures get awkward in a home kitchen, and Kitchen Measurement Conversions will save you from doing that math on a napkin.

For a weeknight pizza that doesn't involve a commercial mixer, the Air Fryer Pizza or the BBQ Chicken Flatbread Pizza are a lot more reasonable.

Tip

Prebaking the crust before it gets sauce is what stops the middle of each pan from going gummy. Don't skip it.

LINKED FROM2 notes

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