Slow Cooker Pizza for One

Recently, I asked the question:
Will it slow cook?

I wanted to see if I could make a pizza in my slow cooker, because the idea of the slow cooker being a very versatile piece of hardware in the kitchen has been in my head for a while.

After seeing that people can successfully bake bread in a slow cooker, I decided to bring my idea to fruition by calibrating off the bread recipes and building from there.

In the interest of having a consistent baseline to work from as I figured out how to do this, I purchased the store's in-house brand pizza dough from my local Safeway. You can most certainly make your own dough, but be aware that you will want to calibrate your cooking times according to the type of dough, thickness of dough, and your slow cooker's cooking speed.

My slow cooker is a slightly older model 6 quart round shaped Rival Crock-Pot Smart Pot with four timer and two temperature settings. For this recipe, I used the shortest time setting, which is 4 hours, on high.

Ingredients used:

• 11 ounces pizza dough

  • The dough I used is sold in 16 ounce balls, ready to bake. For this particular pizza which is close to deep dish, I opted to use about 2/3rd of the ball. For a thinner crust, consider cutting the ball evenly in half, or reducing the dough usage even further! Gluten free dough should work as well: just keep a close eye on the dough as it cooks to ensure that you don't burn it.

• 1 tbsp flour or a suitable gluten-free alternative (corn meal, perhaps?)

  • This is only used to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or a rolling board. Use sparingly.

• 1 tbsp butter or a liquid cooking oil of your choice

  • This is only used to keep the dough from sticking to the slow cooker. You may use any oil you'd like for this. Butters made with aquafaba should work as well, which can, with the right selection of ingredients, make this pizza vegan friendly, too!

• Toppings, to taste.

  • Surprise. This is where we go off the rails. It's your pie. Decorate it the way you want to.
    Like tons of cheese? Don't let Steve Urkel hear you grate the block.
    Want tons of meat? Rub some bacon on it.
    Maybe you prefer vegetables? That's cool. Your pie's got room for 'em. ;)

How do am pizza I crock pot?
(Or: How to prepare a pizza in a slow cooker)

Turn your slow cooker on and set it to its highest setting.
In the stoneware, take your butter or oil, and rub the bottom, along with the lower third of the sidewalls.
Allow the stoneware to warm up for a few minutes while you roll or stretch out the dough to about the width of the bottom of your stoneware.
This pizza was done by hand, showing that VERY little hardware is needed to enjoy this. :)
Once you have the dough to the right shape to match your stoneware (a little gap is totally fine), put the dough into the stoneware and cover it.

Set a timer -- you'll want to revisit your dough in about 40 minutes.

---

Oh, you're back! Check your dough. At this point, it is acceptable to try to lift the dough out of the stoneware to inspect the bottom.
If the bottom is still white, return it to the stoneware for an additional 10-20 minutes.
This is where the initial calibration dough came through, to help establish a base. In my machine, 45 minutes was the ideal time to make the bottom turn golden.
The top will be light while the bottom is golden.
This is perfectly okay.

It's now time to top your pie.
In my case, I opted for a tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, and an earlier prepared mushroom-onion mixture that was equally delicious (mushrooms, onions, cilantro, butter, peanut oil, and sesame seeds, sauteed), along with some pre-chopped garlic.

Apply toppings and sauce and close the lid.

Set a reminder to check on the pie in about half an hour.

When you go back, your toppings should be ready, which means this pizza is DONE!

Carefully lift it out of your stoneware, place it on a plate, and enjoy.

Also! If you'd like to have a more golden appearance to the toppings on the pizza, place it under your oven's broiler for a few minutes.

The un-toasted result. Toasting made the cheese a more familiar slightly golden hue.

(edit: Forgot to change one word. No longer 'today', but 'recently'.)