How to Cook Frying Pan Pizzas in a Campervan | Recipe and Tips

How Frying Pan Pizzas Evolved

We love Pizza and genuinely thought we would have to go without pizzas whilst living full time in a campervan due to our lack of an oven. We made the decision not to have an oven as we wanted the extra space and knew we could use an Omnia Oven for cooking most oven cooked foods.

See more details on the Omnia Oven here.

 Then, one day after we'd had a long day out and just wanted something quick to eat we stumbled upon the pizza isle in a supermarket and pondered- is there a way we could cook this in the van? We took it back to the van, stuck it in the Frying Pan with the lid on and hoped for the best……Ta dah- It worked!  

After making this amazing discovery we decided to get experimental. We tended to be disappointed in most supermarket pizzas, especially the vegan ones, as they always seem to lack in toppings. So we decided to make our own from scratch and they were even better in the frying pan!

Pan Pizzas are now a weekly thing in our campervan and we thought we should share the recipe and method that works well for us in 6 easy steps:

Step 1: Making Pizza Dough from Scratch for pan pizzas

Pan Pizza Dough Ingredients (For 2 x 25cm pizzas)

• 225g Plain Flour
• 2 tbs Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Yeast
• 2 tsp Sugar
• Pinch Salt
• 6-8 tbs Warm Water

 Pan Pizza Dough Method

1. Mix the flour, salt, yeast and sugar in a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre of the mixture.
2. Add the olive oil and warm water and mix to a dough. Start off with a wooden spoon then use your hands for the final stages of mixing. Add a drop more water if there are any dry bits left.
3. Transfer the dough to a flat lightly floured worksurface. Knead the dough for 3 minutes until it’s shiny.
4. Place back into the mixing bowl, cover with a tea towel and put in a warm place for 45 minutes. We tend to put in front of our heating vent which works well.

Short of Time? Use Readymade Pizza Dough!

If you are short of time or don’t want the hassle of making your own dough then you can just buy ready made Pizza Dough in sheets from most supermarkets- we have done this when really busy and haven’t had the time to make our own dough.

Step 2: Prepare and chop all the pan pizza toppings

While the pizza dough is rising you can chop and prepare all the pizza ingredients. This is the best bit because you can choose anything you want! We are vegans so ours are always packed with veggies and plenty of vegan cheese. Our favourite topping is mozzarella, onion, red pepper, olives, mushrooms and feta cheese.

Top Tip: Make sure you slice everything very thinly so it cooks easier.

What Tomato Base to Use on Pan Pizzas?

We make our own but you can simply use tomato puree if you want something quick. For ours we mix tomato puree, BBQ sauce, mixed herbs and salt and pepper in a small dish.

Step 3: Knead and Roll the Pan Pizza Dough

Once the dough has risen, place it back onto a floured worksurface and cut in half. Knead both back into a ball and then use a floured rolling pin to flatten into round thin pizza bases.

Step 4: Cook one side of the Pan Pizza Dough

Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan on a medium flame. Place the pizza base into the frying pan and cook for 5 minutes until the base of the pizza is lightly browned.

Step 5: Load the Cooked Side with Toppings

Take the pizza base out and place on a flat surface uncooked side down. Load the cooked side with all the toppings. We tend put the tomato sauce on first, then anything that needs longer to cook e.g. onion & peppers, and then the cheese last.

Step 6: Cook the Pan Pizza in a Covered Frying Pan for 10-15 minutes

Place the pizza back into the pan, uncooked side down and cook covered for 10-15 minutes on a low flame.

And there we have it- frying pan pizza cooked in a campervan from scratch! 

To make the Pizzas we used a 26cm Sauté Pan with lid. 

If you have any questions following reading this blog or any general van life questions then please do contact us we are always happy to help. Please also feel free to leave a comment below. 

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