Stuffed Crust Pepperoni-style pizza

Ingredients

Dough (for 2 pizzas)

• 500 g strong bread flour
• 7 g dried yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 320 ml warm water
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Tomato sauce

• 1 × 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• Salt and pepper

Stuffed crust

• 12 sticks of mozzarella string cheese (one per pizza edge)

Topping

• 250 g mozzarella, shredded
• 100 g pepperoni slices
• 1 tbsp melted butter + 1 garlic clove (for brushing)
• Pinch of dried oregano

Method

1. Dough. Same as Pepperoni Passion — overnight cold ferment.
2. Sauce. Blend all sauce ingredients.
3. Shape. Stretch dough into a 30 cm round, leaving a 3 cm border.
4. Stuff the crust. Lay mozzarella string cheese sticks around the edge of the dough, just inside the border. Fold the dough border over the cheese, pinching to seal. The cheese is now trapped inside the crust.
5. Top. Sauce inside the crust border, mozzarella, pepperoni.
6. Bake. 250°C oven, 12–14 minutes (slightly longer than usual — the stuffed crust needs time).
7. Finish. Brush the crust edge with garlic butter. Sprinkle oregano. Slice — and watch the cheese pull.

Tips

• String cheese is the secret. Don’t try to substitute with shredded mozzarella wrapped in dough — it won’t seal properly.
• Leave a small gap between each string cheese stick when laying them out, or the dough will burst when sealing.
• Brush the crust with garlic butter for the last 2 minutes of baking. Crispy cheesy garlic edge.