How to Make Easy, Delicious Cheese-Stuffed Crust Pizza

There is no such thing as too much cheese! If you find yourself craving cheese-stuffed crust pizza, I’ve got you covered. It’s easy, cheesy, and delicious. This recipe will show you how to make the perfect cheese-stuffed crust pizza at home that’s both cheaper and healthier than takeaway!

What you’ll need to make cheese-stuffed crust pizza

To make cheese-stuffed crust pizza at home, you don’t need any fancy equipment or ingredients. In addition to basic pantry items and your favorite toppings, all you need is:

• String Cheese
• A pizza stone/pizza steel or a pizza pan

Cheese for stuffed pizza crust

The most important ingredient is cheese! String cheese is the perfect cheese for a cheese crust because it keeps its shape well in the oven. It also has the perfect shape and size! String cheese can be found in most grocery stores or on Amazon.

Alternatively, you can cut mozzarella, or your favorite cheese, into sticks. But the cylinder shape of string cheese makes it easier to work with. So if you’re able to get your hands on string cheese, I strongly recommend that!

Baking tools for the perfect cheese crust

Cheese stuffed crust pizza should be baked at 450°F (230°C) for 8-12 minutes. But to get a crispy pizza crust, you want a hotter surface to bake the pizza on.

The best way to bake cheese-stuffed pizza is on a pizza stone or pizza steel. This will give you a perfectly crispy pizza crust every time! Unlike baking on a regular baking sheet, baking directly on a ceramic pizza stone or pizza steel will give you a much hotter baking surface. And that is the secret to crispy, professional-tasting pizza at home!

Personally, I love pizza steels, because they conduct heat extremely well. This makes as crispy pizza as in a professional pizza oven! Pizza steels are also easier to clean and maintain and don’t crack, like pizza stones.

You can read more about pizza steels here.

Another alternative is using a pizza pan. A pizza pan is a little easier to use and handle, but it will not give you quite the same result as a pizza steel.

Dough for cheese stuffed crust pizza

This recipe makes one 14-inch (35cm) cheese-stuffed crust pizza. If you want to make a larger or smaller pizza or multiple pizzas, simply adjust the ingredients accordingly.

Ingredients

• 250g bread or pizza flour
• 160ml lukewarm water (64%)
• 5g instant dry yeast
• 6g salt
• 10g sugar
• 20g olive oil

How to make dough for cheese-stuffed crust pizza

1. Pour lukewarm water into a mixing bowl and add sugar and yeast. Let sugar and yeast dissolve in the water, then add flour gradually while mixing.

2. Mix in the flour until all the flour is incorporated, and you have a shaggy dough

3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, or transfer it to an air-tight container, and leave the dough for 30 minutes. This will hydrate the gluten in the flour, and make the gluten develop (more on gluten and how important it is in pizza dough here).

4. After 30 minutes, move the dough to your working surface, and add the salt and olive oil. Then knead the dough until the salt and oil are fully incorporated. This might be a bit messy, and it might look like you’re messing up the dough. But don’t worry. It will turn out perfect! The reason you want to add salt and oil at the very end is that they’ll hinder gluten development.

You can do this by hand, or in a stand mixer at low speed. When the oil is incorporated, and you’re left with a smooth, cohesive dough, make a nice, round dough ball.

5. Move the dough to a lightly oiled air-tight container or back in the bowl with plastic wrap, and leave to rise for 2-3 hours, or until the dough has nearly doubled in size.

Sauce for cheese stuffed crust pizza

You can of course use any pizza sauce you like, homemade or store-bought, but here’s my favorite sauce for cheese-stuffed crust pizza.

Ingredients

• One 400g (14oz) can of crushed tomatoes
• 5g (around 1 teaspoon) of sea salt
• 5g (around 1 teaspoon) of sugar
• 15g (1 tablespoon) of extra virgin olive oil
• A drizzle of dried oregano

How to make the sauce for cheese-stuffed crust pizza

1. Pour the tomatoes, and all the other ingredients into a pot over medium heat, and stir until combined.
2. Let the sauce simmer for 15-20 minutes.

I recommend letting the sauce cool off a bit before you add it to the pizza. This sauce also keeps at least a week in the fridge, so you have the sauce ready for your next pizza night!

Store-bought pizza sauce (for the lazy chef)

Another great option is Mutti Pizza Sauce (affiliate link), which a chef recommended me to try. It’s not as good as homemade pizza sauce, but it’s still a pretty good and convenient alternative! And I always have a couple of cans around, in case I feel too lazy to make my own sauce.

You can read my full review of Mutti Pizza Sauce here.

How to make cheese-stuffed crust pizza

1. Start by punching down the dough, and take it out of the rising container, onto a lightly flour-dusted working surface.

2. Next, stretch out the dough. Or roll out the dough using a rolling pin (I know! This is probably the only time I’ll ever tell you to use a rolling pin). You want the edge to be thin. The reason is that you don’t want too much dough around the cheese in your stuffed crust, as it will get very doughy and take much longer to bake the crust.

Make the dough around 4 inches, or 10 cm, in diameter larger than you want your finished pizza to be, so you have that extra dough to wrap the string cheese in.

3. Place the string cheese sticks in a circle around 2 inches (5 cm) from the edge.

If you want a nicer-looking pizza, you can squeeze the string cheese sticks to bend them.

Place the cheese sticks close to each other, around the whole pizza. Make sure you have 2 inches or so outside of the cheese ring to have enough dough to fold over the cheese.

4. Fold the dough tightly over the cheese sticks, and close it. If you leave any openings here, the cheese will escape when it’s melting during baking. If the fold is hard to close, use a little bit of water to help it stick.

5. Finish the pizza by adding tomato sauce, cheese, and your favorite toppings!

Baking cheese stuffed crust pizza

Bake your cheese crust pizza at 450°F (230°C) for 8-12 minutes, or until the crust is crispy and golden brown.

Baking on a pizza steel or pizza stone

If you want to bake the pizza on a pizza steel, you need to preheat the oven for at least 45 minutes to an hour before baking. The reason is that it takes time for the baking surface to absorb the heat and come to the right temperature. You also want to preheat the steel or stone at the hottest setting in your oven, to make sure it’s really hot and nice. Then, right before you’re ready to bake the pizza, turn down the temperature to 450°F (230°C) so you don’t burn the pizza. By doing this you’ll make sure you have a nice and hot baking surface that will make the pizza perfectly crispy, without burning the top of the pizza.

It can be challenging to transfer the pizza from your countertop to the oven, after topping it. You can use a pizza peel, but a cheese crust pizza is often heavier than other pizzas, due to all the delicious cheese. This will make the pizza stick to the peel more easily when you try to slide it into the oven. I, therefore, recommend preparing the pizza on a piece of parchment paper, transferring the pizza using a pizza peel or a baking sheet, and then removing the paper after 2-3 minutes, when the dough starts to set. It should just slide right out under the pizza. And then use the same peel or baking sheet to get the pizza out of the oven when it’s done.

If you want to know more about how to use a pizza steel, I’ve written an in-depth how-to guide on the topic.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the best cheese for cheese stuffed crust pizza?

The best cheese for cheese stuffed crust pizza is string cheese. String cheese keeps its shape well, and has the perfect, stringy consistency for stuffed crust pizza.

What temperature to bake cheese stuffed crust pizza at?

Cheese stuffed crust pizza should be baked at 450°F (230°C).

How long should you bake cheese-stuffed crust pizza?

Cheese stuffed crust pizza should be baked for 8-12 minutes.

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