Deep Dish Pizza

My husband LOVES Chicago Deep Dish Pizza!  So I decided, I bet I could make that. I researched. Bought a deep dish pan. I made an attempt. It was delicious. I have since made it several times. I found a few recipes and tweaked them a bit to make them my own.


Pizza Dough for 10" pie


3 Cups Flour
2 1/4 tsp. yeast proofed*
1 1/2 tsp.Kosher Salt
1 1/2 tsp. Sugar
3 TB Canola oil
1 TB Olive Oil
3/4 Cup warm water
*Proof yeast by mixing yeast with 1/4 cup warm water. Then mix 1 tsp. of sugar in. Let stand for ten minutes.
Mix flour, salt and sugar together then add the yeast mixture. Add a little bit of water at a time while using your hands start to form the dough into a rough ball. Add the oil slowly until it all comes together. The dough ball will be scrappy. If it's too dry add more water.


Knead for only two to three minutes. Chicago deep dish pizza has a biscuit type crust and the less you knead, the more biscuit like it will be.


Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then a towel over top and let the dough rise for 8 hours. Depending on when you are making the pizza you can let it rise over night and then bake it the next day. If you do that don't refrigerate the dough. Every time I've tried that the dough has been next to impossible to work with when it comes time to roll it out.

Let the dough rise—because of the short kneading time, it will not rise very much. I let it rise for several hours—as many as 8. The longer the better! Then you can put it in the fridge overnight if you'd like, and use it the next day.


Split the dough into two balls. The first will be the bottom crust. Roll it to be around 12" and place it in your pan. I usually lightly grease my pan with olive oil. Press the dough into the pan, smashing it against the edge. If you have tons of extra dough you can cut it off. I wait until after I have filled the pie to determine whether or not to trim it. Fill the pie with mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, olives etc. Be creative! Then roll out the second dough ball. Placing it on top of the pie, rope the two layers together, sealing the pie. Then top the pizza with sauce.


Sauce:


1 28 0z. can crushed tomatoes
1 14 oz can tomato sauce
Basil, Oregano, Salt and Pepper to taste.


Preheat the oven to 500 degrees for 20 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 450 degrees and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Pizza before the top layer of crust and sauce - this is a 14" pie - 2 pounds of cheese and 1 pound of pepperoni.