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canyonwalkerI make Chicago-style deep dish pizza at home a lot. The first many times were frozen deep dish pizza. Yeah, I know. But Safeway started carrying Gino's East frozen pizza a few years ago and it's actually pretty good. Still, frozen pizza is never the best. Next I started buying pre-made crusts and adding my own toppings. Those were even better. And that also got me thinking, "What if I make my own deep-dish crust?"
This past weekend I made a deep dish pizza taking another step towards full from-scratch ingredients. I bought a ball of premade pizza dough at the grocery store. Instead of rolling it out into a traditional New York-style pizza like I've done countless times, or making a calzone like I've done a few times recently, I pressed it into a pan and topped it Chicago-style. I.e., cheese on the crust, then 1 meat and 1 veg, then fresh home-made sauce on top.
How'd it turn out? Here's the first 1,000 words:
I kneaded and rolled out the dough into a round... -ish... shape larger than the pan. Then I laid it in the pan, pressing the extra dough up against the sides with my fingers. I brushed oil on the dough, laid on the toppings, and baked it.
One thing about the form factor is that I used a spring-form pan. That wasn't my first choice but it was all we had. It turns out we don't own a traditional round cake pan right now, so I used what we had. It worked perfectly. Releasing the sides from the pan meant I didn't have to try digging the pie out from inside it. I just took the sides off and basically slid it from the pan bottom onto the wooden board to cool, cut, and serve.
So how did it taste? I'll add another thousand words:
Overall this was a success. The pizza had good taste and texture. The cheese was plentiful (I used 8 oz. of freshly shredded mozzarella), the toppings were plentiful, the fresh sauce I made was good.
A few things were not quite right.
— One, the dough isn't Chicago style pizza dough. It's not made with corn starch. So the flavor and texture were slightly off from a Chicago pie.
— Two, the crust was a little overcooked. Oh, it was still good; it just wasn't perfect. I baked the pie for 25 minutes. Next time I'll try 22 or maybe even 20. The challenge with cooking time is I don't know how to test for doneness other than trial and error.
— Three, as you can see in the photo above if you're a connoisseur of Chicago pizza, there's not enough tomato on it. That's on me for choosing to go light as I spread sauce atop the uncooked pie. I was trying to avoid over-sauced pizza, which I hate. As I iterate on doing this I'll fine-tune my technique to get the amount of sauce neither under nor over but just right.
This past weekend I made a deep dish pizza taking another step towards full from-scratch ingredients. I bought a ball of premade pizza dough at the grocery store. Instead of rolling it out into a traditional New York-style pizza like I've done countless times, or making a calzone like I've done a few times recently, I pressed it into a pan and topped it Chicago-style. I.e., cheese on the crust, then 1 meat and 1 veg, then fresh home-made sauce on top.
How'd it turn out? Here's the first 1,000 words:
I kneaded and rolled out the dough into a round... -ish... shape larger than the pan. Then I laid it in the pan, pressing the extra dough up against the sides with my fingers. I brushed oil on the dough, laid on the toppings, and baked it.
One thing about the form factor is that I used a spring-form pan. That wasn't my first choice but it was all we had. It turns out we don't own a traditional round cake pan right now, so I used what we had. It worked perfectly. Releasing the sides from the pan meant I didn't have to try digging the pie out from inside it. I just took the sides off and basically slid it from the pan bottom onto the wooden board to cool, cut, and serve.
So how did it taste? I'll add another thousand words:
Overall this was a success. The pizza had good taste and texture. The cheese was plentiful (I used 8 oz. of freshly shredded mozzarella), the toppings were plentiful, the fresh sauce I made was good.
A few things were not quite right.
— One, the dough isn't Chicago style pizza dough. It's not made with corn starch. So the flavor and texture were slightly off from a Chicago pie.
— Two, the crust was a little overcooked. Oh, it was still good; it just wasn't perfect. I baked the pie for 25 minutes. Next time I'll try 22 or maybe even 20. The challenge with cooking time is I don't know how to test for doneness other than trial and error.
— Three, as you can see in the photo above if you're a connoisseur of Chicago pizza, there's not enough tomato on it. That's on me for choosing to go light as I spread sauce atop the uncooked pie. I was trying to avoid over-sauced pizza, which I hate. As I iterate on doing this I'll fine-tune my technique to get the amount of sauce neither under nor over but just right.
