chicago deep dish pizza

Tonight I made a reference to making this pizza on facebook and had a few friends inquiring about the recipe. I actually posted this earlier on a separate blog that a few of you had access to, but I've since discontinued writing on that blog and figured I may as well share it with you all on here. I'm trying to get a good picture of it, but now that its getting dark earlier, I can't rely on the natural light as easily...but I'm trying.

Oh, and don't let the idea of using yeast deter you from trying out this recipe. It may be a time involved recipe, but it seriously doesn't take much skill to make. Hope you like!

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When Sweet P and I headed out to Texas during my love's winter deployment, one of my cousins made this amazing Deep Dish Pizza. I've never really been one to love pizza and I have certainly never enjoyed homemade pizza. In fact, I have always cringed at the idea because I never liked the crust or the sauce. Well, I was much surprised at how good this turned out to be that I just HAD to get the recipe.

I was a little nervous once I received it because I was afraid it wouldn't live up to my expectations and the recipe had instructions for a convection or a gas oven...not a standard conventional oven. But, with a little bit of research and some math, I managed to figure it out.

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Source: my cousin

Crust:
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 package dry yeast (which is 1 1/8tsp...there are 2 1/4 tsp. in each package)

1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 T water
OR
1/2 cup plus 1/2 tb. water and 1/2 oz. crushed garlic
*I use hot water straight from the tap

3 T Olive oil

Toppings:
1/2 pound of shredded cheese (the original recipe used equal parts of aged Provolone or Asiago, whole milk Mozzarella, and Jack, we've only used fresh mozzarella)
1/2 pound cooked crumbled sausage
2 chopped cloves of garlic
One 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes, drained well in a strainer (seriously, drain these suckers well)
1 1/2 tsps. dried Oregano,
2 T Parmesan cheese

We've added pepperoni, green bell peppers, and purple onions to this pizza and enjoyed it very much.

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1) Mix all the dry ingredients together in mixer.

2) While mixing, add the 1/2 C plus 1 1/2T of water. If needed, continue to add water 1 tsp at a time until the dough comes together in a ball.

3) Roll dough into a ball and rub the outside of the dough with olive oil, then place in a bowl and cover with a towel. Place bowl in oven with a dish of hot water that has just boiled placed on the rack below.

4) Let the dough rise for 30-60 minutes.

5) Punch the dough down. Place back in the oven for an additional 15 minutes.

6) Place the dough into a greased 10 1/2" castiron pan. (Mine is 10 1/4" and works just fine.) Then knead the dough until it covers the pan and work the edges up the pan about an inch or so.

7) Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.

8) Preheat oven to 425degrees.

9) Place toppings on pizza beginning with the cheese, then meats and veggies. Top with the drained tomatoes. Make sure the toppings are level with the edges of the crust. Sprinkle oregano on the pizza.

10) Place pizza in oven. Bake for 30 minutes at 425degrees and brush olive oil on the crust every 10 minutes.

**If desired, instead of placing dough in oven to rise, you can (supposedly) place it in the fridge overnight to rise.

**You can place the ready-to-bake pizza in the fridge for several hours prior to baking. If so, pull pizza out of fridge 30 minutes prior to baking to warm to room temperature.

**Next time we make this, I plan on brushing all of the crust with olive oil before placing any toppings on it.