| Pizza - Chicago-Style Stuffed Deep Dish | ||||
| Makes (1) 12" deep dish pizza | ||||
| Dough | Toppings | |||
| 1 1/4 cups | water | 2 tbls | butter, sliced, softened | |
| 4 tbls | (1/2 stick) butter, thinly sliced | 1/2 cup | grated Parmesan cheese, the real stuff, please | |
| 1 tbls | sugar | ________ | ||
| 1 pkg | active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp) | 1 lb | ground Italian sausage (hot or mild) | |
| ________ | 1 1/2 lbs | shredded mozzarella cheese, the real stuff, please, grate it yourself if you have to | ||
| 3 1/4 cups | all-purpose flour | 6 oz | sandwich style pepperoni, thinly sliced | |
| 1/2 cup | yellow cornmeal | 3/4 cup | green bell pepper, diced (1/2 of one pepper) | |
| 1 tsp | salt | 3/4 cup | onion, diced (about (2) 1/4" slices) | |
| ________ | ||||
| Sauce | 1/4 cup | grated Parmesan cheese | ||
| 2 tbls | butter, sliced | some | olive oil | |
| 1 | small onion, finely diced (or processed) |
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| 1 tsp | salt | |||
| 1 tsp | dried basil | |||
| 1 tsp | dried oregano | |||
| 1 tsp | crushed red pepper flakes | |||
| ________ | ||||
| 1 tbls | minced garlic | |||
| 28 oz | (1 can) crushed tomatoes | |||
| 1 tsp | sugar | |||
| Dough | ||||
 In
a measuring cup, combine the water, butter, and sugar. Heat in the
microwave for 1 minute. Add the yeast to bloom. Allow it to get foamy;
it will take about 10 minutes.
In a mixer equipped with a dough hook, combine the flour, cornmeal, and salt. Use a spoon or whisk to stir up the dry ingredients (the dough hook won’t do a good job here). Add the yeast mixture and mix with the dough hook on low (#2 on my KitchenAid). Periodically stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. In a couple minutes a very sticky dough will form that pulls away from the sides of the bowl (maybe not the bottom). Take the bowl off your mixer and use your spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and form a ball in the bottom of the mixing bowl. Leaving it in the bowl, add a little olive oil and spread it around all sides of the dough ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, place it in a warm place, and let it rise for about 1 hour until doubled in bulk. Lightly flour your work surface. Remove
the dough from the bowl and punch it down. Use your scale to divide the
dough into 3/5 and 2/5 size balls; you want one ball to be a little
bigger than the other. Fold and push each ball around slightly, not too
much, and form them into balls. Place the balls on a cookie sheet or
large plate, spray them with Pam, press on some plastic wrap, and put
them in the frig for about an hour. They will rise again a little in the
frig. Meanwhile, make the sauce per the directions below. |
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| Sauce | ||||
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Open your can of tomatoes. If they aren’t
crushed already, dump the whole can in a large bowl and use your hand to
squeeze them, Yeah, it’s weird, but your hand is the best tool for this
job. Set the tomatoes aside. Place the butter in a 12" saute pan over medium-low heat and allow it to melt. Add the onion, salt, basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes. When the onions start to brown after about 10 minutes, add the garlic, tomatoes, and sugar. Partially cover the pan and let it simmer for about 15 minutes stirring occasionally. You want the sauce to thicken and the flavors to meld, but you don’t want a paste either. Remove the sauce from the heat and let it cool on the stove top until you’re ready for it. |
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| Assembly & Toppings | ||||
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Preheat the oven to 475̊. Prep a 12" deep dish pizza pan (a cast iron skillet will work too). Use your hand and smear the butter all over the bottom and up the sides of the pan making sure to get into that inside corner. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of Parmesan across the bottom of the pan and twirl the pan. The cheese will stick to the butter. Raise and rotate the pan like a steering wheel to cover the sides. If there’s any extra cheese, dump it in a bowl to use later. Set the pan aside. Remove the large dough ball from the frig and place it on an un-floured work surface. Using your fingertips, start pushing the dough ball out into a large pancake. Lightly sprinkle some flour over the top. Using a rolling pin, roll it out in all directions to form a thin crust 17" in diameter (measure it). This will give it some extra to roll up the sides of the pan. Roll your dough onto your rolling pin to transfer it over to the pizza pan. Center it on top of the pan and start pushing the dough down into the pan making sure to press out any air bubbles. Form the dough up the sides of the pan and really press it onto the sides with your fingers. Press the dough over the top rim and down the outside of the pan (you’ll trim this excess off later). Work your way around the pan to make sure everything is tightly stuck to the bottom and sides. Pinch off quarter-size dollops of raw Italian sausage and scatter them all around the bottom of the pan; use it all. Now add all of the mozzarella. Yeah, it looks like a lot of cheese, but it will melt down. Remove the small dough ball from the frig and place it on an un-floured work surface. Like before, press it down, flour the top, and roll this one out to 15" diameter. Back at the pan, using a pastry brush, apply a thin layer of water around the inside upper edge of the pan, just on the vertical dough, not on the cheese. This will help the next layer of dough stick to the first. Set the newly rolled crust over the cheese and center it on the pan. Use your fingers to press the dough lightly on top of the cheese and up the sides of the pan. Grab the sides of the pan with your fingers and press the two dough layers together tightly and over the top edge. Work your way around the whole pan. Take a knife and trim off the portion of the dough that is leaking over the top edge of the pan. Use a low angle and cut from the inside out. Save the dough for another small pizza or sprinkle it with cinnamon-sugar and bake it for dessert. Work your way around the pan one more time to form the dough pretty and ensure the two dough layers are well adhered. Pinch about seven dime-size holes in the top crust to let any steam escape and not balloon the crust when it bakes. Deal out the pepperoni slices on top of the dough. Overlap each piece so you get a thin layer completely covering the dough. Now scatter the green bells and onions over the pepperoni. Spoon on about half of the sauce and spread it around the top. Add more until you completely cover all of the top crust, but don’t go up the sides. Add a little more sauce to your liking; you just don’t want it too soupy. A heavy quarter-inch thickness is about right. Save any unused sauce for something else. Sprinkle on another 1/4 cup of Parmesan over the top of the sauce using any leftover cheese from before. Using a pastry brush, apply a thin layer of olive oil around the upper, exposed edge of the dough. Bake at 475̊ for 25 minutes. The top crust edge should be golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven and let it sit on the stove top for about 10 minutes to set and firm up. To remove it from the pan, run a knife or wooden spoon handle (so you don’t scratch up your non-stick) around the edge of the pan to separate the toasty cheese from the sides. Now you’ll want to work your spatula down the side of the pan and underneath to start loosening and separating the crust from the pan. When you’re confident it’s loosened up, tilt the pan and scoop out the pie onto a large cutting board. Don’t worry if the edge of the crust cracks. Now let it rest there for 10 more minutes. I know you’re hungry, but you want the cheese to set up or you’ll have fondue all over your counter. Using a large knife or pizza cutter, cut the pie into eight wedges. If you cracked the crust taking it out of the pan, start cutting there; no one will know. |
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