Jessica has been wanting to make pizza all week. We stopped by Home Depot to buy some quarry tile to use as a pizza stone, but go figure, the Manhattan HDs don’t stock tile. So she decided on deep dish, as we don’t need a stone and because neither of us had really experimented much (at least in recent years) with deep dish.
We weren’t much impressed with the two deep dish joints we tried in Chicago (Gino’s East and Lou Malnati’s), but home made might be better. Jess found a recipe for what is purported to be the most authentic, at least for home production. Unlike NY pizza dough recipes, which are super easy (I make them all the time), the Chicago dough needs a lot of work. It also needs about twice the time a NY dough needs. Unfortunately, the recipe was lacking a lot of detail, so I’m updating the recipe here, with much more detail.
This recipe makes two 10-inch deep dish pies. We made one with just sauce & cheese, the other with hot Italian sausage and black olive. Both were good. Unfortunately, we misread our can of crushed tomatoes and used 35 ounces instead of 28 and resulted in soupy sauce, but it was yummy nonetheless.
Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza Dough
adapted from the recipe on J.J. Schnebel’s site
~makes two 10-inch pies
Along the right you can see images of the dough rising throughout. This dough really bulks up during the rising process!
Ingredients
- 1/2 oz Active Dry Yeast (4.5 teaspoons or 2 packages)
- 2 cups Luke Warm Water (90 degrees F)
- 1/2 cup Cornmeal
- 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
- 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil + extra for greasing pans
- 5 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour, divided
Instructions
- In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer (we use a Kitchen Aid), bloom the yeast in the water, about 8 minutes.
- Add the oils, cornmeal, and 3 cups of the flour. Use mixing paddle on low to combine, then on a slightly higher speed for 10 minutes.
- Change to the dough hook and mix in the rest of the flour, about a third at a time. Knead on medium for 10 to 15 minutes until dough is smooth and totally pulled away from sides.
- Turn out dough onto countertop or nylon cutting board and cover with a very large, metal bowl. Allow dough to rise until double in bulk (about 45 minutes). Punch down and allow to rise again (another 45 minutes). Punch down again and divide in two equal parts.
- Liberally grease (with extra virgin olive oil) two 10-inch, round, deep dish pans or cake pans. Place dough in the pans. Put a little olive oil on your fingers and work the dough up the sides. The dough should be 1/8 inch throughout. Try to keep the corners small, as they will naturally thicken later anyway.
Building a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
adapted from the recipe on J.J. Schnebel’s site
~makes two 10-inch pies
In its simplest form, the only ingredients you need are sauce and cheese. Those are the foundation for anything else you may add. Like the dough recipe, the ingredients below are enough for two pies.
Ingredients
- 1 (28oz) can Crushed Plum Tomatoes (we used whole, peeled tomatoes and hand crushed them)
- 1 pound Fresh Mozzarella, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp. Basil
- 1 tsp. Oregano
- 4-5 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup Finely Grated Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
1. Place a layer of the mozzarella slices on the dough. Then spread the garlic on top of the cheese.
2. If adding any other ingredients, lay them thinly on top of the cheese & garlic.
3. In a separate bowl, crush plum tomatoes, and combine herbs. Spread evenly over the ingredients in the pies.
5. Finally, liberally add Parmesan cheese.
6. Bake uncovered in a pre-heated, 475 degree F oven for 35-40 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the crust is golden-brown and tapping it sounds hollow.
7. Let cool for about two minutes, before slicing and serving. Serve directly from dish, do not remove.
It reheats well and tastes good later!!
More pictures in the Flickr Set.
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honestly, pillsbury croissant dough works great for this dish. Buttery and flaky. Much less time. So easy.
Very nice! It looks so yummy.
I’m still so sad that you guys ended up at those awful Chicago tourist traps. Sigh. There is much much much better pizza loot in my great city!
Nice hefty slice there! Wish I could just sink into a Chicago-style pie…
post how you make easy NY pizza please 🙂
That deep dish pizza looks seriously stacked!
Bill G, we usually prefer making as much as possible ourselves. Besides tasting better, we have control over the ingredients, like using organic flours, etc.
EMC, don’t worry, we liked Chicago overall.
Eatingfoodboy, we will after we get a baking stone or quarry tiles.
I love pizza!!! And I think I can eat pizza everyday the rest of my day, but too bad, I’m too lazy to make my own pizza… It’s so wonderful that you can make your won pizza 🙂
i totally prefer a deep-dish pizza, especially when the crust is as thick and awesome as yours! THAT’S a meal, folks. 🙂
Your deep dish pie looks fabulous and I always have to have black olives on mine.
Sam
I lived in Chicago for a year. Everyone swore by Gino’s East, but I hated it! Your pizza looks much better! Thank you! Now, I’m hungry!
Although I prefer the thin base, this is beautifully presented & would say yes please if you were to offer me a slice ;0)
Cheesy goodness! I like my pizza either with a thin crust or a deep dish. This is right up my ally!
Lesley, I prefer thin crust as well, but can’t say no to anything with melted cheese on it.
Bill G thanks for the pillsbury idea, sounds like a good weeknight meal!
Bill G hits it right on the head. A little butter spread on the dough before it is pressed into the pan is right on. Ala a buttery roll! Also, try 6 in 1 tomatoes puree, you can buy it online from California. Another thing, cornmeal is NOT an ingredient, they use yellow food coloring (a couple or three drops) for the cornmeal like color. Cornmeal is too gritty. Also, try using a heavy steel plate in your oven, not tiles! Most ovens have steel lining where their pies lie to be cooked. A heavy 1/4 inch or heavier! The oven needs to be pre-heated for an hour to get this steel up to heat. The steel plate should be big enough for a regular thin crust, 20 inches wide if your oven is big enough. Chicago pizza isn’t really deep dish, normally we eat really thin pizza, but not like NY, our pizza is cracker like and thin. In fact, I never had deep dish pizza until I was 20 years old, and I was born in Chicago!
This looks AMAZING! If I were to add some sort of meat to it (My family are such carnivores) what would go well?
Anonymous, try some crumbled Italian sausage
I made these tonight. They were SO DELICIOUS! I ended up with enough dough to make 3 9-inch pizzas. I also added ground beef, pepperoni, chopped tomatoes, sliced onion, and black olives. I also didn’t use a dough hook, I just kneaded by hand. Great recipe! Definitely making it again 🙂
Try this: Omit the cornmeal it makes it gritty. Add a couple drops of Yellow food coloring to the we ingredients (that’s the trick). Before you press the dough into the cake(pizza) pan roll it out with a rolling pin and add butter, like you would phyllo, fold into a reasonable ball, chill then press into the pan. I’m not giving out anymore clues!