Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Refinement of Chicago deep dish pizza recipe

I've been making some modification to the Chicago deep dish pizza recipe I posted about quite a while ago, the main issue I had was that the dough was a bit too slack and wouldn't stay pressed up against the side of the cast iron skillet i use in place of a dedicated deep dish pan like I used to have.  Here is the new dough formula:


AP Flour    340.0g     100.0%

Water        180.0g      52.9%
Oil              80.0g       23.5%
IDY            9.0g         2.6%
sugar         4.0g         1.2%
salt             6.0g         1.8%

I used olive oil for this since that's what I had on hand, a 90/10 mix of corn oil/EVOO would be preferred as that imparts more of a buttery flavor.  All ingredients were placed in the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and mixed for 1 minute on low.  The bowl was covered and the dough allowed to autolyse for 15 minutes before being placed back on the mixer and kneaded for 2 minutes.  The dough should be allowed a long, warm fermentation to develop the best flavor (4-6 hours at room temp), but I didn't have time for that so I put it in the fridge until I could use it the next day.  

For the sauce I also used a new recipe...

1 28 oz can crushed tomato
1/2 TB kosher salt (Morton)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar (good stuff from Old Town Oil)
1/4 tsp granulated garlic
1/4 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Mix well and allow to sit for at least a few hours for the flavors to meld.

The dough was pressed in to and up the sides of the oiled skillet.  For toppings I used Italian sausage from Bari Finer Foods, pepperoni, onions and green peppers then covered with the sauce and a sprinkling of romano cheese.  The oven was preheated to 425°f with a baking steel on the bottom rack.  The pizza was baked for 30 minutes on the middle rack, then moved  down to the baking steel for another 10 minutes to make sure the bottom crust was cooked through and the broiler turned on for the last 2-3 minutes.











This pizza turned out much better than the one I posted about in July 2016.  The dough on the side didn't slump down, but I still think a little lower hydration would be in order.  The sauce was something I made up on the fly and I was really happy with it, hope I didn't forget any of the ingredients I used but I think the recipe above is complete.  

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