Make Real Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza at Home

If you look online, you'll find all kinds of people saying that you need to get a deep dish pizza pan to make deep dish pizza and to not even bother if you don't have it. Wrong. Cast iron has the same heat-conducting properties and will make your crust just as crunchy and spectacular, as some ridiculously expensive single-use pan that takes up a bunch of room in your cupboards and only gets used once a year.

Now, on to the fancy we're all here. This method will make one Chicago style deep dish pizza in a 10 inch cast iron pan-enough for two people to be very full and have some leftovers.

Breakfast Pizza

Dough:

- 1 packet yeast
- 1 cup warm water
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil (plus about a tablespoon)
- 2-1/4 cup flour
- 1/4 cup corn meal
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon honey

Dissolve the yeast and honey in the warm (about 100 degrees) water in the lowest of a big mixing bowl. After about five minutes, it should be activated and foamy. Add the oil. Incorporate the dry ingredients in a cut off bowl and add about half to the wet mixture. Mix in. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until a thick dough forms.

I don't have a mixer or a food processor so I did this with a spatula, but it would be much easier/faster to use a food processor or mixer with a dough hook if you have one. The good thing about the corn meal is that it keeps the dough from getting too sticky.

Put the dough into an oiled bowl, cover loosely with a towel, and put in a warm location. My house is freezing so I turn on the oven for about five minutes, turn it off, then leave the door open so it's nice and warm-about 90 degrees. Leave to rise for 45 minutes.

When you come back, the dough should have doubled in volume. Oil your cast iron pan and push the dough up to cover the whole lowest of the pan plus the sides. Leave the dough to rise again in the pan while you prep the pizza toppings-this is what gives the crust such texture; there are petite air bubbles all over the sides and bottom, making it crunchy but not hard. Then, preheat the oven to 475 degrees. It's prominent to let the oven preheat completely; if you put the pizza in early it won't cook evenly and will burn on the edges before the inside cooks.

Toppings:

- about 1/2 lb mozzarella
- scant 1/4 cup shredded Romano or Parmesan
- 1-2 cups jarred pasta sauce mixed with a spoonful of tomato paste

Other toppings you enjoy

One of the defining characteristics of Chicago style pizza is that the cheese is on top of the crust. The cheese melts all over the crust, sticking to it and just commonly being delicious. Slice the mozzarella into slices about 1/2 inch thick, layering them over the lowest of the crust in an overlapping shingle pattern. Add any toppings you're using on top of the mozzarella. Cover it all with the shredded Romano.

Spoon the tomato pasta sauce over everything. Ornamentation with some more shredded Romano/Parmesan and bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes, until the crust has gotten a lovely dark golden brown. Let it rest for a few minutes before you cut it, and be aware that it will be for real gooey and cheesy and messy. Enjoy!

Make Real Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza at Home

kitchenaid gourmet distinctions 16 1 2 inch