Sunday, April 22, 2012

Chicago Style Deep Dish

I can't take credit for any piece of this recipe. It's all from Pennies On A Platter blogger which I found on Pinterest. Her directions are great and our pizza turned out delicious. The only thing I did was add some pepperoni between the cheese and the sauce. I took pictures of my dough because this is the first time I've ever made homemade dough using yeast. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.


Here's how it begins. Whisk the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, and corn meal together. Add the melted butter and water and mix well. I don't have a dough attachment so I used my hands to kneed the dough well. Add it to a bowl that's coated in olive oil and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let it rise until about double in size. Mine took 45 minutes. See my transformation above!


 Once it's risen, take it out and roll it to about an 8x6 rectangle. Smear the soft butter all over the top. Apparently, this is called laminating the dough. I had no idea but it's supposed to make the crust flaky and delicious (which it does!). Roll it tightly, seam side down roll it out to a 9x2 rectangle.
 
I think mine was more 9x4 but I don't think it matters. Fold it up again and and pinch the seams together to form a ball. Put it back in the bowl and cover with plastic. This time, let it rise in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes. Again, transformation below.

For the sauce. It calls for grated onion. I've never used that before and let me tell you, it burns my eyes worse than chopping! Saute the onion in butter, add the salt and oregano. Cook until the liquid is almost gone, it took me 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add a can of tomatoes, petite dice. I forgot about the petite part and it was ok. Bring to a boil and simmer about 15 minutes to reduce. Add the olive oil and basil.
 

Take the dough out of the fridge. Roll it out to about a 13" disk and put it in a 9" round cake pan that you've coated in . I think mine is actually a pie pan, which did pose a problem as the dough didn't want to stay up on the sides. Dump about 2 cups of mozzarella cheese, any toppings you'd like and cover with the sauce.  Put it in the oven at 425 for about 20 minutes or until the crust in golden brown. I also recommend letting it sit about 10 minutes when you take it out before cutting.