I got it into my head a few months ago that I wanted to make a good homemade deep-dish pizza. So, after looking at numerous recipes online (first time making, so I needed a guide), I found one here. It’s a bit of work, but well worth the effort.
I have to give a lot of credit to the original poster, as it seems that she developed the recipe on her own. Now that I know how this turned out (delicious), I’ll make some minor changes to the sauce and other toppings. But for now, here’s basically her recipe.
The original recipe called for using a cake pan, but I used a 10-inch cast-iron skillet. I recommend going this route for no other reason than it worked really well.
What you’ll need for this pizza:
Pizza Crust (makes two crusts—you can freeze the one you don’t use).
- 3.25cups flour (measured correctly)
- 0.5 cup cornmeal
- 1.25t salt
- 1T granulated sugar
- 2.25t yeast (1 standard packet)
- 1.25 cups water, 90 degrees
- 0.5 cup unsalted butter, divided (0.25 cup melted—90 degrees, 0.25 cup softened)
- olive oil for coating
Tomato sauce for one pizza
- 1T unsalted butter
- 2.5T onion, grated
- 0.25t salt
- 0.5t dried oregano
- 0.25t crushed red pepper flakes (optional, but recommended)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- big pinch of granulated sugar
Toppings for one pizza
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8-oz package)
- 0.25 cup grated Parmesan cheese (freshly grated makes for a better flavor)
- Enough toppings to suit you. Some good possibilities include real crumbled bacon, sausage, pepperoni, or slices of high-quality salami. Roughly chopped onions work well, as do sliced mushrooms—make sure to sauté them first, because mushrooms will shed water when they cook, and you don’t want a watery pizza.
What to do for the crust(s):
Combine the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl and briefly mix them with a large spoon.
Add 1.25 cups of 90-degree water and 0.25 cups of 90-degree melted butter. If the water and butter is too hot, it will kill the yeast. Stir until the beginnings of a dough form.
Knead the dough in the bowl until it is soft. If it seems too tough, add a teaspoon of water and knead the dough a bit more. If too soft and sticky, add a tablespoon of flour.
When
your dough is ready, form it into a ball, and place it in a large greased
mixing bowl, making sure to coat the entire surface of the dough ball. Cover
with foil, put in a warm place and let the dough rise and about double in size
over the next one or two hours. Punch it down when ready.
Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and roll it in to a 15×12
rectangle. It doesn’t need to be perfectly rectangular, but the dimensions are
important. Spread 0.25 cup of the softened butter over the surface of the
rolled dough. Keep the bowl; you’ll use it again right away.
Roll the dough along the long edge, so you have a roll of dough about 12 inches wide. Cut the roll in half and form the two pieces into two dough balls. Add them back to the greased mixing bowl, re-cover with foil and put in the refrigerator for an hour.
What to do for the sauce (for one pizza):
Melt 2T butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Then add the grated onion, oregano, salt and red pepper flakes. When the onion has begun to brown, add the garlic, tomatoes and sugar.
Add the 14-oz can of crushed tomatoes to the pan, and mix well. Let it gently simmer for about 30 minutes. At this point, the sauce should be very thick and fragrant. If it’s still a bit thin, let it simmer until it’s good and thick. The sauce shouldn’t be at all watery.
What to do for assembly:
Heat your oven to 425 degrees if you’re cooking the pizza directly after assembly (recommended.)
At this point, the dough should be ready. The dough you’re not using should store just fine in the freezer until you need it.
Roll the dough ball out into a 12-inch circle. Grease whatever pan you’re cooking the pizza in, and lay in the dough. With your fingers, carefully press the dough into the pan, ensuring even coverage across the bottom and up the sides. If you have extra on the edges, you may want to trim it off.
Here’s where the typical order of adding toppings is reversed from regular pizza.
Evenly spread the mozzarella across the crust, and top with whatever meats and other toppings you’re using. Evenly spread the tomato sauce over the toppings, topping the sauce with the Parmesan cheese.
Now it’s ready for the oven. Make sure it’s up to temperature before putting in the pizza. Bake for 20-28 minutes—it’s done when the top of the crust has browned.
When it’s done baking, remove the pizza from the oven and let it cool a bit with the pan on a rack, then slice and enjoy. This pizza is best reheated, if necessary, in a 300-degree oven until warmed through.
