Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza Serves Approx: 6 – 8
Makes 2 9inch deep dish pizzas

Who doesn’t love pizza? Chicago’s signature pizza style is quite controversial in the USA, especially among New Yorkers, who may argue that it isn’t a pizza at all. I don’t care what you call it. I think that not only is this a delicious, unique dish, but also think its one of the most deliciously decadent things I’ve ever eaten.

What makes Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza so different? It’s signature biscuit-like cornmeal crust is laminated with layers of butter, rolled thinly and placed into a deep dish pan or a spring-form cake pan, layered with cheese, meat (or any filling of your choice), a whole load of mildly spiced tomato sauce and topped with grated parmesan. Amazing! This recipe will yield 2 9 inch pizzas. This is a long one, but honestly, it’s way easier than it looks. Don’t be intimidated!

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 3 and 1/4 Cups of  plain flour
• 1/2 Cup of cornmeal/polenta
• 1 and 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 standard packet of dried yeast
• 1 and 1/4 cup of lukewarm water
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted completely
• 1/4 cup butter softened to room temperature

Sauce:

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 small onion, grated
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• Approx 3 x 400g tins of crushed tomatoes (This sounds like a lot but most of the liquid will be reduced out)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp honey

Fillings & Toppings:

• 300g low moisture mozzarella
• 100g grated cheddar/tasty cheese (optional for extra flavour)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

Optional Fillings:

• Pepperoni
• Italian sausage, casing removed and browned
• Diced Bacon
• Mushrooms
• Ricotta
• Anything you like!

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Method:

Crust:

1. Combine the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment and mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Alternatively, you can do this by hand.
2. Add the luke-warm water and 1/4 cup of melted butter.
3. Turn on the mixer to low and combine until a soft dough is formed that cleanly pulls away from the bowl.
4. Remove the dough from the bowl and form into a ball. Using a little vegetable or olive oil, grease a separate bowl and place the ball of dough inside. Roll the ball in the oil.
5. Cover tightly with foil and allow to proof in a warm place for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
6. Once the dough has doubled in size, remove from the bowl and place onto a lightly floured surface and roll until around 3mm thick
7. Gently spread on 1/4 cup of softened butter evenly over the rolled out dough.
8. Now, roll up the dough as if you’re rolling a swiss roll. Cut the dough in half and form each log into 2 separate dough balls. Place them back in the greased bowl, re-cover with foil and place in the fridge for approx 1 hour to allow the butter to chill. This is to ensure the dough is laminated.

Sauce:

1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat.
2. Once melted, add the grated onion, salt, oregano, and chilli flakes. Allow the onion to soften and turn translucent
3. Add the garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste and honey and turn the heat down to medium-low.
4. Allow sauce to simmer for around 30 minutes or until it has reduced by around half. For an idea of the consistency, you want to be able to drag a wooden spoon through the sauce and see the bottom of the pot. You should have about 3 cups of sauce. If you have more than that, keep simmering until the amount has reduced.
5. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to be used.

Prepare Optional ingredients:

• Most of your ingredients that you choose to use will benefit from being fried off slightly first to release maximum flavour.

Pizza Assembly:

1. Preheat oven to 220ºc (200ºc fan forced)
2. Take one of the dough balls out of the fridge and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out into a 3mm thick sheet and place in your deep dish pan or spring-form cake pan and gently press into the bottom rim. Carefully trim and overhanging dough so that it is level with the top of the pan. Repeat with the second dough ball.
3. Fill each pizza with the mozzarella and cheddar/tasty cheese if using.
4. Add your optional toppings.
5. Using a ladle, add approximately 1 1/2 cups of sauce to each pizza and spread it evenly on top of the cheese/optional toppings
6. Fold the excess dough down so that it is touching the sauce.
7. Grate a generous amount of parmesan on top of the sauce and place in the oven.
8. Bake for around 30 minutes. After 20 minutes, if the crust is browning too quickly, cover with foil and bake for a further 10 minutes.
9. Once baked, allow pizza to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Phew. That was a long recipe. Is it worth it? Heck yeah! Is it as hard as it sounds? Heck no! Here’s a cross-section of this beautiful, cheesy, saucy pizza. What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook Page. Like this recipe? Why not check out our other savoury recipes!

 

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