More Cheese More Chocolate

As a former resident of Chicago, I’ve consumed a fair amount of deep dish pizza.  Some good, some not so good.  My favorite is Lou Malnati’s with its ultra buttery, flaky crust.  While I generally prefer a thin, chewy crust, I do get the occasional Malnati’s deep dish craving and want a more substantial slice.  I could shell out $50 to have a frozen pizza mailed to me, or I could attempt to make one myself for considerably less.

The only problem with making it myself is that I needed to find the perfect recipe.  What makes a Malnati’s pizza great is the buttery crust – as melt-in-your-mouth as pizza crust can be.  I was fearful that I would find a recipe that sounded promising, invest a lot of time (and calories) in it, and end up with a bland, bready crust more resembling Giordano’s.  I don’t want bland and bready.  I want buttery!  Enter Cook’s Illustrated and their laminating (layering butter and dough) trick to create a close-to-Malnati’s-but-not-quite-there crust.  For a lot less than $50 I ended up with two deep dish pizzas that will tide me over until I make it back to Chicago.

One more thing: this recipe may look a little intimidating – the list of ingredients is lengthy, the dough needs to rise twice, and there are a lot of steps in general.  Do not be afraid.  The nearly two hours of rising time allow you to get the rest of the ingredients ready while the yeast is doing its thing.  I got home from the grocery store a little after 4PM and had dinner on the table at 7:15 when our friends Sam and Laura arrived.  I even managed to make a batch of fresh ricotta in there.  The only thing I didn’t have time to do was vacuum and clean up the coffee that I had somehow managed to spill all over my wall that morning, but that’s what boyfriends are for.

Deep Dish Pizza

From Cook’s Illustrated, January 2010

For the dough:

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

2 1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 1/4 cups water, room temperature

3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp plus 4 tbsp olive oil

For the sauce:

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1/4 cup grated onion (grate it on a cheese grater with large holes)

1/4 tsp dried oregano

2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes

1/4 tsp sugar

2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh basil

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt & pepper

*For the toppings:

1 pound mozzarella, grated (about 4 cups)

1/2 oz. grated parmesan (about 1/4 cup)

{Olive and ricotta toppings – makes one pizza}

2 tbsp good olives, chopped

2 tbsp ricotta

{Sausage toppings – makes one pizza}

1/2 pound hot or mild Italian sausage, browned

*I made one olive and ricotta pizza and one sausage pizza.  The amounts given for the mozzarella and parmesan are enough for two pizzas of any variety.  The olives, ricotta, and sausage amounts are given for a single pizza of each kind.  So if you want to make two sausage pizzas, double the amount of sausage, but do not double the amount of cheese.

Mix the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and yeast with the dough hook of a stand mixer.  Add water and melted butter and mix on low speed until combined, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Scrape down sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.  Increase speed to medium, and beat until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, maybe 4 to 5 minutes.  Remove the bowl from the stand, scoop up the dough with your left hand, drizzle a little olive oil (about a teaspoon) into the bowl with your right hand and spread it up the sides, put the dough back the bowl, roll it around to lightly coat it with olive oil, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and set it aside for 45-60 minutes.

While the dough is rising, make the sauce.  Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  When melted add the onion, oregano, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the garlic and cook for 30 more seconds.  Add the tomatoes and sugar, and increase the heat until it simmers.  Lower the heat to maintain the simmer, and cook for 25-30 minutes.  Turn off the heat, stir in the basil and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.  Set aside.

Forty-five to sixty minutes later, the dough should have about doubled in size.  I was actually pretty amazed and how much this grew in an hour.  The magic of yeast!

Transfer the dough to a (not floured) work surface and roll out (with a rolling pin or your fingers) to a 15×12″ rectangle.  This baking mat really came in handy with its ruler along the edge.

Use an offset spatula (a regular spatula or knife would probably work, too) to spread the softened butter over the dough, leaving a 1/2″ border along the edges.

Start at the short end and tightly roll up the dough.

Place the seam against the work surface and flatten the cylinder into an 18×4″ rectangle.

Cut the dough in half crosswise.

Fold each half into thirds, like folding a letter.

Pinch the seams together so it resembles a ball.

Return the two balls of dough to the oiled bowl (or use an oiled plate if, like me, you already threw the oiled bowl into a sink full of dirty dishes) and cover with plastic wrap.  Place the dough in the refrigerator to rise for anther 40-50 minutes.

[Now is a good time to brown the sausage, grate the cheese, chop the olives, throw together a salad, etc.]

Preheat the oven to 425 with 10-15 minutes of rising time to go (or more, depending on how long your oven takes to heat).

After the second rise.  Oil two 9″ cake pans with 2 tbsp olive oil each, making sure to oil the sides.  My pans have pretty decent non-stick coating, so I dumped out a little of the excess oil.  If you don’t have two cake pans, a springform pan will work, too.  If you use a springform pan put some foil or a rimmed baking sheet underneath it so you don’t end up with oil leaking out of the pan, creating a mess on the oven floor and a smoky apartment.  Trust me on this one.

Roll out each ball of dough into a 13″ disc.

Loosely wrap the dough around the rolling pin, and transfer it to the pan.  Press the dough in so it reaches the corners and goes about an inch up the sides.  If it’s not stretching, let it rest for a few minutes and try again.

Sprinkle half of the mozzarella (about 2 cups) over each crust.

For a sausage pizza, add the meat on top of the cheese.

Then spread with half of the sauce.  Sprinkle with half of the parmesan.

For the olive and ricotta pizza, spread the sauce over the mozzarella, sprinkle with olives, dot with ricotta, and finish with the remaining parmesan.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.  Don’t skip this step – it really does make a difference!

We ate our hearty pizzas with a salad of arugula, strawberries, goat cheese, and pecans.  Delicious!