Deep-Dish Pizza

by Jason Ogden

The dough for this pizza is adapted from a recipe by America’s Test Kitchen. The measurements below are supposed to make two pizzas, but I actually used two-thirds of the dough for my pizza because I like the crust extra thick and deep. The dough takes a little bit of work, but the lamination process is key to achieving a flakey, delicious crust. It’s ideal if you can keep the dough cold until you are ready to cook it. I don’t have exact measurements of the toppings I used, but you can get creative and do whatever you want. My only suggestion would be to keep the toppings relatively dry so the crust doesn’t get soggy.

INGREDIENTS

Dough  

• 3 1/4 cups (16 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (2 3/4 ounces) yellow cornmeal
• 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
• 1 1/4 cups water (10 ounces), room temperature
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 4 tablespoons, softened
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

Sauce  

• 2 Cans of Italian Style Diced Canned Tomatoes (Drained)

Toppings

• 1 ½ lbs Mozzarella Cheese
• anything else you like on your pizza (I did pepperoni, sausage, olives, red bell pepper, red onion, mushrooms)

INSTRUCTIONS

MAKE THE DOUGH: Mix flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and yeast in bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook on low speed until incorporated, about 1 minute. Add water and melted butter and mix on low speed until fully combined, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping sides and bottom of bowl occasionally. Increase speed to medium and knead until dough is glossy and smooth and pulls away from sides of bowl, 4 to 5 minutes. (Dough will only pull away from sides while mixer is on. When mixer is off, dough will fall back to sides.) Using fingers, coat large bowl with 1 teaspoon olive oil, rubbing excess oil from fingers onto blade of rubber spatula. Using oiled spatula, transfer dough to bowl, turning once to oil top; cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature until nearly doubled in volume, 45 to 60 minutes.

LAMINATE THE DOUGH: Using rubber spatula, turn dough out onto dry work surface and roll into a rectangle that is one inch thick. Spread softened butter over surface of dough, leaving 1/2-inch border along edges. Starting at short end, roll dough into tight cylinder. With seam side down, flatten cylinder into rectangle. Fold into thirds like business letter; pinch seams together to form ball. Return ball to oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise in refrigerator until nearly doubled in volume, 40 to 50 minutes.

FORM THE DOUGH: Transfer dough ball to dry work surface and roll out into 15-inch disk about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer dough to dutch oven by rolling dough loosely around rolling pin and unrolling into pan. Lightly press dough into pan, working into corners and 1 inch up sides.

ADD YOUR TOPPINGS: sprinkle 2 cups mozzarella evenly over surface of dough. Then spread both cans of DRAINED tomatoes over cheese. Next sprinkle desired toppings over tomatoes. Fill it up close to the top of the crust.  and cover with remaining mozzarella cheese.

BAKE: Cook at 425° for 40–50 minutes. The guide that came with my 12” dutch-oven says 31 briquettes (21 top/10 bottom) for 425°. To know when it’s done, look for the cheese to start to brown on top. The sides of the crust will not brown as much as the bottom, so be careful not to burn it. Let it rest for at least 10 min before you cut it. You don’t want it to get cold, but it really comes together after it rests for a while. Of course, how long to cook and rest varies based on how cold it is outside.