Deep Dish Pizza
Ingredients[]
Crust[]
- 3/4 cup warm water
- 1 package yeast
- 1/2 cup corn oil
- 2 T olive oil
- 2 t salt
- 3.5 cups of all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup corn meal (I chop it finely in a coffee grinder)
Toppings[]
- 1-2 lbs of shredded mozzarella cheese, maybe with some parmesan / romano mixed in. Quantity depends on your last cholesterol reading.
- 28 oz crushed tomatoes
- small can diced tomatoes
- medium onion
- garlic
- spices (oregano, basil, rosemary) to taste
- cheap red wine
- chopped green peppers (optional)
- ~ 1/2 pound italian sausage
Directions[]
- Combine warm water with yeast. Stir and let the mixture sit until it is foamy.
- Add corn oil, olive oil, salt, flour, and corn meal
- Knead 5 minutes.
- Allow to rise in a warm place in a large greased bowl, covered with a cloth.
- After it's doubled (~45min), punch it down, knead it for a minute, and allow to rise again.
- Remove sausage from casing and brown in a large saucepan. Remove from skillet at drain most of the fat. leave enough to sautee the onions.
- Sautee onions, adding garlic at the end.
- Add crushed tomatoes, red wine, spices
- Allow to simmer while the dough rises, if it gets too thick, add wine.
- Drink remaining wine as needed
- Add diced tomatoes at the very end, just enough for them to reach the same temp as the rest
- Brush 12 inch cast iron skillet with olive oil. roll out dough and line the skillet, going all the way up the walls.
- Add layer of cheese (keeps protects the crust from the sauce) Then sauce and toppings, then remaining cheese. Sprinkle with oregano.
- Bake at ~375 until ready (for some reason I don't have this written down). The tricky thing is judging how well the cheese inside has melted. More cheese will take longer, of course. Up to 45 minutes.
- Let the pie rest a little after you take it out of the oven. Crust will pull away from the walls, and the cheese will continue to cook.
For the advanced user: divide dough into 2/3 and 1/3 sized balls. Use smaller ball as a 2nd layer for stuffed crust. This is good if you have toppings you don't want to dry out. I've used this with other pans, but not the cast iron one so I don't know how this affects timing.