Pizza at Home - Chicago Deep Dish

Today we're starting a new series. We'll still continue the other series where we're recreating restaurants at home, but, Sunday is usually pizza day at our house and Theresa had a great idea.
Theresa - Why don't we try to make all the different styles of pizza, but at home?
There's certainly a lot we can choose from. The classic round pizza of course, New York style, Detroit style, a simple Italian Neapolitan, Thin Crust, Pizza on the Grill, and tonight's pizza, the Chicago Deep Dish.

For this dough, we've got to start early. It takes 8 hours to proof. First thing when we woke up, Ian was in the kitchen, helping make the dough. After getting the yeast bloomed, he added the rest of the ingredients.

First he stirred it together with a spatula.

It's a rough little ball of dough right now.

Time to use this new mechanical marvel in our kitchen. Theresa's sister has a stand mixer that she's not using anymore. Since we're doing so much more in the kitchen these days, we asked if we could use it. It arrived on Thursday and we're already putting it to work!

After a little bit of kneading, the dough is ready to rise for the next 8 hours.

Next it was time to make the tomato sauce. That first recipe said to just put crushed tomatoes on top for the sauce. I want a little bit more flavor than that. Theresa found another recipe that got great reviews here. A grated onion? That's going to be tasty.

We buzzed the salt, red pepper, sugar and dried oregano.

In a buttered pan, I browned the grated onion and all the spices. Ooh, that onion is making my eyes water.

It's coming together though.

Into that onion mixture, the crushed tomatoes are added.

While that was reducing for 30 minutes, the house was smelling wonderful.

You know what else I love to have when I eat Deep Dish pizza? I love that basket of free bread you get that you can dip into balsamic vinegar. We don't have any such bread here in the house but... I can make that too. This recipe for French Baguettes got a lot of good reviews.

After letting it rise, I flattened them with a rolling pin, and then rolled them up.

Those then got covered and were allowed to rise again.

These are going to be tasty! I cut slits in them and painted them with an egg wash.

The house was already smelling good from the tomato sauce. The smell of fresh bread made it even better!

Oh yeah. Those look so good. Good thing I made two.

Because within 5 minutes of those coming out of the oven, everyone stopped by to try them, and an entire loaf was gone! There's not a whole lot that can beat fresh bread and a pat of butter.

The kids agreed. Ian said it's the best thing he's ever tasted.

Time to make the Deep Dish Pizza. I used a large cast iron skillet for my pan. The sides are a little slanted, instead of straight up, but it should still turn out okay.
It starts with a layer of mozzarella cheese on bottom.

Then comes the meat layer. For my deep dish pizza, I always like pepperoni and sausage.

The sausage goes on raw, and will cook as the pizza cooks.

Finally you spread the sauce on top of it all, making sure you go up to the sides.

A sprinkle of parmesan on top and it's ready to go into the oven for 30 minutes.

Perfect! This is going to be a fun series, making all different types of pizza.

The pizza looks about right.

And I already know the bread is tasty.

Theresa made an Italian salad to go with it.

It all came out of the pan as one large pie. The sides look good. Now it's time to cut it.

I'm used to seeing them cut it with a big WHACK to get through the crispy crust edges.

The crust in certain parts was pretty good, but not exactly what I was hoping for. I think I'm going to try the recipe that accompanied the tasty sauce recipe we're using. That one uses layers of butter in the dough.

But, it was still tasty pizza.

And the bread dipped in balsamic was exactly what I wanted too.

Eat up Alli.

Well that's one pizza down. We'll see which pizza we decide to try next!