Day 1: Dude, That's Deep.

OK this was yesterday, because I never got around to typing this up but I started cooking. 30 days is going to go so fast I can already tell. Last night I was invited over to the wonderful house of the Waite's, so good friends, to cook for them. And what did we cook you ask? Well Chicago style Deep Dish Pizza of course.

Deep Dish Pizza was first made in Chicago and it's exact origins are a bit of a point of contention, it's deliciousness is not. One of the only major differences between the deep dish dough and the regular dough is the addition of corn meal to the mix. Also people have been know to add yellow food coloring to get the dough a golden color. Deep dish is cooked in a pan closer to a cake pan then a pizza one, and tonight we made ours in spring form pans. This made it very easy to remove and cut as well as ensured extra deepness.

Now to make Deep Dish you start with the dough, and I looked around for a bit before deciding that most deep dish recipes are the same, just like most regular pizza dough recipes. This one claims to be the Gino’s East recipe from Chicago. I can not verify, but it worked for us.


Deep Dish Pizza Dough

1 cup of warm water
1 package yeast
1/2 cup cornmeal or corn flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 T corn oil
2 ½ to 3 cups of cheap generic flour
Yellow food coloring – the real secret to why its yellow.

Take the water and put it in your mixer. add yeast and a touch of sugar. Let the yeast foam up to be sure that it is active. Then add the rest of the ingredients including 2 1/2 cups flour. I usually end up adding between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoons of yellow food coloring. Using a dough hook, kneed the dough until it is well combined. If the dough is sticky add a little more flour.


Now at this point the recipe says to let the mixer knead the dough for 10 minutes, but that is just way too long. I took it out and worked it by hand for about 2 and then put it in a greased bowl to rise for an hour. Now instead of letting it rise you can put it in the fridge, witch is called retarding the rise, over night. This lowers the temperature and slows down the yeast, giving it more time to work without it eating all you sugars. This gives you more flavor development and a more malty flavor. I'm told it tastes more like beer.


Preheat your oven to 350 and melt some butter. Then take your pan and brush all that melty buttery goodness all over the inside. Roll out you dough and press in on in there. Now some people will have you think that just pushing the dough into the pan and then up the sides is going to be OK. But I can tell you that it IS NOT! Whenever you are placing, emphasis on PLACING, a rolled dough into a pan, you have to fold in the corners. This means make sure the bottom is flat and then fold back the sides and the n fold them back up so that the crease is right in the corner. This prevents the dough from slopping as it cooks, and sliding down to the middle.

Cheese Barrier and the Impenetrable Pepperoni. 

Look at those 'shrooms in the grease. MMMMMMMMM. 

That's right, that is cilantro in that Pizza.

Now place your Cheese in the dough. This is important because your cheese will be a barrier to the dough, keep it from getting soggy. Now you toppings and then you sauce. That’s right a revers order. As you pizza cooks some of the cheese may make a might journey up through the toppings and into the sauce. It is to be applauded for the effort and eaten with much joy.

We made to pies last night, one peperoni and bacon, and the other mushroom and sausage. I cooked the mushrooms in the leftover bacon grease, very good. I topped both pies with cheese and backed for about 30-45 minutes. When they looked done I turned on the broiler and cooked the tops, just for kicks. Let the pies sit for 10 minutes or so before cutting into. We used can sauce, witch tasted great but was a little runny, there was a bit of water runoff when we cut into the pies. I would suggest reducing the sauce or using a thicker sauce for this endeavor. But we live and we learn and we eat, and boy did we eat.

No complaints, high praises all around, and a wonderful night for everyone.

Would I make it again? Yes, in a heart beat.

The evenings music. The evening was serenaded by Gary Jones and the Waite Family Band. Rock Band 3 on the Wii was a big hit during the night, mostly 80's hits, but lots of fun.