Chicago Deep Dish Pizza!

Because our paint night was cancelled tonight, I invited my friend, Lawrence, to come over and have dinner.  He had a friend in town who had come to cheer Lawrence on in his Santa Clause race in the morning.  I met this friend a month or so ago and he's very interesting.  He works in Aeronautics.  Because he's in a science world, I find him fascinating.  So always glad to have the two of them to dinner.  And now that I have my own beautiful house, I have the space to entertain AND I have a beautiful kitchen to cook in. 

Thus, it was a very busy day of cooking and cleaning.  It started with "Christmas Crack" or Chex mix.  This would be my third batch this year and I try to only make it when I have an excuse to share.  This was followed by Magic Bars (my version this year has dark chocolate and PB chips).  Finally, to the main dish. About two months ago, I updated my pizza supplies, including individual sized deep dish pizza pans.  Seeing them on the counter made me want to try my hand at making Chicago-style deep dish pizza.  I have resisted doing this in the past because I love the crust and I am always worried that the recipes are not quite right.  There is a different texture to Chicago pizza crust and that is what I love able it.  After some searching, I found a recipe to try out.  But at the same time, I decided that I would also make my own pizza sauce for this (given that I have those beautiful home-canned tomatoes).

Well, the result was incredible.  The crust was light and crunchy, exactly what I expected.  We chose sausage and pepperoni (very traditional) and I made my own sauce which was exactly right for this pizza.  Can't wait to try it again and change up the fillings.

Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza
Adapted from:www.bunsinbyoven.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/chicago-deep-dish-pizza-recipe.jpg

For crust

•  3/4 cup lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 2 cups flour
•  1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp suger
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp corn meal

For sauce

• 1/2 large onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 28-oz jar home-canned tomatoes
• 2 tsp dried basil (during the spring/summer, consider using 2 Tbsp fresh basil)

Fillings

• 1 1/2 cups part-skim mozzarella
• 1 lb sweet Italian sausage
• 15 slices turkey pepperoni

To make crust:
Add the water and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Let sit 5 minutes.  Add flour, oil, sugar, salt and corn meal to the bowl and turn the mixer to low.  Mix until just combined and increase speed to medium, kneading for 2 minutes.  Place the dough ball into a large, greased bowl and set in a warm place for up to 6 hours (or until dough has doubled).  

To make the sauce:
While the dough is rising, make the sauce.  In this case, I cooked and crumbled the sausage in a large skillet.  Once cooked, remove the sausage to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain.  Remove all but 1 Tbsp of the drippings.  Add onions and cook until starting to brown.  Add garlic and cook one minute longer.  Add tomatoes and basil.  If tomatoes are whole, halved or quartered, use an immersion blender to puree until consistency of pureed tomatoes (you may use pureed tomatoes as well).  Cook for about 20 minutes to meld flavors.

To assemble pizza:
Preheat oven to 475F.  Lightly butter 3 individual-sized deep dish pizza pans (or a 12-inch cast iron skillet).  Sprinkle with additional corn meal.  Punch down the dough and let rest for 15 minutes.  Divide into three balls and place one in each prepared pan.  Use your fingers to press it into the bottom of the pans and up the sides. 

Sprinkle crust with mozzarella cheese (this keeps crust from becoming soggy).  Layer sausage and pepperoni.  Then spoon sauce over all.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until crust is browned and the edges of the pepperoni that peek through the sauce are also browned.  Allow to set for 5 minutes before cutting.