Deep Dish Pizza

I'm not sure this is blog worthy because the crust came out dry, bland and a little sourdough-y.

For future reference, actually check the baking temperature for a recipe rather than assuming it's 350 like it is for most things. Also, actually follow the recipe and drizzle with olive oil. That would have helped with the dryness too.

The crust could have used some salt. I suspect that is the reason for the blandness.

I made the dough for the crust several days before I used it and had it in the fridge. When I took it out of the fridge the dough felt hard and dead so I left it sit on the counter for a couple hours to reach room temperature and to let it rise again. I kind of knew something wasn't quite right because I could smell a bit of sourness then. Ah well. Maybe I'll fix it next time.

I would not push the crust up the sides of the pan. First of all, it just doesn't work. I tried to push it up with the toppings hoping that would force the dough to stay but it just shrank back and then the toppings were like 2 inches from the edge and when those rose while it was baking you ended up with massively dry huge crust on the outside. Bleh. It'll rise enough to give you that deep dish type crust without trying to push it up the sides. But the recipe told me to. I swear.

Here's a pic of my dry bland creation.



Deep Dish Pizza
I should reference where I got this recipe but I am too lazy to walk to the kitchen and see. Also, I am going.

This recipe makes 2 9" pizzas. It could easily be halved.

1 lb hot italian sausage
2 14 oz cans diced tomatoes, drained
1 lb mozzarella cheese, sliced
a sprinkling of parmesan cheese
a few tablespoons olive oil
1 recipe deep dish pie crust, below

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Brown the sausage in a pan and drain.
Oil 2 9" pans. I used a springform and a cast iron skillet.
Press the dough into the pans.
Press the mozzarella into the dough
Spread the tomatoes over the cheese
Top with browned sausage.
Sprinkle parmesan over the top followed by the olive oil.
Bake for 45 mins or until crispy and browned.



Crust

2 packs yeast
2 cups warm water (I used room temperature, it was 95 degrees that day)
1/2 cup cornmeal
5 1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Mix yeast into the water and get rid of any clumps. I did it all with the dough hook on my stand mixer. Add oils, cornmeal and about half of the flour. Mix for about 10 minutes (maybe I didn't have enough gluten formation with the dough hook rather than the paddle or something?). Add the rest of the flour and mix for a few more minutes. Dump into a large oiled bowl, cover and allow to rise about an hour until doubled in volume. Punch down and allow to rise again.