Chicago Style Deep-Dish Pizza Dough

"This recipe comes from the book "Pizza" and is just wonderful. It can be hard to press the pizza up the sides of the pan, but just let the dough rest for a bit first and it should be easier."
 
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photo by Probably This photo by Probably This
photo by Probably This
photo by Kamich70 photo by Kamich70
photo by Probably This photo by Probably This
photo by Kamich70 photo by Kamich70
photo by EFishNSea76 photo by EFishNSea76
Ready In:
3hrs
Ingredients:
8
Yields:
1 14
Serves:
8
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ingredients

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directions

  • In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in1/4 cup of the warm water. Add the sugar and 1/4 cup of the flour and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to combine.
  • Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
  • Add the remaining 1 cup warm water and 3 cups flour, the cornmeal, salt, and 1/2 cup olive oil.
  • Using a wooden spoon, mix the dough, incorporating as much of the flour as possible.
  • Turn the dough out on a lightly floured work surface and knead until soft and elastic, 10 to 12 minutes. It will be a little sticky, but shouldn't stick to your hands.
  • Add only a minimum amount of flour to the work surface to keep the dough from sticking.
  • Lightly oil a large bowl. Add the dough and turn to coat on all sides.
  • Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place a clean, damp, kitchen towel over the top.
  • Set the bowl in a warm spot and let rise until doubled in volume, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (For a slow rise, place the covered bowl in the refrigerator and let rise for 10 to 12 hours, returning dough to room temperature before using).
  • When the dough has doubled in volume, punch it down and knead it for 2 to 3 minutes. Press the dough evenly into the bottom of an oiled 14-inch round deep-dish pizza pan.
  • Let the dough rise in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Press the dough until it comes 2 inches up the sides and is even on the bottom and at the corners of the pan.
  • Proceed with any deep-dish pizza recipe.

Questions & Replies

  1. How long do you bake it and at what temperature?
     
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Reviews

  1. This is not the recipe for authentic Chicago-style deep dish pizza. There is no cornmeal in Chicago deep-dish dough and never was. There's a bit more more oil in the dough (a good ratio is 1 Tablespoon oil to one cup flour). Your kneading time is way too long. To achieve the biscuit-like crust of authentic Chicago deep dish you need to mix for one minute and knead for no more than two minutes. What you have here will result in bread with tomato sauce and cheese.
     
  2. The secret to Chicago pizza is butter laminated dough. You need to roll it out, smear it with a few ounces of soft butter, then reform it into a ball and let it rest for 15 minutes. Then proceed to make the pizza. This produces a flaky crust instead of a rock hard crust, even after the extra long cook time a Chicago pizza requires. Also for best results use half 00 flour and half AP.
     
  3. One zillion stars! Last year DH and I ate at Giordano's in downtown Chicago and fell in love with their pizza....so much so that DH's employees had one mail ordered for him for boss's day! I had my fingers crossed that this would be close....very easy to throw together, easy to press up the sides of the pan. I used a 9 inch cheesecake pan which turned out great because then I could just remove the sides and it looked just like Giordano's! The crust is absolutely to die for....I could eat it plain!
     
  4. Excellent! Lighter than classic deep dish crust, which is usually more pastry-like. Held up very well and made a delicious pie! We split the dough and made 2 9-inch pies. We covered the edges in foil to prevent browning and parbaked for 15mins at 425F before adding the filling, then continued to bake with the edges wrapped in foil for about 60mins, until the inside reached 150F. In case you want to weigh your ingredients: 7g instant yeast 60+237g warm water 4g sugar 50+384g flour 75g cornmeal 6g salt 107g olive oil
     
  5. It's not "Chicago style" it's better! Disappointed with other recipes I decided to give this one a try. While I was a little uncertain about the yeast activation method, and found myself questioning the cornmeal and olive oil... It came out perfect, this will be my go to recipe in the future. *notes 1) As suggested, I mixed the dough with a wooden spoon 2) Recipe made the perfect amount for two, 10" cast iron skillet pies
     
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Tweaks

  1. We have made this three times now and it is the best! The only thing we do different is we use regular all-purpose flour instead of the unbleached bread flour and it comes out great.The crust has great texture and flavor.It holds all the toppings and is a good sturdy crust. We like making and eating this pizza! It is so much better than takeout. Thank you so much for posting this recipe!
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>My husband and I have been together for over 10 years, married for 5. My husband is in school for his PhD in Math, and I have my Master's in Library Science. We have a 1 year old son.<br /> <br />I love cookbooks, and have a ton of vintage ones dating as far back as the 1920's. When DH's grandmother passed away, I inherited all of her cookbooks and recipes, and for Christmas we created a family cookbook using scans of her recipe cards. <br /> <br />&nbsp;<br /> <br /><a href=http://www.TickerFactory.com/weight-loss/wkFsIi2/> <br /><br /></a></p>
 
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