Deep Dish Pizza

Deep Dish Pepperoni Pizza

It's hard to find the perfect pizza recipe. Cook's Country has a good thin crust recipe that we like, but the favorite in our house is deep dish. My recipe for deep dish crust is a cross between Mark Bittman's pizza crust using a food processor and the notes I took watching an America's Test Kitchen video on deep dish pizza. This pizza may not be the perfect recipe, but it's my current favorite and "something good."

Deep Dish Pizza
Dough:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons yeast
7 oz milk or water
2 teaspoons sugar
2 Tablespoons oil

Toppings:
4 Tablespoons oil
2/3 cup pizza sauce
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
40 slices pepperoni

• Mix flour, salt, and yeast in the bowl of a food processor.
• In a separate bowl, warm the milk or water to 110-115 degrees and add the sugar and oil, stirring to combine.
• With the food processor running, add the liquid mixture using the feed tube. Process until combined.
• If it forms into a ball, you are ready to continue. If the mixture is too sticky or too dry, add flour or water one tablespoon at a time until a ball forms.
• Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic, and let it raise 1-2 hours.

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• Move rack to the bottom of the oven. Preheat oven to 400*.
• Pour 2 Tablespoons oil in each of the bottoms of 2 round 9 inch pans.
• Divide the dough in half.
• Roll out the dough in a circular shape on a floured surface. Use your knuckles to stretch the dough into a 9 inch circle. Place in one pan and repeat with the second half of the dough.
• Spread 1/3 cup sauce on each pizza.
• Sprinkle each pizza with 3/4 cup mozzarella.
• Spread out 20 pepperoni slices in a single layer on a paper towel lined plate. Cover with a paper towel and microwave for 30 seconds. Place slices on one pizza and repeat with the remaining slices for the other pizza.
• Bake for 20 minutes.

Notes: If you are in a time crunch, force the dough to raise by preheating your oven to 150, turning off the oven, and placing the plastic covered dough bowl in the warm oven for 30 minutes.