Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza Crust

[Priscilla]

IF one were interested in approximating something similar to, not hoping to replicate exactly, because one would never be so presumptuous as to seem to be suggesting this would even be possible, a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, is there anything special one should know about the dough used for the crust?

Opinions, experiences, descriptions, actual recipes, all appreciated.

[paulraphael]

I don't know any recipes, but my favorite chicago style pizzas have a crisp, flaky crust that's more like pastry than regular pizza crust.

Giordano's has long been my family's fave (they've become a chain since I was a kid). The crust is like a pie crust.

[guzzirider]

Hi Priscilla,

Let me first state that I've never been to Chicago. However, I used to be a regular at a pizza shop that was run by a guy who *used* to work for one of the big name places in Chicago (it's been years... don't remember which one). At any rate, the deep dish pizzas they made were fantastic, and since I moved to the Philly area, I haven't seen anything that resembles it.

So, I decided to make it myself.

Typically, they are a "heavier" sort of dough, which usually has cornmeal in it. I did some hunting around online, and eventually found a recipe that sounded like it might work well. It actually turned out *really* good:

And this is the recipe I used for the dough:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/dkm_chicago.php

Good luck!

__Jason

[Priscilla]

Thank you, Jason and Paul... Ronnie Suburban gave me his ideas too, here on the Heartland board. He did mention cornmeal representing one style.

Pastrylike richness is certainly a hallmark, a difference from the fairly lean pizza dough I make habitually.

We make pizza a lot, but thin-crust fairly austere affairs (OK, the 15-year-old's cheesalicious specials are not, austere) baked on a stone & c.

[paulraphael]

i remember reading complaints somewhere that the chicago recipe in Peter Reinhart's American Pie book (supposed to be great, in general) isn't representative of anything people had had in chicago. I wonder if there's a message board for chicago pizza nuts (like slice nyc)?

[munchymom]

I attempted last night to replicate a Gino's East deep dish pizza. I used a recipe I found online for the dough:

1 pound bread flour

1 cup water

1 package yeast

1/3 cup corn oil

1 T sugar

1 t cream of tartar

(The recipe called for yellow food coloring, but I decided to forgo that bit of authenticity.)

I topped the dough with one pound of shredded mozzarella, sauce and vegetables.

I baked it in a 14 x 2 inch round cake pan at 450 for half an hour.

The flavor was okay, but the bottom of the pizza was extremely soggy instead of crisp. (The top, where uncovered by toppings, was crisp to the point of almost burnt.) Where did I go wrong? Should I pre-bake the crust for a while, take it out to add the toppings, and then put it in to finish cooking? Any other ideas to help combat the sog factor? (One thing I thought of is that one pound of cheese wasn't quite enough for a 14-inch pizza - the layer of cheese was probably thin enough to let the sauce soak through.)

[Ninjai Fanatic]

^ How was your pizza dough to begin with? I've learned that it's better to start off with a relatively dry pizza dough - it is less soggy that way. Otherwise, bake it longer and make your sauce a little less watery..

g'luck!

I love the looks of that pizza, I want to try it sometime.

[ChefCrash]

Here's another that uses corn meal.

[annimal]

I attempted last night to replicate a Gino's East deep dish pizza.  I used a recipe I found online for the dough:

The flavor was okay, but the bottom of the pizza was extremely soggy instead of crisp. (The top, where uncovered by toppings, was crisp to the point of almost burnt.)  Where did I go wrong?  Should I pre-bake the crust for a while, take it out to add the toppings, and then put it in to finish cooking?  Any other ideas to help combat the sog factor?  (One thing I thought of is that one pound of cheese wasn't quite enough for a 14-inch pizza - the layer of cheese was probably thin enough to let the sauce soak through.)

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Interesting, munchymom. I always feel that Gino's East pizzas are soggy anyways. (Not to get started in the which-pizza-is-best debate, but they're pretty low on my list.)

A good deep dish crust has to have some cornmeal... Or be like a Malnati's butter crust. mmmm. That pizza that guzzirider made seems great.