Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

[Ken524]

Hey all,

I was browsing around the local restaurant supply store in town. They have stacks of used "Pizza Hut" style deep dish pans. I'm thinking of picking up a couple to make some deep dish pies.

Has anyone tried this? I was surprised that a search on the forum didn't yield any results.

If I give it a try, I'll need some guidance on crust and baking temps (for conventional or brick ovens).

I'm guessing the crust may be a slight variation of our "standard" wood fired crust. Temperature will be considerably lower than normal (maybe 500-600f?).

Any ideas or experience out there? Dave, didn't you throw dough for a bit at a pizza place? (or will I be the guinea pig? )

[wlockhart]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

Those Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizzas are great! Here's a place to find a history of Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza and a pretty good recipe.

Let me know if this is the sort of thing you're looking for...

Happy pizza making!

[Modthyrth]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

I dream of a Pizza Papalis deep dish stuffed pizza sometimes. The dough definitely has oil in it, and has almost a biscuity, buttery crunch where it touches the pan. I'd cruise the Chicago section of pizzamaking.com to get inspiration and starting points for dough formulas. It's a lot to wade through, but there's some very good information over there.

I can't wait to see the results of your experiments!

[asudavew]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

Yep!
I've done this numerous times.

But not good to try on Pizza night. Too HOT!!!!

The next day! Perfect. About 350-400 degree f WFO is about right.
3pm the next day..?

About three hours ahead of time, maybe longer.
Grab the dough from the fridge. (you made extra the day before.. right?) 250 gram dough ball.... or so... maybe a bit more for thicker crust.

Let it sit for about an hour to warm up.

Anyways.Put a least a 1/4 cup of oil in the pan. (I assume they are 12 inch pans) Oil from an olive please!

Try not to get oil on the sides of the pan. (you want your crust to stick to the sides while it rises) >>>> Don't worry it wont stick while it cooks... Now just roll out your dough with a rolling pin .. sure! go ahead! roll it out, it won't hurt it.

Try rolling it about 1.5 inches larger than the pan.

Now the hard part.... Place it in the pan and try to get about a 3/4 inch crust pushed up the sides of the pan. Here is where oil on the sides or where oil on the crust portion of the dough will cause it to slide down to the bottom of the pan...

After you are done, pushing the sides back up, stretching it some more, pushing the sides up again, wondering how you got oil all over it, pushing the sides up some more...
pushing one side up while pulling the other down.. you are good!

Now just let it rise.. at least a few hours.. longer if the house is cooler.

It should get good and thick and bubbly.... I'm getting hungry!

Now .. Chicago style.. Toppings on the bottom, cheese too. Yep! Cheese too.
Now the sauce goes on the top. (i'm sure you already know this)
Then a nice sprinkling of Parmesan... Get the good stuff! 11-12 bucks a pound but last's a long time and is well worth it!

and bake

At least thirty minutes.

It also works fine as a traditional deep dish... sauce on bottom, cheese, toppings, (and here's the really good part!) - MORE CHEESE
Stack that sucker to dang near the top.!!

Now if you like pizza where the cheese strings as you pull off a slice........Then this IS the pie for you! Oh so good, and cooked with retained heat. Bake until brown and bubbly.
A beautiful pie, cooked in a beautiful WFO! Life is good!

On a side note... Sunday's at my house consist of breakfast pizzas many days.

Deep dish as above, but a very very light coat of sauce. More white color than red color on the dough. Then add cheese (cheddar and mozzarella work) sliced onions, peppers, ham, cooked bacon, and more cheese. Then scramble a couple of eggs and pour them over the top. Bake till browned!

Oh so good!

Hope this helps!

Enjoy!

And don't burn the roof of your mouth............ I always do!
Hot pizza always leaves little pieces of skin hanging from the roof of my mouth...why can't I wait.. WHY! WHY! WHY!

As you were.

Dave

[asudavew]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

BTW- I just used the standard dough.
But oil could be added if desired.

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

Sounds good guys....need some pics of those deep ones!

[Ken524]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

Nikki & WLockhart:
Thanks a bunch for the leads. I saved the link to the PDF posted and I'll check out Pizzamaking.com. Very interesting!

Dave,

YOU DA MAN!!! Thanks for the details. I'm sold and am going to go check out the used deep dish pans I saw a few months back at the restaurant store. I hope they still have them!

When I try this out, I'll add on to this thread with some some pics and details.

[asudavew]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

Sounds good Ken.

I was thinking about it last night.

My pans are 9.5 inches at the bottom.

So you might want to increase the dough to 350 grams or more.
Or maybe do 3 with different amounts of dough to see which you like best.

Can't wait to see the pics!
I'm gonna have me a deep dish this weekend~!

[dusty]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

Wow! That sounds really good.

Now I want one of those! I just gotta try a breakfast model.

dusty

[Ken524]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

You guys made me hungry. I went to the restaurant supply store here in Louisville today Restaurant supply - new and used restaurant equipment - Dine Company.
They had 2 or 3 dozen used deep-dish pans (10" & 14") for $4US each. The associate thought they were from a Little Caesar's (Pizza! Pizza!).

I bought one 14" and two 10" pans plus a new "Pan Grabber" for $4.99. All the stuff was under $20. What a deal!

The pans were, uhh... NASTY. Most were still thick with grease and many still had flour and crumbs in them. I picked 3 that had the least number of dents and brought them home. After some very light scrubbing with mild detergent (I didn't want to remove all the seasoning) they look super.

[Modthyrth]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

Hooray! I can't wait to see the pictures of the finished pizzas. I'm getting really hungry!

[egalecki]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

aw, looking at the picture I thought it was a mickey mouse shaped pan...

[asudavew]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

aw, looking at the picture I thought it was a mickey mouse shaped pan...

Me too!

Let us know how they turn out Ken!

[Ken524]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

Yummy .

We cooked (Chicago Style?) Pan Pizza last night. The weather was ugly and I didn't feel like doing the WFO thing so we cooked them inside @ 350F (sorry, I'm hanging my head in shame, but the pizza was good anyway!).

We did 3 pies. A 10" cheese-only (we have little kids). A 10" spinach/artichoke/onion. The 14" was half Italian sausage/pineapple and half supreme (sausage, pepperoni, bell peppers, mushrooms, onion). Sauce was on top on all three (that worked great).

All the pies were loaded to the brim with cheese. Early on we realized we were not going to have enough Mozz, so we dug out some leftover bags of Monterrey jack and chedder to mix in. These things take a ton of cheese. If you plan on making them, buy double of what you think you'll need .

I pretty much followed Master Dave's advice (posted above). 350grams of dough in the 10" pans and the remaining 500 or so grams in the 14" pan. Rolling the dough worked great.

The conventional oven took about 45-50 minutes to get it all cooked (I think the WFO will be faster). After they were done, I let them sit for 10 minutes to let the cheese "set" a bit. Then we gobbled them up. There was a ton of leftovers so we had more for lunch today.

A cool idea for a big pizza party would be to do the standard pizzas in the WFO while a few Chicago's are cooking inside.

We'll definitely be doing this again.

[Ken524]

Re: Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

One last pic. This is the spinach/artichoke.