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[bregent]

It's starting to heat up around here, so time to move pizza making outdoors again. Wife and MIL wanted pizza, so made Chicago Style with Italian sausage, mushroom and pepperoni. Cooked on the Memphis preheated to 450 for about 35 minutes:

[Bar-B-Lew]

Looks much better than what I have eaten in Chicago..nice job!

[Ralphie]

Wow. That’s a treat. Are you able to share your dough recipe and any tips?

Also, that’s a perfect slice.   Do you have to let it rest? At a nearby restaurant that serves that style pizza, all the cheese, sauce, and toppings just spill out all over the plate and pan once you slice and remove a piece.

[grilltreats]

Yes, that looks really good!  I discovered pellet grills are fantastic for cooking pizzas last year.  I have cooked a few myself on mine and love the crust and being able to consume them pipping hot verses carryout or delivery.

[Bentley]

I would think a pit would be well suited to Deep Dish, very nice, and as I look at yours...the 2 times I have tried it, I believe I used way to much sauce!

[bregent]

> Are you able to share your dough recipe and any tips?

Sure, this is for a 14.25 inch pan:
All Purpose Flour  - 363 grams
Semolina Flour - 19 grams
Water (110 degrees) - 229 grams
Corn Oil - 72 grams
Yeast - 2.7 grams
Table Salt - 3 grams
Sugar - 1.5 grams

Mix together, cover and let rise in warm place until doubled - I usually use my oven with the light on and it takes 2 hours to double. For cheese, I use 20oz of whole milk mozzarella. Sauce is one 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes, drained in a strainer for about 30 minutes. A great resource for deep dish is realdeepdish.com. Download their RDDHolyGrail.pdf and follow their instructions - it's all you need to make great deep dish. Of course pizzamaking dot com is another great place for info about all styles.

The dough is very easy to make and work with, but I'm going to try reducing the oil next time to see if I can get the crust a little less pie-like, and give it a little more chew.

I do let the pie cool in the pan for about 5 minutes to firm up, then slide it onto a regular pizza pan and let it cool a few minutes more before slicing. It all stays intact that way. Have fun.

[bregent]

>the 2 times I have tried it, I believe I used way to much sauce

Yeah, I can see that it's easy to use too much. For the size pie I make, I use a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes, completely drained in a colander - so it's very thick. As I'm spreading it on with a rubber spatula it always seems like there's not enough - but it ends up there is just enough to barely cover everything and that's the perfect amount.

Also I didn't mention in my previous reply that it is very important to use sliced cheese so that it forms a barrier and prevents sauce and other liquids from topping from making the crust soggy. If you want to use some shredded cheese that's fine, as long as you at least have one layer of sliced cheese on the bottom pressed into the dough.

[Ralphie]

Great tips!  Thanks.  I bought supplies (pans, etc) in order to start my journey with deep dish pizza this summer.  Lou Malnati's from Chicago is my inspiration.  There are knockoff recipes on those sites you mentioned.  If I can come remotely close to the flaky butter crust of Malnati's I'll be ecstatic. 

[bregent]

Great tips!  Thanks.  I bought supplies (pans, etc) in order to start my journey with deep dish pizza this summer.  Lou Malnati's from Chicago is my inspiration.   

I've never had it myself, but my inspriration was based on reading this: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=35488.msg353079#msg353079

[Ralphie]

Yes!  That's the link that is driving me to do this!  And when I saw your pictures I did a double take at the crust you made.  I'm going to give it a shot this weekend. 

[yorkdude]

 Bregent, that looks fantastic.
The tips regarding the sauce as well as sliced cheese are much appreciated.
That's at the top of the list now.

[triplebq]

Nice, love Chicago style pizza

[bregent]

>Yes!  That's the link that is driving me to do this!  And when I saw
>your pictures I did a double take at the crust you made.

To be clear, the dough formula I posted is pretty much straight out of the Hold Grail PDF. The hydration of that dough is 60%.  The dough that is being discussed in that PMDC thread runs around 45%, which is a huge difference. I thinking about giving that a try next time, along with modifying the oil. For 14", it will be:

Flour (100%):       401.28 g  |  14.15 oz | 0.88 lbs
Water (45%):       180.58 g  |  6.37 oz | 0.4 lbs
IDY (.70%):       2.81 g | 0.1 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.93 tsp | 0.31 tbsp
Salt (.75%):       3.01 g | 0.11 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.63 tsp | 0.21 tbsp
Corn Oil (10%):       40.13 g | 1.42 oz | 0.09 lbs | 8.92 tsp | 2.97 tbsp
Canola Oil (10%): 40.13 g | 1.42 oz | 0.09 lbs | 8.84 tsp | 2.95 tbsp
Sugar (.5%):       2.01 g | 0.07 oz | 0 lbs | 0.5 tsp | 0.17 tbsp
Semolina (5%):       20.06 g | 0.71 oz | 0.04 lbs | 5.77 tsp | 1.92 tbsp
Total (171.95%):   690 g | 24.34 oz | 1.52 lbs | TF = N/A

Let us know what you end up doing and how it turns out.

[cookingjnj]

Great looking pizza!!  I am more a fan of thin crust, but what you show makes me think I might be missing something. 

[Trooper]

To avoid saying negative about my experiences with Chicago Deep Dish pizza and ticking off some people, I'll just keep silent.
Aye? (I can't believe that some of the famous places in Chicago are able to stay in business)

Your pizza looks absolutely great bregent, and I'm sure it was light-years above the restaurant junk in downtown Chicago.

Dang. Gotta learn to behave myself!