Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza

Yield: 2 - large 8 slice pizzas

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 1/4 cups beer, warmed (or water)

1/4 cup salted butter, melted

1 tbsp honey (be generous)

3 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 packet or 2 tsps instant yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup salted butter, softened

Sauce:

See our Classic Pizza Sauce recipe - this pizza recipe uses about half of one sauce recipe

Toppings:

600g mozzarella cheese, shredded

375g bacon, diced and fried until just crispy

1 large red or orange bell pepper sliced into 1/2 inch slices and sauted in a little of the leftover bacon fat

350g Italian sausages, casings removed, crumbled and cooked through

110g pepperoni (I like dry cured)

Directions:

Dough:

1. Combine warm beer, melted butter and honey in a measuring cup

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, cornmeal, yeast and salt - whisk to combine

3. Pour in the beer/butter/honey mixture and using the dough hook, set the mixer to low (3) and let the ingredients come together

4. If the dough is too dry, add a little bit of beer at a time and if too wet, add a tablespoon of flour at a time

5. Run the mixer on low for about 3 minutes, once the dough comes togther. to knead it

6. Meanwhile, oil a large glass or stainless steel bowl

7. Place kneaded dough, in a ball, in the bottom of the bowl and cover tightly with tin foil 

8. Place in a warm spot to rise for 2 hours - I use my oven set to bread proof, but you could use the oven with just the light on

9. Make Classic Pizza Sauce and set aside to cool

10. After two hours, remove the dough to a floured surface and dust it with more flour - roll out into a large rectangle about 1/4 inch thick

11. Take the softened butter and spread it evenly all over the dough - I use an offset spatula

12. Roll the dough up into a log on the long edge, like a cinnamon roll - cut into two roughly equal pieces

13. Roll reach piece into a ball and place back in the bowl beside each other, cover again with foil and place in the fridge, until ready to use

14. When ready to assemble pizzas, remove dough balls to your floured surface and roll each one into a circle

15. Prepare 2 large springform pans with parchment on the bottoms

16. Lay each piece of dough into the prepared pans and gently push the dough into the seams to fit - trim the sides to about 1 inch in height  

Assembly:

1. Distribute a generous layer of mozzeralla cheese on top of each of the prepared pizza doughs - reserving some for the top

2. Layer the other toppings, with the pepperoni going on last

3. Apply heaping tablespoon sized dollops of Classic Pizza Sauce in between the pepperoni slices

4. Top with more mozzerella cheese 

Baking:

5. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees, on convection, or 415 in a regular oven, for 40-45 minutes, or until crust is golden and cheese begins to brown

6. Remove from the oven and let stand at least 5 minutes before removing the outer rings and cutting to serve

Notes:

The dough can be made, up to step 13, a day in advance of using it and stored, tightly covered, in the fridge.

We precook all our toppings to control the amount of moisture in the pizza and add flavour.

Top your pizzas with whatever you like and/or omit any above that you're not fond of.  Try sauted mushrooms, sundreid tomatoes, olives, etc.

My measurements, for toppings, above are what I use and for nutritional value purposes - you can adjust to your taste.

We often serve ours drizzled with balsamic reduction and sprinkled with chopped fresh basil!

You can collect dough scraps and roll them out again to make one mini pepperoni pizza.

Store leftover pizza, tightly covered, in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Nutrition Facts: (Not for the faint of heart!!)

Servings: 12

Calories 589

Total Fat 37.3g 48% Saturated Fat 15.7g 79% Cholesterol 96mg 32%  Sodium 1289mg 56%  Total Carbohydrate 35.1g 13%  Dietary Fiber 1.6g 6%

Total Sugars 2.6g Protein 25.1g Vitamin D 6mcg 30%  Calcium 96mg 7%  Iron 3mg 16% Potassium 368mg 8%

The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice.