Deep Dish Pizza Quest, Part 3

 

Jesse Sutton--  Alright, reader, we've had a breakthrough!  After my first Chicago-style deep dish post went viral (as in, was read by more than 3 people), alert reader Eric Possa (my comrade in arms from Avenues at the Peninsula Hotel Chicago, a good chef, and an excellent guy) sent me a new recipe for pizza crust, and the results were outstanding!  Note that I only used this recipe's crust, I'm happy with where we are at with the toppings.

Sally's Baking Addiction Pizza Recipe

I was unaware of this blog, but after this experience, I trust their recipes.

Foundationaly, it was similar to the Mariani crust recipe I'd been using.  Water, flour, yeast, salt, sugar, fat.  The big difference was that the fat was butter, not olive oil.  More significantly, the butter was added in two stages.  Half was melted, and added to the dough before fermentation.  The other half was spread on the dough after a 2 hour rise, after it was rolled out.  Then, the whole thing was reformed into a ball, and given a short rise in the fridge, which is the perfect amount of time to get your toppings together,  The butter made a difference in the flavor, and the whole butter rolled into the crust made a massive difference in texture.  It wasn't flaky (like a croissant, or a Danish) by any stretch, but it was noticeable, in a good way.

This recipe had several other advantages over Mariani's.

-The bake temp was 425F, vs. Mariani's 400F, meaning the pizza was done in 35 minutes, with a crunch to the crust that I wouldn't have thought possible with a home cook's oven.  (Although it should be noted that mine is a pretty nice GE convection oven.)

-The recipe included the step of brushing the exposed parts of the crust with olive oil, which contributed a nice burnished color to the crust that Mariani's lacked.

-This dough held together better, and was easy to roll out.  However, in fairness to Mariani, it may just be that I'm getting better at making pizza crust.  

The recipe wasn't perfect.  I had to add about a half-cup of flour to the dough, which was far too wet.  Still, that was a quick fix, and when this quest is over, I'll put up a recipe that's tested and corrected.

Cheese-pocalypse Now

This time, in the name of consistency, I weighed the mozzarella.  I almost wish I hadn't.  The 14" pie took 545g, an astounding amount.  I thought it was a bit much, upon eating it, but I wondered if I only thought that now that I knew just how much cheese was in this bastard.  I asked my erstwhile wife/editor/photographer/dishwasher if she thought it was too much, and she flatly responded 'Hell, no.'  So there you have it.

For those keeping score, our 14" pie now contains two 26.6 oz. boxes of chopped tomatoes (drained), 18 oz. of Italian Sausage, 19+ ounces of Mozzarella, 2 boxes of Birdseye spinach, 6 cloves of fried garlic, and some oregano, chile flake, grated parmesan, and salt.  May God have mercy on our souls.

What's Next?

Well, I wished the crust had just a bit more salt, so I'll be upping that on the next go.  However, I think it's safe to say we've got the crust where it needs to be, so it's time to start tweaking toppings.  I haven't decided between two possibilities for the next pie, but it's between two.  Idea #1 is to attempt to recreate the sausage and spinach pie from Papa Del's (in Champaign, IL), the gold standard for Chicago-style pizza worldwide.  It is a little idiosyncratic for a Chicago pie, with it's use of a cooked sauce rather than canned tomatoes, and it's sausage in little balls (or maybe plugs), rather than a big Lou Malnati's-style sheet.  Idea #2 is artichokes and anchovies, just because that sounds awesome.  (Also, note that I thought about using fresh artichokes, but cooler heads have prevailed, and I'll admit defeat and use jarred, saving me $20 and 2 hours.)

One More Note:

This pizza held up admirably the next morning, and, paradoxically, was just the thing to chase away that 'I ate four pounds of pizza and drank 12 glasses of wine last night' feeling.  

-JS