Whip It Up Challenge-Chicago Deep Dish Style

This week's Whip It Up Challenge suggested theme was "Regional Favorites". It didn't take me long to come up with Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza as my recipe. Now...I have never even made pizza from scratch, let alone deep dish! Yeah, I have bought the Boboli pizza crusts and put toppings on them...but this was going to be an adventure for me.

I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy a Deep Dish Pizza Pan (they only had one option), but it was a good investment because I will certainly be doing this again. And of course I had a 20% off coupon.

(And I saw a ton of things I can't wait to register for when we do our bridal registries!!!!) =)

I found the recipe I made here. I wanted to find one that was similar to Lou Malnati's Pizza because that is my absolute favorite, but many required a dough hook or bread maker (Back to that whole registry thing...I'm definitely hoping for a nice stand mixer with a dough hook!) and I didn't want to spend forever scouring the Internet for one. So...I ended up with Unos. Unos is good!

Pizza Unos Deep Pan Chicago Style Pizza Recipe

Ingredients
----- PAN DOUGH -----
1 cup warm tap water; (110-115 degrees)
1/4 oz active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup coarse ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil

----- PIZZA TOPPING -----
1 lb mozzarella cheese; sliced thin
1 cup pepperoni
28 oz tomato sauce
2 garlic cloves; peeled and minced
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
Pour the warm water into a large mixing bowl and dissolve the yeast with a fork.
Add 1 cup of flour, all of the cornmeal, salt, and vegetable oil, and mix well with a spoon.

Continue stirring in the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Flour your hands and the work surface and knead the ball of dough until it is no longer sticky.

Let the dough rise in an oiled bowl, sealed with plastic wrap, for 45-60 minutes in a warm place, until it has doubled in size.

Punch it down and knead it briefly.

Press it into an oiled 15-inch deep dish pizza pan until it comes 2 inches up the sides and is even on the bottom of the pan.

Let the dough rise 15-20 minutes before filling.

Preheat the oven to 500°F.

While the dough is rising, prepare the filling.

When the dough has finished its second rising, lay the cheese over the dough shell.

Distribute the pepperoni and garlic over the cheese.

Top with the tomato sauce.

Sprinkle on the seasonings and Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes at 500°F, then lower the temperature to 400°F and finish baking for 25-35 minutes longer.

Lift up a section of the crust from time to time with a spatula to check its color.

The crust will be golden brown when done.

Serve immediately.

Here is my dough rising.

Spread out in my deep dish pan

Yummy Pizza!

The Questions

1. Was the recipe easy to follow?
It was fairly easy to follow once I figured out that they didn't really mean 1 1/4 oz of yeast because that would be a crazy amount of yeast. I Googled other recipes and every other deep dish pizza recipe called for 1 packet which is 1/4 oz. So that is what I put in. Only 1 packet.
2. Did the dish taste good?
Yup! It was very yummy.

3. Would you make it again?
Certainly, except I would make a few changes in the future. I would probably add even more cheese. I might experiment with different sauces and try to find one that is more like Lou Malnati's as well.
4. Leftover quotient?
If you know anything about deep dish, you know that it is really filling. I had Adam and my parents join me for dinner and we each only had one slice so we consumed half of the pizza. But deep dish always makes good leftovers. Dad would usually have two slices but Mom tattled and said he ate a ton of pretzels before he came over. Dad...were you worried it wouldn't taste good??
5. Any additions/edits to the recipe?
-Use ONE packet of active dry yeast.

-I used a rolling pin to roll out the dough before placing it into the dish. It was much easier that way than trying to drop the lump in the dish and spread it out. I rolled it flat and then it was much easier to use my fingers to press it around the whole circle and up the sides.

-I ended up only adding 3 cups of flour total because the dough was very dry and I didn't think another 1/2 cup would work.

-Of course I added some extra cheese...but I would probably add even more next time. Good deep dish pizza is ALWAYS extra cheesy!

-Oh yeah, and of course I didn't add pepperoni because....I wouldn't eat it then! And I wanted some pizza!

-Most importantly, my oven ALWAYS takes longer to cook things than recipes say so I put it in for the full time and the crust was overdone. I should definitely have checked it after 20-25 minutes and not waited for 35. That was the biggest bummer. The crust on the bottom was good, but the rest was overdone and a little hard.
6. Adam's thoughts?
Adam says that he hopes that I make it again. This is good coming from him because deep dish isn't his favorite usually. Dad said it would have been better with meat. Mom said the sauce to cheese ratio was a little off and we could use less sauce. But overall everyone said that they enjoyed their meals and they would want it again!