Deep Dish Pizza

Deep Dish Pizza

Deep dish pizza is a favorite meal around my house, but I often forget to add it to our weekday meal plan. This week, however, I was ahead of the game, and planned for deep dish pizza night. No-knead cornmeal olive oil dough makes this almost too simple, and the thick pizza slices filled with sausage and cheese meant one piece each was enough for all of us. Of course, it’s been requested again, and next week I think I’ll stuff it full of onions, green pepper, and mushrooms, for a vegetarian take.

Cornmeal Olive Oil Dough for Deep Dish Pizza

From Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes A Day

2 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 tablespoon Red Star Platinum yeast
1 -1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons sugar (or honey)
3/4 cup olive oil
6 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal

Mix the yeast, salt, and sugar with the water and olive oil in a 5-quart bowl, or lidded food container.

Mix the remaining dry ingredients without kneading, using a dough whisk or stand mixer (fitted with a paddle).

Cover, and allow the dough to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses, about 2 hours.

The dough can be used immediately, although it is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in a lidded container and use over the next 10 days.

For the pizza
3/4 pound Cornmeal Olive Oil Dough
4 large Italian sausages (about 3/4 pound), cooked and broken into small pieces
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup thick tomato sauce
Butter for the pan
Cornmeal for the pan

deep dish pizza

Preheat the oven to 500. Generously butter an 8 x 2-inch springform pan (or regular cake pan, as pictured above) and coat with cornmeal.

deep dish pizza

Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 3/4 pound piece. Dust with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.

Flatten the dough with your hands and a rolling pin on a work surface to produce a 1/8 inch thick round. Dust with flour to keep the dough from sticking to the surface. Use a dough scraper to un-stick the dough as needed. Transfer to the cake pan. The dough should hand over the edge of the pan, which will prevent it from “slouching” while you fill it.

deep dish pizza

Mix the sausage and two-thirds of the cheese together in a bowl. Spread the meat mixture onto the dough.

deep dish pizza

Top with the sauce.

deep dish pizza

Top with the remaining cheese. Trim the overhang with a kitchen shears so there is about 1/2 inch of dough that will flop down over the filling.

Slide the pizza into the preheated oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 400. Bake for about 45 minutes. The pizza should be bubbling and the cheese evenly melted. If your crust is browning too quickly, cover with a piece of aluminum foil.

deep dish pizza

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes on a wire rack, to allow the filling to set slightly before removing from the pan. (If you aren’t using a springform, you can run a knife around the edge of the pizza, and then use a spatula to help ease the pizza out of the pan.)

pizza9A

Cut into wedges and serve.

deep dish pizza

Don’t forget to check out our Craftsy Artisan Bread in Five Minutes class! Learn the secrets to making fresh, artisan-style breads in no time, from classic baguettes to braided loaves and even hearty sandwich breads.

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Lesaffre Yeast Corp. (Red Star) provided yeast samples for recipe testing, and sponsors BreadIn5’s website and other promotional activities.

14 thoughts to “Deep Dish Pizza”

  1. I made this for dinner tonight and it came out great! I added some sautéed chopped peppers and onions to the sausage, and sprinkled some Parmesan on top with the mozzarella. I didn’t want to waste the excess dough around the rim so I just rolled it into a thick edge. Next time I’m going to make it a stuffed crust pizza. Thanks for all the great recipes – everything I’ve tried from website and the books are terrific. Darlene

    1. Hi Darlene,

      Thank you for the lovely note, we are so happy you tried the pizza.

      Enjoy all the bread! Zoë

  2. I had saved this recipe to see if it could be converted to gluten free. Has anyone tried that? I would like to know what DOESN’T work, if you tried and didn’t succeed. I really want this dough, to try with a couple of different things. The other one I wanted to convert was the Corn Masa Dough. Any advice is appreciated. Emailing me would be best. I’m moving and might not see a reply here.

    1. I’m a little skeptical—that it might be over-dense with all those toppings in this kind of dough–you’d be up for some experimentation. Also–we don’t do e-mail–so that everyone can read the responses and this forum becomes a resource for our readers.

  3. This is a fabulous, fabulous crust! We are eating it right now, already planning to make again, and have already shared it with a foodie who loves to cook. Thank you for this =)

  4. I am a huge fan of your work, but now I must live the rest of my life without gluten.
    I have a little list of the doughs that I would like to convert to gluten free somehow, and this dough has been on it. Any suggestions? Have you tried it?
    I’ve thought of taking the GF Master Pizza Dough and substituting the ingredients that make each dough different, keeping the ratio of ingredients the same. My worst worry is water, but after watching Zoe’s Instagram video on using alternative flours during the pandemic, I might have the nerve to try.
    If you, or someone has already converted these, I would save me a lot of time, expense, and anxiety. Thank you!
    The other doughs I would love to have in gluten free are
    American-Style Pizza Dough
    Chocolate Dough
    Corn Masa Dough
    Savory Brioche Dough

    1. Many of the recipes in the basic book were rereated for gluten-free artisan bread in 5 minutes a day, which is a separate book. It took a lot of testing and retesting, and there’s no simple formula. The recipes are based on a custom flouer mixture, based on Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flouers in various proportions

      1. Thanks so much for responding. I understand how much work it took to develop all those gluten free recipes. I’ve finally learned that if I can do one thing, the same thing can happen in another recipe. Lots of trials and lots of errors, but I’m no longer scared to try.

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