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Coming Back with an Easy, No-Knead Deep Dish Pepperoni Pizza

It seems like it has been ages since I have had time to post any recipes I have tried. Now that the kitchen is back to being a kitchen again (and it looks great by the way), and some other family stuff is behind us, I can try to get back to posting on a regular basis. I thought I would try to ease back into everything with a simple recipe that I put together for dinner on Friday night. This one is from King Arthur Flour, which is my favorite source for all things baking. I buy a lot of their items for the different breads I make, but they also make an excellent pizza blend flour that makes a wonderful crust for pizza. This recipe makes a simple, no-knead pizza dough that you can turn out pretty quickly and dress up with your favorite toppings to make a great meal anytime. The recipe was published in their last catalog, and I thought it would be a great one to try out.

No-Knead Deep-Dish Pepperoni Pizza

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 1/4 cups Pizza Flour Blend

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

2 teaspoons instant yeast

1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in puree

3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

4 ounces sliced pepperoni

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Grease or oil with olive oil a 9″ x 13″ pan. To make the crust, Stir the water, olive oil, pizza flour blend, salt, and yeast together in a large bowl to form a slightly sticky, soft dough. Let the dough rise, covered for 30 minutes.

Place the dough in the oiled pan and let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Pat and stretch the dough to cover the bottom of the pan. Let the dough rest in the pan, covered with a towel, for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Cover the crushed pizza crust dough with the crushed tomatoes. Top the tomatoes with the mozzarella, then the pepperoni, and finally the Parmesan cheese. Place the pizza in the oven and bake the pizza for about 25 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and the topping is golden brown.

Remove the pizza from the oven and carefully lift it out of the pan and onto a cooling rack (if you have a large spatula, it is a big help here). Allow the pizza to cool for about 15 minutes before cutting it and serving it.

The pizza crust recipe itself is the same recipe you will find listed on the back of the pizza flour blend bag from King Arthur. I typically make the dough in my bread maker, allowing it to do the kneading and rising over the course of two hours. This method cuts that in half and produces a nice crust perfect for use in a deep dish pan or rectangular pan. I added some spice to the tomatoes, mixing in some Italian seasoning for extra flavor, and you could easily add some basil, oregano or another spice blend that you might like on your pizza for added flavor. The crust comes out nicely, and you get a good size pizza out of it that has nice flavor and crunch to it. It is certainly one I will try again since we make pizza here about once a month.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. I do plan to do a post about the kitchen and some of the new gadgets I have to play with, so keep an eye out for that. Until next time, enjoy the rest of yuor day and enjoy your meal!

An Easy Almost Chicago-Style Deep Dish Sausage Pizza

18 May

Very often around here Friday night’s are pizza night and more often than not I make my own pizza. It seems just as easy, doesn’t take a lot of time to make, and costs less than buying 2 pizzas from our favorite pizza place nearby. I have nothing against getting a pizza now and then; we do it ourselves on nights where no one has the energy to cook,but I just think for the minimum effort it takes to make the dough or even buy the pizza dough (most times a pound of dough is only about a dollar), you can make a pretty good pizza on your own. Sean had been asking me to try making a deep dish pizza because he wanted it, and I found a pretty easy recipe on the Cooking Channel website that was a good one to try.

Chicago-Style Deep Dish Sausage Pizza

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, sliced into thin rounds or removed from the casing and crumbled

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 pound pizza dough, at room temperature, or 1 serving of Food Processor Pizza Dough, at room temperature

10 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded or thinly sliced

1 cup of your favorite marinara sauce or 1 1/2 cups crushed and strained tomatoes

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Cook the sausage until the sausage is nicely browned and cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Grease the inside of a 12-inch cast-iron skillet with the softened butter. Place the pizza dough in the center of the skillet and spread the dough evenly towards the bottom edge and 1 1/2 inches up the sides.

Begin layering the ingredients on your pizza crust by evenly laying the sausage on the dough, followed by the mozzarella cheese and then by the tomato sauce or the tomatoes, whichever you happen to be using. Sprinkle the garlic and the dried oregano on top of the cheese and sauce. Finish the topping by adding the Parmesan cheese on top and drizzle the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of the olive oil.

Place the cast-iron skillet on the bottom rack of the oven and cook the pizza until the edge of the crust is golden brown and crusty, about 30 to 35 minutes. Remove the skillet from the oven and allow the pizza to rest for about 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Just a couple of quick notes about my experience with this recipe. First, you should preheat the oven for about 20 minutes or so to make sure the temperature is nice and hot before you put the pizza in. This seemed to make a big difference for me. Secondly, I didn’t get the pizza as “deep dish” as I would have liked it since I did not have quite enough dough to fully go up the sides of the pan. I had split the dough in half to make two pizzas and kind of short-changed myself, so make sure you have enough dough if you really want that deep, crispy crust. Thirdly, the sequence in the layering does seem to make a difference in getting the crisp bottom that you want. Putting the sausage on the bottom does make a difference here and helps to crisp the crust. You could, of course, use any toppings that you like for your pizza, but since we all like sausage pizza it worked well for us. This recipe is a very easy one that is perfect when you want the crunchy, deep-dish style pizza.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!