Deep Dish Pizza: Cook’s Illustrated Strikes Again

OK, I don’t know what’s come over me. I said in this post here on Cook’s Illustrated’s Pot Roast that I’d mostly given up using Cook’s Illustrated recipes because they were too fussy. But this recipe is like they read my mind or something. I mean, I have the big book of Cook’s Illustrated America’s Test Kitchen TV recipes for ten seasons, but when I looked up the recipes for deep dish pizza, they seemed awfully long. But Greg was watching America’s Test Kitchen and saw this version. Alas, it wasn’t in the book, but he wrote it down, and we dutifully made it. Well worth it. And not at all fussy. Really easy, in fact. And very delicious.

Preheat the oven to 200 and get out your dry ingredients — including flour, salt and yeast:

And wet ingredients: Milk, olive oil and sugar:

Whiz in the mixer with the dough hook:

Knead it quickly to bring it into a ball:

Oil it on all sides:

And put it in a glass bowl and cover with plastic.

Put it in the oven and shut the oven off. Let it rise until it doubles in size, between 30 and 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute 2 cloves of garlic in olive oil and add a 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. Also cook pepperoni in between 2 paper towels on high in the microwave for 30 seconds. Turn the oven up to 400 degrees.

When the dough is ready, cut it in half and roll it out to 7 inches.

Put some olive oil in the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan, pat the dough into the pan and add 1 1/2 cups sauce:

Spread out the sauce and add cheese:

Add the cooked pepperoni:

Bake in the 400 degree oven for 20 minutes:

Let rest for as little as a few minutes, or up to 15 or 20:

Slice and grate some fresh parmesan over top:

Deep Dish Pepperoni Pizza

From Cook’s Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen

For the dough:
2 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package instant yeast
200 ml skim milk
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar

For the sauce:
1 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped small
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

For each pizza:
1 3/4 ounces pepperoni (3 1/2 ounces total)
2/3 cup sauce (1 1/3 cups total)
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella (3 cups total)

Preheat oven to 200. Combine the flour, salt, yeast, milk, olive oil and sugar in a mixer fitted with the dough hook and beat until the dough comes together. Knead quickly to bring to a ball. Drizzle olive oil all over the ball and place it in a glass bowl and seal in plastic. Place in the 200 degree oven and turn the oven off. Let the dough rise until it’s doubled in size, between 30 and 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Saute the garlic in olive oil over medium heat until translucent, then add the can of crushed tomatoes, juice and all. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Also, place the pepperoni between two paper towels on a dinner plate and microwave for 30 seconds. This gets rid of some of the fat.

When the dough has risen, remove it and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Swirl olive oil to cover the bottom of two (9-inch) cake pans. When the dough has risen, cut it in half and roll out to 7 inch circle. Press into and up the sides of the two cake pans. Onto each pizza, ladle 2/3 cups sauce and sprinkle with 1 1/2 cups mozzarella. Lay pepperoni on top to cover the pizza.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, until the cheese and sauce are bubbling and the crust is golden brown. Remove and cool. Slice and sprinkle with grated parmesan, if desired.