Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza

We always make our pizza from scratch because there's just not that many other options in Russia. I try to make sure that we have a reasonably thick crust, but it comes no where near deep dish pizza in thickness or in flavor.

That's why when Elena and I both drooled over a new Chicago-style pizza recipe from one of my favorite bakers earlier this week, we decided that we needed to make it ASAP!

There are four types of pizza people, as I see it:

The thin crust people: You like your pizza thin and crunchy, just like the Italians.

The in-betweeners: You like your pizza not-too-thin, not-too-thick...why pick one when you can have both?

The thick crust people: You like thick, indulgent pizza that you can sink you teeth into—Chicago-style.

The pizza lovers: You like all kinds of pizza, and would rather die than have to choose one type over another.

This pizza is not for you thin crust people or you in-betweeners. No, no, this pizza is thick-as-can-be and super delicious in a buttery-kind-of-way. This is the kind of pizza that I like.

But then again, for me, flavor is the most important when talking about pizza; that's why I'm a pizza lover. I like pizza that has the best flavor, which just so happens to usually be deep dish pizza. But I can name a ton of other kinds of pizza that I like...just like I found out last summer that true Italian pizza (which is thin crust) is amazing.

When pizza came to the U.S., Americans Americanized it: added tons of toppings, thickened the dough...the list goes on, creating what we now think of as pizza. Now there are more varieties of pizza and more pizza lovers.

One of the much-loved ways that we've Americanized pizza is by creating Chicago-style deep dish pizza, which (obviously) originated in Chicago. This pizza's crust can be up to three inches high (meaning you have to eat it with a fork), and is delicious, buttery, and flaky. The pan is oiled so that the crust fries a little while the pizza is baking in the oven. Since the dough is so thick, deep dish pizza must be baked for a longer amount of time than regular pizza; this means that the toppings could be burnt. So, to solve this problem, the pizza is made in the order: dough, cheese, toppings, sauce.

When I told my siblings that we were supposed to put the sauce on top, they were completely opposed to the idea. I was barely able convince them to let me do it on the smallest pizza, but now I ask, did they really have that much say? They did not help me make the dough!

Half way through the baking time, I put tin foil on the pizzas that were not inverted so that when I pulled them out of the oven, perfectly golden cheese accompanied the delicious aroma.

When I bit into our inverted pizza, I discovered that I liked this strange new way of putting on the toppings! Using a fork, the pizza did not feel that much more messy even with the sauce on top; instead, the sauce prevented it from making me feel like I was getting an overload of cheese, like sometimes happens with pizza—rather, I was getting a nice combination of all the flavors.

All of that butter in the dough really made a difference: the crust was soft and flaky. We didn't oil the pans (we sprayed them with non-stick spray), but I would like to try oiling them next time to see if the crust will fry up a little bit.

I made a double recipe of the dough, and baked it all. We were left with one whole extra pizza (or about 1 1/2 9-inch pizzas, in terms of the recipe). Because the recipe is so well explained on Sally's Baking Addiction, I will not rewrite it here. Just click the link to get the recipe and awesome step-step photos!

http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/12/31/how-to-make-chicago-style-deep-dish-pizza/