Help me with my deep dish pizza dough - what do I need to tweak?

[wilburpan]

I’ve done a fair amount of cooking throughout my life, but the one area where I have no experience is baking that involves making a dough with yeast that needs to rise. Over the weekend I tried making a Chicago style deep dish pizza.
 
Here’s the before shot, before it went into Smaug.
 

 
Here’s the final product.





(Sorry, Dennis, no money shots of the grill, as it was too dark.)

I followed this recipe from RealDeepDish.com. For the dough, it’s a simple recipe. Combine lukewarm water, yeast, sugar, and salt. Add in all-purpose flour and corn oil. Knead until incorporated, then let rise for 1-2 hours.

 

The filling turned out great. I had some issues with the crust, however. Ideally, the crust should be browned on the sides and bottom, and be relatively easy to cut through. The crust was nicely browned, but the outer crust turned out much harder than I would have liked. I really had to apply significant pressure with a knife to cut through it. 

 

Here’s a list of things that I think went wrong.

 

1. I used a 10†cast iron pan for the cook, and the recipe said that it makes enough dough for a 12†pizza, and I still had trouble getting the dough to cover the bottom and sides pan.

 

2. When forming the crust in the pan, I put the dough in the middle and stretched it out across the bottom and up the sides of the pan. There was a spot on the bottom that thinned out to the point where it tore a hole. To fix this, I wadded up the dough back into a ball and started over. 

 

3. Smaug got up to temp faster and higher than I expected, and I cooked the pizza at 550ºF instead of 450ºF like the recipe calls for. I put the pan on the baking stone on the main grate for this cook.

 

4. I’m not sure that the dough rose enough. I put the dough in a covered bowl for the rising part, and it was bigger after two hours, which is when I used it. The bowl sat out on my kitchen counter for this part, and the temperature in my kitchen was about 70ºF.

 

My guess that the problem was a combination of (1) the dough not rising enough, (2) I probably should not have I wadded up the dough to start the stretching process over, (3) using too much dough for the size pizza I was making, and (4) cooking at too high a temperature.

 

But like I said above, I have no experience with rising doughs. This is literally the second time I’ve used yeast and flour together, and the last time I used yeast was in the 1980’s. So I could use some help in figuring out what I need to change the next time I make this, as I realize I could be way off in what went wrong.

 

Thanks!

[ckreef]

I basically use the exact same dough recipe you did off that website. All my deep dish pizzas you've seen me post use that recipe. I did scale it down for a 10" pan but I doubt having a little extra dough hurt anything.

I find sometimes it takes up to 3 hours for the rise. Lately I'll turn on my oven as low as possible for a few minutes then turn it back off. Then I'll let the dough rise in there since it's now a nice warm environment.

Restretching it did not help. They actually recommend working the dough as little as possible. Try and get an even layer in the bottom of the pan first then start pinching up the sides. You can always push more from the middle to the bottom edge if need be.

The biggest issue was probably the higher cook temp. It doesn't allow the dough to rise during the cook before it starts to get crispy. If anything go down to maybe 425*.

You might want to go to Walmart and just get a cheapie 10" round pan. That's what I did. Should allow the heat to transfer into the dough quicker than CI.

Doesn't look bad for a first attempt.

Charles - Prometheus 16.5", Cassiopeia 19" TT

[kjs]

Your pizza looks good.  The dough recipe you used is a good one, it is like the dough from Uno Pizzeria or Pizzeria Due both in Chicago. The attached recipe (from the same forum) it is a thicker more spongy crust, some folks also add a little yellow corn meal.

TheQuod.pdf

 

The recipe below is similar to that of Lou Malnati's in Chicago.

 

Chicago deep dish pizza dough
3 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/4 cups warm water
½ cup olive oil

 

Mix yeast ¼ cup of warm water, ¼ cup of flour and sugar in a bowl cover and let stand in a warm place for 15~20 minutes then mix in all the other ingredients mix well and let stand covered for about 1.5 hours, punch down and knead until the correct texture is achieved (add a bit more flower so it’s not sticky) split into two dough balls and roll out for two pizzas!

 

Hope this helps.

[wilburpan]

Thanks for the help! I’ll keep those things in mind the next time I make a Chicago style deep dish pizza.

 

It strikes me that the cast iron pan probably saved the crust from burning with the elevated cooking temperature.

 

I should mention that I grew up in Chicago, so I have a pretty good idea as to how this should turn out. 

[kjs]

Thanks for the help! I’ll keep those things in mind the next time I make a Chicago style deep dish pizza.

 

It strikes me that the cast iron pan probably saved the crust from burning with the elevated cooking temperature.

 

I should mention that I grew up in Chicago, so I have a pretty good idea as to how this should turn out. 

I am curious, did you use a baking stone or deflector under the cast iron pan? I recently cooked a deep dish pizza in a steel pan at a temp of 425, and used the baking stone, I did get the desired results.

[wilburpan]

I did use the baking stone, on the main grate, and put the pan directly on the baking stone.

[heavenlyink]

Hello Wilbur when i was waiting for my KK to arrive i went searching for a good recipe for pizza dough and i feel like i found it here http://www.fredsmusicandbbq.com/category_s/1131.htm(check outnhis other videos also) i watched him make this dough and set out to find the flours locally but no luck so i just use bread flour and i feel it works good and taste good since i can not compare to his recommended flour i dont know what i might be missing. Anyway i have used his recipe many many time and it never fails i do use the olive oil and bit of sugar and the dough can be kept in the fridge for a week and cooks up beautifull on the KK. This guy has lots of videos on pizza making and sauce i personally cook my sauce never have used a cold sauce like he does but mine tastes pretty good cooking down a can of diced tomatoes with the seasonings.

I found this site looking for a grill before i stumbled upon the KK site naturally i was sold but went back for the recipes. I have made pizza all my lfe and this dough is the best i have made. I feel i am an expert as my mom use to say i was embryo-ized on pizza any time of the day i was calling for it so needless to say this is my favorite food. Oh i even bought a Bosch mixer and it is like heaven mixing the dough it makes the dough rise faster as it is warmed up after 7min. of kneading and making right into balls and storing i a flat box in the fridge esp. over night works the best. Hope this helps i am sold and now i am hungry for PIZZA.

[MacKenzie]

Wilbur, I've never made a deep dish pizza so take this with a grain of salt. I do believe that balling up the dough caused the problems with the rise. Also I'd suggest max. heat in the range 450 F. If you have too much dough you really don't have to use it all. I hope this helps some.

 

[tinyfish]

Wilbur I have never made a deep dish pizza myself I stick with the ultra thin crust. Your pizza does look tasty even if you stay the crust was a little too cooked.

[CeramicChef]

Wilbur - the next one of those that you do that fails to make the grade, just box it up and shop it to ChezChef here in OKC.  I'll tear it apart!  Kudos!

[GrillingMontana]

Wilbur-

 

I have had really great luck using a focaccia recipe from King Arthur Flours website.

 

The cornmeal (which I love) has been way too toothy the 4 or 5 times I have made it.

 

I always make it in the CI skillet and go a little heavy on the coating with olive oil. 

 

Generally I cook at 400 for close to an hour which seems really long, but has worked for me time and again.

 

Another thing i have found is I prefer to cook the sausage first and run it thru the food processor instead of putting it in the pie raw like some places do in Chicago. Usually I get the deep dish bug after eating at Old Chicago and love how they stick green olives in the crust.

 

Here is a shot pre KK days-

Now I have to make a deep dish soon!