Cast Iron Skillet Deep Dish Pizza

Last week I got a craving for some deep dish pizza, which is understandable because all I ever make is Trenton style thin crust pizza. I didn't have a recipe but I knew I wanted Chicago style deep dish and I wanted to cook it in our trusty cast iron skillet.  I looked around a little bit to see if I could find a secret recipe from Lou Malnati's somewhere, but of course there was none to be found.  So I found my way over to the greatest cooking site on the planet, cooksillustrated.com.  They had just updated their Chicago style deep dish pizza recipe last year, so I knew I could count on them, as per usual. Their recipe makes two 9 inch pizzas, but I wanted to use my 12 inch skillet, no big deal, I'll just make one large dough ball and one small dough ball.  They also list their own tomato sauce recipe, but that's silly since I make my own tomato sauce and always have it on hand.  Although, their recipe looks good and I wouldn't mind if you used it.  Now let's talk about the crust on this pizza.  Chicago style deep dish pizza has a buttery, biscuit-like crust, and that was the most important thing i wanted to get right with this pie.  The key to this is laminating the dough.  What is laminated dough you say? Well you get it when you press together alternating layers of butter and dough.  Mmmm...butter.  As you can see, it makes for a flaky, pastry like crust that holds up well to all the cheese and sauce.  Go ahead and try this recipe tonight, you won't be disappointed.



Ingredients
Dough
3 1/4 cups (16 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (2 3/4 ounces) yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 package instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/4 cups water (10 ounces), room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted, plus 4 tablespoons, softened
1 teaspoon plus 3 tablespoons olive oil

Toppings
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (or Pecorino Romano, your choice) cheese
Pepperoni slices (or other toppings of your choice)
About 2 1/2 to 3 cups of your favorite tomato sauce
Fresh basil leaves

Instructions
1. FOR THE DOUGH: Mix flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and yeast in bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook on low speed until incorporated, about 1 minute. Add water and melted butter and mix on low speed until fully combined, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping sides and bottom of bowl occasionally. Increase speed to medium and knead until dough is glossy and smooth and pulls away from sides of bowl, 4 to 5 minutes. (Dough will only pull away from sides while mixer is on. When mixer is off, dough will fall back to sides.)

2. Using fingers, coat large bowl with 1 teaspoon olive oil, rubbing excess oil from fingers onto blade of rubber spatula. Using oiled spatula, transfer dough to bowl, turning once to oil top; cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature until nearly doubled in volume, 45 to 60 minutes.

3. TO LAMINATE THE DOUGH: Using rubber spatula, turn dough out onto dry work surface and roll into 15- by 12-inch rectangle.  Using offset spatula, spread softened butter over surface of dough, leaving 1/2-inch border along edges.  Starting at short end, roll dough into tight cylinder. With seam side down, flatten cylinder into 18- by 4-inch rectangle. Cut about 1/4 of the rectangle crosswise. (This small ball can be used for another small pizza. Just flatten into a disc, wrap tightly in plastic, and throw it in the freezer.)

Working with the bigger ball, fold into thirds like a business letter; pinch seams together to form ball.  Return ball to oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise in refrigerator until nearly doubled in volume, 40 to 50 minutes, or up to 6 hours. If you're going to use it another day, wrap tightly in plastic and freeze immediately.

4. Coat the skillet with 3 tablespoons olive oil. Transfer the dough ball to dry work surface and roll out into 15-inch disk about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer dough to pan by rolling dough loosely around rolling pin and unrolling into pan. Lightly press dough into pan, working into corners and 1 inch up sides. If dough resists stretching, let it relax 5 minutes before trying again.

5. Cut the mozzarella into strips and spread evenly over surface of dough.  Add the pepperoni (or other toppings) on top of the cheese.

Spread about 2 1/2 cups tomato sauce over cheese and sprinkle the Parmesan over sauce. Bake until crust is golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove pizza from oven, top with basil leaves, and let rest at least 10 minutes (preferably 20) before slicing and serving.  Enjoy!  Serves 2-3 people

Download a printable recipe here!
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