Most non-Chicagoans associate Chicago with deep dish pizza, but most locals see it differently: Their pizza is thin crust, and the deep dish pies are for the tourists.
The thin crust pies are topped with sauce and cheese to the edge, and then finished with pieces of raw Italian sausage that cook while the pizza is in the oven. Out of the oven, the pie is cut in squares instead of the usual traditional slices. This style of pizza is found outside of Chicago and even other states and also referred to as “Tavern Style Pizza”.
So here’s my version with a few modifications, which may ruffle the feathers of a few Chicago purists.
For this pizza, I used the dough recipe provided on RealDeepDish.com, with one change: I substituted 30 grams of flour for semolina to give the crust more crunch, at least that was the plan. I also used my own sauce, as I see no reason to fix what isn’t broken.
Dough after 2 hour room temp rise:
Onto the pizza dough mat:
After dusting with some flour and working it into a relatively even disc:
Then came the rolling pin – flattened out to about a 15 inch round:
Then onto the Super Peel and ready to add sauce, cheese, sausage & pepperoni:
Fully topped and ready to cook:
Into the Blackstone, stone temp at 550:
After the pizza went in the oven, I followed others suggestions to lower the temp of the oven – in this case, I turned the flame down to its lowest point to slow the down the cooking of the top of the pizza so the bottom could get crisp. After about 4 mins, I checked the bottom crust and it felt floppy and uncooked, and hoped this wasn’t going to be a pizza disaster in the making. After a few more minutes, I checked the bottom crust and it had firmed up nicely. Finally, the top of the pie and bottom were where I wanted, so I pulled it out of the oven.
Pizza sliced, with some fresh basil:
Undercarriage shot:
All in all, I enjoyed this pizza – I enjoyed the thinnest pieces the most, while the thicker ones weren’t quite as good. Next time, I’ll work on rolling out the dough more evenly and get it as thin as possible.
Thanks fer lookin’!
The thin crust pies are topped with sauce and cheese to the edge, and then finished with pieces of raw Italian sausage that cook while the pizza is in the oven. Out of the oven, the pie is cut in squares instead of the usual traditional slices. This style of pizza is found outside of Chicago and even other states and also referred to as “Tavern Style Pizza”.
So here’s my version with a few modifications, which may ruffle the feathers of a few Chicago purists.
For this pizza, I used the dough recipe provided on RealDeepDish.com, with one change: I substituted 30 grams of flour for semolina to give the crust more crunch, at least that was the plan. I also used my own sauce, as I see no reason to fix what isn’t broken.
Dough after 2 hour room temp rise:
Onto the pizza dough mat:
After dusting with some flour and working it into a relatively even disc:
Then came the rolling pin – flattened out to about a 15 inch round:
Then onto the Super Peel and ready to add sauce, cheese, sausage & pepperoni:
Fully topped and ready to cook:
Into the Blackstone, stone temp at 550:
After the pizza went in the oven, I followed others suggestions to lower the temp of the oven – in this case, I turned the flame down to its lowest point to slow the down the cooking of the top of the pizza so the bottom could get crisp. After about 4 mins, I checked the bottom crust and it felt floppy and uncooked, and hoped this wasn’t going to be a pizza disaster in the making. After a few more minutes, I checked the bottom crust and it had firmed up nicely. Finally, the top of the pie and bottom were where I wanted, so I pulled it out of the oven.
Pizza sliced, with some fresh basil:
Undercarriage shot:
All in all, I enjoyed this pizza – I enjoyed the thinnest pieces the most, while the thicker ones weren’t quite as good. Next time, I’ll work on rolling out the dough more evenly and get it as thin as possible.
Thanks fer lookin’!
