Deep Dish Sourdough Pizza Detroit Sicilian Food

DETROIT-STYLE PIZZA

Steps:

• Pour warm water into the bowl of stand mixer; mix in yeast and sugar and let dissolve. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil, salt, and bread flour. Knead mixture together with a dough hook attachment until dough is very smooth, soft, and elastic.
• Drizzle remaining olive oil over the bottom of a 10x14-inch Detroit-style pizza pan and spread around with your fingers. Place dough in the center; pull and stretch into a roughly rectangular shape with oiled fingers. Cover and let rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Prepare sauce and cheese in the meantime.
• Combine marinara sauce, oregano, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Simmer to fully hydrate the oregano and garlic, about 15 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 500 to 550 degrees F (260 to 288 degrees C).
• Dice Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese into small cubes. Toss lightly to mix together.
• Rub fingertips with some olive oil from the pan. Press out air from the dough while stretching and pushing into a rectangle that goes all the way to the edges of the pan. Stretch up the sides about 1/2 inch or so.
• Lay most of the pepperoni onto the dough. Scatter cheese cubes evenly on top, making sure to fully cover all the edges where dough meets the pan. Ladle sauce on top in 3 long strips. Arrange remaining pepperoni over the sauce.
• Bake in the preheated oven until pizza is somewhere between golden brown and golden black, about 15 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes.
• Very carefully slide pizza onto a cutting board using a spatula. Cut into individual pieces using the lines of sauce as a guide.

DEEP DISH SOURDOUGH PIZZA (DETROIT & SICILIAN)

Steps:

• Dough Mixing and Bulk Fermentation
• Combine the ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Transfer to a floured work surface and knead for several minutes, adding flour or water as needed to get a manageable hydration.
• Lightly oil a bowl or dough bucket with space for doubling and place the dough inside. Cover and let the dough ferment rise until it has doubled. My dough needed about 4 hours at about 77F with refrigerated starter that had ripened the day before. If you want a more sour dough, refrigerate the dough before it doubles and bring it up to room temperature when you're ready to use it. Depending on how long you leave it in the refrigerator and your refrigerator temperature, the dough may need additional time at room temperature to finish doubling.
• Shaping and Pizza Assembly
• Coat your pan with light olive oil, rubbing the oil up the sides of the pan.
• Lay the fermented dough in the pan and gently press and stretch it outward. Let the dough rest 10-15 minutes if it is too tight, and then resume stretching it until it covers the entire base of the pan. Cover the dough and let it rise for 1-2 hours.
• Prepare the toppings for the pizza: sauce, chopped cheeses, extra herbs, cherry tomatoes, pepperoncini, pepperoni--the possibilities are endless.
• Begin preheating your oven to 500F (450F if your pans are nonstick) and make sure there is a shelf at the lowest position in the oven.
• For a Detroit-style pizza, layer the toppings in this order: cheese, sauce, pepperoni OR pepperoni, cheese, sauce, which is also classic Detroit-style if you're not trying to achieve the pepperoni "cups." Make sure you take the cheese all the way to the edge of the dough.
• For a Sicilian pizza, layer in the more conventional order: sauce, cheese, pepperoni (the order of the herbs etc is at your discretion).
• Baking
• When the oven has preheated for at least 15 minutes, place the pan on lowest rack. Lower the oven temperature to 450F, and bake for 15-20 minutes. If the sides haven't browned, continue baking for a few more minutes.
• Remove the pizza from the oven and let it cool for just a couple of minutes in the pan, then pry the edges away from the pan and transfer the pizza to a cutting board to finish cooling. If you let the pizza cool completely in the pan, it is more likely to stick to the pan.

DETROIT-STYLE PIZZA

Steps:

• Combine the bread flour, semolina (or additional bread flour), yeast, sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt in a large bowl. Stir together the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon then make a well in the center. Pour in the water and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Stir for 1 to 2 minutes until a stretchy, wet dough forms.
• Grease a large clean bowl with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and transfer in the dough. Lift and stretch the dough onto itself, bringing the edges into the center to form a tight-skinned ball. Flip the dough over, seam side down, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot to rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
• Once the dough has doubled, grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Punch down the dough and turn it out into the prepared pan, stretching the dough so that it covers the bottom of the pan and reaches into the corners. Cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a warm spot to rise for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, place your oven rack in the lowest position and preheat your oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).
• Prepare the sauce by combining the tomatoes, garlic, parsley, oregano and Italian seasoning in a bowl and season with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and some pepper. Prepare the cheese by grating half and cutting the rest into 1-centimeter (1/2-inch) cubes.
• When the dough has risen, evenly scatter any toppings you're using straight onto the crust followed by the grated cheese, making sure to coat the whole crust including the very edges. Scatter the cubed mozzarella over top, again, paying particular attention to the very edges of the crust. Finally, dot the sauce over the cheese in a 4-by-3 grid. (You can also spoon the sauce onto the pizza in three long lines - the main thing is that you don't cover all of the cheese or crust with the sauce.)
• Bake the pizza for 15 to 17 minutes, or until the cheese has melted, is golden brown all over and is super crispy around the edges. Allow the pizza to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before cutting into twelve squares and serving.

SICILIAN PIZZA DOUGH

Steps:

• Coat a large bowl with teaspoon of olive oil and set aside.
• Stir first three ingredients together and let sit for 10 minutes, until nice and foamy.
• Place three cups of flour in large bowl and mix in salt.
• Place one cup of flour on work surface.
• Mix pour olive oil into yeast mixture and then pour yeast mixture into bowl with flour.
• Stir until as combined as possible.
• Turn out onto floured surface.
• With well floured hands, knead dough to work in the cup of flour on the board.
• Continue kneading until nice, smooth dough-ball is formed.
• Place in oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel and let sit for 30 minutes.
• Dough should double (at least).
• Use half the dough to form a pizza crust, crimp the edges, brush edges with olive oil and top as desired.
• Bake on pizza stone or ceramic tile at 425 F for approx 15 minutes.