Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Dough

You are about to embark on a journey into making one of the most authentic style deep dish pizza dough recipe you will find. Who am I kidding? There are all kinds of recipes out there for deep dish pizza doughs, but this one!, I compare to what I think is one of the best, Lou Malnati’s. 
The dough is not like a regular thin crust pizza dough that uses almost no fat, almost a bread like consistency. The Chicago deep dish dough is loaded with fat and flour so that it wont let the juices soak into the flour, making it soggy. In other words, this dough has a buttery and flaky crust that wont give you a soggy bottom!

Let’s Cook it

INGREDIENTS:

• DOUGH – (this will make 2 12″ pizzas)
  • 3 c. all-purpose flour
  • 1 c. + tbsp. water (add more flour or water to get to the right hydration)
  • 1/2 c. + 1 tbsp. oil (I prefer extra light olive oil)
  • 2 1/4 tsp. yeast
  • 1 1/2 tsp. sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt (I use kosher)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Add water (luke warm water) into a bowl, then add the sugar and yeast and swirl around to combine, letting it sit for a minute or two to dissolve the yeast.
2. Add the salt and oil at this time and mix to combine.
3. Add the flour and, using the handle of a wooden spoon, bring it together till it’s all combined. We do not want to overwork this dough (I like it a little on the wet side, not like a bread dough, so add water if it looks too dry).
4. Idealy it should sit and rise for around 6 hours. I’ve used it after 3 hours and haven’t had much of an issue.

Enjoy this one and if you try it let me know, I would love to hear from you.