I was having a craving for deep dish pizza last week and decided to try making it at home. I’ve made thin crust pizza dough a few times before by hand, but have never made deep dish or used my Breadman to create the dough. I decided to do both this time. 

Using the Breadman made the process so much easier. If you decide to do this, then be sure to allow enough time to make the dough and let it rise twice. The kneading and first rising in the Breadman took about 1 1/2 hours. The second rising was another 30 minutes. Plus it takes 20-30 minutes to cook. Obviously, this isn’t a quick dinner.

To cook my pizza, I have an older model pizza oven. I’ve looked online for a new one, since ours is starting to show signs of age and found a few models. I am not sure if I want a new pizza oven though or just a pizza stone. The jury is still out on that. I might buy a pizza stone to have and see how it goes in terms of usage before I decide.

If you are interested in a home pizza oven, here are a two links to ones I’ve located and am considering. I do not endorse any of these products, as I have never used them, so please be aware that I cannot atest to their functionality. This one is most similar to the one that I own. This one looks quite interesting as well. I wonder how the openness of it would work and if it would take longer to cook as a result.

Anyway, I like the taste of homemade dough better than the stuff you can pick up in your local supermarket deli or bakery. But then, I like most things I create myself at home. It’s just a me thing.

With a deep dish pizza, according to The Best Pizza is Made at Home by Donna Rathmell German “Layer ingredients in this order: cheese, meats, sauce, vegetables and seasonings. Leave a 1/2-inch border around the rim of the pizza.”

Here is the recipe for the dough I used.

Deep Dish Pizza Dough
yields one medium pizza crust
recipe courtesy of The Best Pizza is Made at Home

1 cup lukewarm water
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cups bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast 

Layer ingredients in the pan of a bread maker in the order listed. Set bread maker to dough cycle and start. If your bread machine has two rising cycles, remove the dough after the first.

When dough is complete with kneading and first rising, remove from the breadmaker and stretch or roll it into a circle. Place it in a greased deep dish pan, allowing it to creep up the sides a bit. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

If you are using a pizza stone and oven, then preheat oven to 475 degrees. While the dough is rising, grate or slice your cheese, prepare meats and veggies into appropriate sizes and gather other toppings (herbs, sauce, etc). DO this because once the dough is done, you have to act quickly.

Remove cover from dough and prick the surface with a fork (roughly every 1/2 inch). Cook the dough for five minutes in the preheated oven or unheated pizza oven.

Remove the dough from the oven or open the pizza oven and brush with olive oil all over. Layer toppings, leaving the aforementioned border.

Place pizza in the oven or close lid and cook 20-30 minutes, until crust is golden. In my pizza oven, it was ready in about 21 minutes (though I let it go longer by mistake).

Suggested toppings:
- hot Italian sausage
- fresh basil
- tomatoes
- chicken
- artichoke hearts
- spinach
- ground beef
- broccoli
- clams