Concluding Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Our fourth style was Chicago style deep dish. Loaded to the top with cheese, sauce and toppings, Chicago style is by far the heaviest of the pizzas.
Making The Dough
Making Chicago style dough is far different from all other styles we’ve tried. We used Ceresota flour from Illinois — a low-gluten flour and the most common choice for traditional Chicago style pizzerias. The dough was also much closer to a pie crust then a traditional pizza dough. Not only did we mix in cornmeal — to add extra heft to the crust — but we also added lard and margarine for an extra rich flavor. Unlike other styles, this recipe only yielded a single dough ball.
Shaping the Pie
Like the Roman pizza, Chicago style pizza is first rolled out before being draped over a deep dish pizza pan. Unlike Roman style, we docked our dough, popping any air bubbles with a fork.
Topping
The sheer density and height of Chicago style pizza means it has far more volume of toppings than any other style of pizza. The first pie we tried was the quintessential fennel sausage, mozzarella, tomato sauce combination. We placed an initial layer of cheese, followed by sausage and another two layers of cheese. Finally, we cooked it, then added the tomato sauce — a saltier version of New York style sauce — straight out of the oven, adding even more cheese on top. In the end we found that the flavor was amazing, but it was far too heavy for us to eat regularly.
For our second try, we went with spinach and ricotta. With much lighter cheese and topping, we found that the spinach and ricotta was easier to eat and tastier than the sausage.
Things We Learned
- Chicago style is a lot of work. Be prepared to set aside more time than compared to the other styles of pizza.
- While it tasted good, it was a bit too heavy for us. Maybe Chicago style just isn’t the style for our family.
