I must of screwed up the measurement for flour when I did the initial measuring. After I converted grams to cups it gave me some low figure in the neighborhood of two cups.

wow this post brings back some memories. I used to manage a Giordano's, and have made thousands of those pizzas, and Chicago stuffed pizza is better than any pizza in the world. The best of the best in the entire state is the Giordano's on Rush street downtown, and the Lou's d'town also.


A cpl things about the pics: When you get a new pan it is a good idea to grease it and bake the pan by itself to prep it for baking pizzas, the crust will taste better after that. it is easy to spread the margarine on the pan if u use a sponge (any regular kitchen sponge from the store), to make sure you spread it evenly, use a lot, and make sure to get the sides of the pan as well. A 1/2 and 1/2 blend of shredded skim and regular mozzarella works very well. Always make sure you put your raw meats (sg/beef first, then PP, even shrimp) on the bottom, then veggies (peppers, onions, mushrooms, spinach, etc.), and stuff like pineapple or olives on the top of the sauce. One more thing, the way Gio's did it was to put another thin layer of dough over the ingredients before you poured on the sauce. for example you got the dough spread on the pan, you put the sausage on, then the cheeze, then comes the thin layer of dough on top. You pinch your fingers along the sides and press it down to seal it like a pie, and slice the excess off the edge of the pan with a knife. Then you pour on the sauce, and sprinkle some parmesan cheese on it before you throw it in the oven. This thread rules by the way

Very interesting information. A few questions for you:

- What source did giordano's use for sausage? I'm having an impossible time finding something suitable, and may settle for pepperoni :/

- Any other tips for the sauce? The 6-in-1 + basil by itself seems to be pretty spot on. I actually prefer a sweeter sauce though. Should I just add sugar?

Gio's has their own distributor that delivered huge bags of sausage, I would try to find a local markets or delis that sell bulk italian sausage, that usually is comparable. The sauce you are using is definitely a good sauce, I think sprinkling parmesan cheese over the pizza before you put it in the over is surely +EV

I've found that as long as your pan is well seasoned, you don't need to grease the sides, in fact the dough doesn't slip down the sides and pool at in the corners if you don't grease the sides.

Great idea on the sponge, I'll use that next cook.

sugar wouldn't be bad, or u can try cinnamon

bump so it doesn't get archived

Great read. Of course now I really want deep dish pizza my local deep dish place is closed on Mondays

Does OP mention oven temp anywhere? I must have missed it.

^^ Temperature.

And yeah this was an epic post. Inspired me to buy everything and make a few pies. It has been a while since I last made one...I'll have to change that.

I need to try the recommended sauce too. I definitely ran into the problem of the sauce being way too runny.

im gonna make this sometime, good bump

fwiw, i've only had this problem doing veggie pies. I've done the sausage and pepperoni, and it comes out damn near perfect.

I have one more Lou Malnati's sausage sitting in my freezer that will be cooked tonight. My mom bought 18 pies for christmas giving me and my brother 6 pies, and keeping the other six for herself.

clicked just to read post again. will read again a+.

Randomly stumbled across this thread, just thought I'd suggest a Chicago-style pizza place for those in the SF Bay Area: Patxi's, in downtown Palo Alto.

My dad, who spent the first 35 years of his live in Chicago and the last 30 in California, said that Patxi's is the best Chicago-style pizza he's had in California. I took him there when my parents came to visit me for a weekend and he loved it so much we went back the next day as well.

I saw kbfc suggested Zachary's in Berkeley, neither I nor my dad has been there so I can't compare.

Is using old yeast going to completely screw up the dough? I just made a huge ball of dough and didn't realize that the yeast is over a year old. I'm making some deep dish pizzas tomorrow (having a party).

So is it worth it to use, or do I have to figure out how to get some yeast tonight? I'm flat broke until i can get to the bank tomorrow.

Giving this a go tonight, so bump.

gl post a picture of final product please

Too late, ate it! I don't have a stand mixer, so I'm a little too lazy to make the dough from scratch. Publix has pretty good pizza dough in their bakery, though.

I couldn't get the dough to really adhere to the sides of my cast iron pan like in OP, but it didn't matter too much. In the pan it still had a nice lip, and upon baking rose enough to contain the toppings and be more or less Chicago-like.

Little Star is also pretty legit for deep dish in the Bay Area.

Nice post OP.

thread is so good.

Ty for including the recipe as a RATIO. Any good baker follows ratios, and you did a great job breaking it down (at least I assume it was you).

also: if you're a stuffed crust guy, like myself, you can just make extra dough, layer it over cheeze/ingredients, seal with top crust, tomatoes on top. bam.

awesome post btw. should run food blog.

Good thread

+1

Bump cause tonight is deep dish night for me.

Cool thread. I'm feeling like a chiffonade of fresh basil on the pie after it is cooked would be superior to dried basil. Dried basil sucks.