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FOOD: Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza - A Primer

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04-12-2009 , 01:07 PM

#51

Rockstar

old hand

Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,336

best way to reheat a frozen 7 incher, for those who hate frozen pizza?

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04-12-2009 , 06:36 PM

#52

BK_

adept

Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 1,152

fantastic

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04-12-2009 , 10:29 PM

#53

mclaughlin04

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Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 2,400

Just had Giordano's yesterday and seeing this thread makes me want to go back ASAP.

A+ would read again

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04-14-2009 , 12:56 PM

#54

Watchmaker

banned

Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,856

OP, great post. Awesome detail.
Not how I like my deep dish pies, but a good starting point.

Some of you folks need to get out of yuppieville and away from the "Chicago Chain" standards (too much dough, too much sauce) and traverse into the dangerous Southside 'hoods for the real-real deal, that itself is basically nothing more than 5# of cheese shaped into pizza form, with the toppings baked in. One slice = instant heart attack death 75% of the time.

One word: Hegewisch. Just pick one of their local joints and order their deep dish offering.

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04-14-2009 , 08:21 PM

#55

aarono2690

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Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 3,870

I'm currently buying supplies online for making pizzas. For Deep dish is it best to have a pizza cutter (wheel) or a big knife?

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04-16-2009 , 12:16 AM

#56

slamdunkpro

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Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 2,525

Quote:

Originally Posted by aarono2690

I'm currently buying supplies online for making pizzas. For Deep dish is it best to have a pizza cutter (wheel) or a big knife?

I prefer a chef's knife.

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04-16-2009 , 12:26 AM

#57

slamdunkpro

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Quote:

Originally Posted by z28dreams

Some more questions I'm not sure about:

- the grams/tsp for yeast numbers on the web were very different for each source - I think I might have used too much?

- How long do I have to wait for the bread to rise? That is, if I make the dough in the morning could I cook it that same night? Can a dough "over rise"? ( I probably won't be able to cook the pizza until tomorrow night ). I used the rapidrise yeast, which I assume is the same as instant yeast.

- Any tips on preparing the sausage? I stopped by a local butcher and purchased some sweet italian sausage. My plan is to just remove the casings and hack the sausage up into tiny pieces.

Your yeast number looks a little high for instant yeast.

24 hrs is a good rise time. I've let the dough go as long as 72 hours. I'm starting to let the rise go 48 hours as this gives the dough time to develop more flavor.

Rapid rise and instant yeast are not the same thing, you should proof rapid rise, you don't need to proof instant yeast, you also use less instant yeast.

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04-16-2009 , 12:27 AM

#58

slamdunkpro

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Rockstar

best way to reheat a frozen 7 incher, for those who hate frozen pizza?

Thaw in the fridge for 12-24 hours, then reheat on a pizza stone at 400 degrees for 10 -15 minutes.

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04-19-2009 , 05:04 PM

#59

aarono2690

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I've made this twice now and both times I need much flour than called for in regards to the 14 inch pizza.

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04-19-2009 , 11:30 PM

#60

slamdunkpro

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Quote:

Originally Posted by aarono2690

I've made this twice now and both times I need much flour than called for in regards to the 14 inch pizza.

What's happening? dough too sticky? Are you weighing or measuring ingredients?

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04-19-2009 , 11:49 PM

#61

aarono2690

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I'm converting ingredients from grams to ounces, cups, tea spons, etc. whatever is most appropriate for the measurement (sugar I use teaspoons obviously).

Yeah it comes out to be very sticky, I just kept throwing in random amounts of flour until it wasn't sticking to me like molasses.

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04-19-2009 , 11:57 PM

#62

z28dreams

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Quote:

Originally Posted by aarono2690

I had this same problem. (You probably read my notes on the 10" pizza). The dough wasn't sticky at all, but it barely covered my pan.

I'm the one that posted all of the grams -> cups conversions. While not perfect, I did a considerable amount of research to verify that it was at least close.

I'm going to try the recipe again with around 50% more dough that was called for in the original recipe.

Maybe my conversion factors are off, but I don't think so.

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04-20-2009 , 12:02 AM

#63

aarono2690

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Quote:

Originally Posted by z28dreams

Thank you for posting this. I sort of grunched this thread so I'm sure I missed it the first time around. Thanks though.

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04-21-2009 , 11:13 AM

#64

MEb

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Had no problem making the dough using the amounts listed in the OP.

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04-21-2009 , 11:19 AM

#65

slamdunkpro

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Quote:

Originally Posted by aarono2690

455 grams of flour is between 3 3/4 and 4 cups. How much are you using for a 14 inch?

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04-21-2009 , 11:50 AM

#66

z28dreams

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The conversion unit I found was 125g / cup of flour, so 455g -> 3.64 cups of flour.

I made adjustments for a 10" pan though. Maybe I thought about it wrong?

Here's what I did:

14" pan
- bottom of pan = 3.14 * (7^2) ( area of the circle )
- inner sides of pan = 2*3.14*7 * 2 ( area of inner sides )
total surface area: 153.86 + 87.92 = 241.78 in^2

10" pan ( same calculations ) = 141.3 in^2

The ratio was 141.3/241.78 = ~ 59%

So, I took 59% * 455g to get 268g of flour for a 10" pan. It wasn't even close to enough though. Not sure why this didn't work out.

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04-21-2009 , 04:51 PM

#67

ShipDaSherb

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Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 1,694

Here's a dough calculator from pizzamaking.com that might be helpful

http://www.pizzamaking.com/dd_calculator.html

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04-21-2009 , 11:28 PM

#68

slamdunkpro

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Quote:

Originally Posted by z28dreams

That sounds about right, did your dough rise?

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04-22-2009 , 06:32 AM

#69

z28dreams

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Quote:

Originally Posted by slamdunkpro

That sounds about right, did your dough rise?

This is a good question. The ball of dough only looked slightly bigger to me than it originally did, so I'm not entirely sure. I have virtually 0 baking experience.

Total rising time was a little over 24 hours.

However, I used the 'rapidrise' yeast - I didn't see any instant rise at the store I was at. Maybe this made the difference? Some googling told me that rapidrise is the same as instant rise, but I'm not 100% sure.

I read this:

Quote:

RapidRise yeast is Fleischmann's trademarked name for their instant
yeast. It is not a distinct type of yeast. There are four types of
yeast available to bakers: cream yeast, compressed yeast, active dry
yeast, and instant active dry yeast...

Also this from the breadworld FAQ:

Quote:

What is the difference between Instant Yeast, Bread Machine Yeast and RapidRise Yeast?
Mainly names, but these are all the same yeast! Use interchangeably

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04-22-2009 , 10:21 AM

#70

slamdunkpro

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Active dry yeast, Rapidrise and Instant Dry Yeast are not the same thing.
Active dry and Rapid Rise need to be proofed in warm water. It sounds like your dough didn't rise. It's also possible that your yeast was bad.

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04-22-2009 , 11:21 AM

#71

ShipDaSherb

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Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 1,694

Rapid rise and instant are the same thing--Rapid rise is just the trademarked name Fleischmann's uses for instant. This question has come up many times on baking forums and has been confirmed by baking authors such as Maggie Glezer and Peter Reinhart, Cook's Illustrated, etc.

It doesn't need to be proofed, but you need to avoid direct contact with cold water, so mix it in with the flour before adding the water.

I've found Fleischmann's to be kind of a crappy brand of yeast, however. Get SAF or Red Star if you can in the future.

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04-22-2009 , 12:25 PM

#72

z28dreams

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Interesting. Does letting the dough rise in the refrigerator have a negative effect on the rapidrise yeast?

When I mixed it together, I just followed slamdunkpro's instructions in this thread. (Mixed everything together all at once mostly).

I bought the yeast at the store the previous day, so it should have been ok.

Maybe I should try it with warm water in the mix?

Clearly you should just deliver a pizza to me slamdunkpro - I live about 15min away in Alexandria.

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04-22-2009 , 01:38 PM

#73

ShipDaSherb

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Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 1,694

There's nothing specific about rapidrise that would make it different than other commercial yeasts in regards to fridge temp. All yeast slows way, way down in activity when it chills. If you are making a small batch, it could be that the dough ball is cooling down more quickly than a larger one would, so you could be getting less overall rise.

I think in formulas like slamdunkpro's where the dough is going straight to the fridge, you are counting on some rise occurring while the dough is still warm.

Using warm water would probably help (not too hot though)--if you have a thermometer you could shoot for a dough temp after mixing of like 80 or even 85 degrees.

Last edited by ShipDaSherb; 04-22-2009 at 01:46 PM.