What's For Dinner Tonight?

One of our wedding gifts some twenty years ago was a Crate & Barrel deep-dish pizza pan set; our family's FAVORITE dinner has been my homemade stuffed deep dish pizza ever since. I used my time home on Monday to set the dough and make this creation; what's for dinner at your place tonight?

This is our Pepperoni/Canadian Bacon combo stuffed pizza!

Stuffed Deep Dish Pizza

1 T. sugar

1 cup warm water

2 ¼ tsp. dry yeast (1 packet)

Dissolve sugar in glass bowl with warm water.  Sprinkle yeast over top of warm sugar water and stir in. Let sit until bubbly.

Take 2 cans of diced tomatoes and season as desired (some come already seasoned – I add basil and oregano. Garlic makes it tasty, too.)  Set aside to marinate, then use for topping.  The longer the tomatoes sit, the more flavorful they are.

In a large mixing bowl add together:

3 cups flour

1 T. sugar

1 t. salt

¼ cup olive oil

yeast mixture (once it’s activated)

Mix with mixing blade, then use kneading hook – or mix together until blended and pull out of bowl to knead by hand.  This is enough dough for a double-crusted pizza.  It needs to rise for at least 2 hours.  I put it into a bowl lightly coated with olive oil and covered with a towel to rise.  You can punch it down up to 2 times.  (I usually just let it rise once then I’m ready to use it)

When it’s risen and you’re ready, use 2/3 of the dough for the bottom crust and reserve 1/3 for the top crust.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees and position one rack low to the bottom and one close to the top.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to fit your deep-dish pizza pan’s bottom and come up the sides.  Leave a little over the edge so you can pinch the bottom-crust dough together with the top crust.

Fill it with whatever ingredients you want – I use Canadian Bacon, Pepperoni, and LOTS of mozzarella cheese (Call me a cheesehead; I use a 2 lb. bag!).  I put a layer of cheese, then the meats or other ingredients, then more cheese.  It’s good, too, with sausage or green peppers and olives, even pineapple!

Then roll out the remaining 1/3 dough to fit the pan.  Lay it right over the top of the ingredients and pinch it together with the sides from the bottom crust (kind of like you do for a fruit pie).

Put a slit in the top crust middle to release the heat.  I usually rub the top crust with olive oil before baking.  Bake without tomatoes on top the first 20 minutes as follows:

Bake 10 minutes on the bottom rack, then move it to the top rack and bake 10 more minutes. 

Pull it out and put the seasoned tomato bits on top, then bake for 10 more minutes until nicely browned edges appear on the crust. Top with parmesan cheese as desired. EnJOY!