I've made this one several times; a deep dish pizza from the 1985 Culinary
Arts
Institute Cookbook. It was very tasty, but waaaay not worth the hassel
unless you are a major pizza fan. (Again, pizza isn't my best loved meal).
This is my version, toppings adapted from the original which just called for
sausage and cheese. You can add whatever you want.
Beer Drinker's Deep Pan Pizza
Crust:
1 c. warm beer (110-120F)
4 Tbs. olive or salad oil
1 Tbs. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 pkg. active dry yeast
2-3/4 - 3-1/4 c. all purpose flour
2 Tbs. cornmeal
Topping:
12 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, shredded or thinly sliced
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1/2 c. beer
2 tsp. (dried) oregano
1 tsp. fennel seed (optional but I recommend it, crushed)
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 lb. raw bulk Italian sausage, broken into chunks to scatter on the pizza
1/4 lb. sliced pepperoni
1/4 lb. chopped ham
1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese
For the crust:
Combine in a large bowl the warm beer, 2 Tbs. of oil, sugar, salt and yeast.
Add 1-1/2 c. flour and beat until smooth. Add 1-1/2 c. flour; beat until
smooth. Gradually stir in enough additional flour to make a fairly stiff
dough.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board. Knead until smooth and elastic
(about 5 minutes). Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to
grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place, about 85F (in the oven
with a bowl of warm water on the rack below will help if you do this in a
cold house), about 1 hour.
Punch the dough down. Using 2 Tbs. oil, coat a 14-inch round deep pan pizza
pan. Or use two 9-inch round cake pans. Sprinkle the pan lightly with
cornmeal.
Pat the dough into the pan(s), pinching up dough around the edges of
the pan(s). Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk, about
30 minutes.
Topping(s):
Combine tomato paste, beer, oregano, fennel seed (I crushed the fennel seeds
using a pestal & mortar) and sugar. Cover pizza dough evenly with
mozzarella cheese. Evenly spoon on the tomato sauce mixture. Sprinkle with
sausage (and whatever other meats/veggies you decided on, you can certainly
add diced peppers, sliced mushrooms, olives at this point). I added a few
more very thin slices of fresh mozz. then topped with freshly grated Parm.
Bake at 450F for 15-20 minutes or until crust is browned and sausage and
other toppings are cooked through.
Serve with chilled beer. Makes 1 large or 2 smaller 9 inch "pan pizzas".
Jill