Deep Dish Pizza with lots of pictures!

StellarEvo

I absolutely love deep dish pizza.  I had my first real deep dish at Gino's East in Chicago (went there by accident, really) and loved it ever since.  I also love NY Style pizza as well.  Nothing wrong with either in my opinion.

For now, let me focus on how much I love to cook deep dish pizza on the Egg.  I really think it might be my favorite meal off the Egg, which is kind of surprising considering how many amazing meals I've had off these things.  I can't take all the credit though...my wife makes the dough for all the pizzas we do and she kills the deep dish dough almost every time!

I *think* she uses the recipe from the BGE website (http://www.biggreenegg.com/features/deep-dish-pizza/) although I know there are a lot of dough recipes on the forums that she borrow from as well.

The photo journey starts after the dough was made and rested for about 24 hours.  I had already hand pressed it into the stone by the time I took a picture.  Important item to note is I applied a fair amount of Crisco to the stone before putting the dough in it.  It helps keeps the dough from sticking to the stone and helps brown it up nicely.  He is what it looks like once I pressed it into the stone: 

I had started the Egg up and got it stable at about 400 degrees before I started loading the ingredients into the pie.  First thing to go in was the mozzarella:

 

Next was the provolone:

After the seemingly absurd (AWESOME) amount of cheese, I added a layer of pepperoni:

My wife said she didn't think we needed sausage in this pie but I got to thinking about it and decided I really wanted it, so I ran back to the store and got some sausage, browned it, drained it and threw it on top of the pepperoni.

I made a pretty simple sauce the pizza.  I think it was just peeled, crushed tomatoes with some salt, pepper, basil, oregano, onion and garlic powder and maybe a couple other seasonings from the cabinet.

I added some shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese and couple of the slices of provolone I had left on top of the sauce to complete the pie.

The Egg was at 400 degrees and was hungry for a pizza so I threw for 15 minutes:

I usually cook it for 30-40 minutes and call it a day but I decided to turn it 180 degrees after 15 minutes. Here is what it looked like after 15 minutes and turning:

Cooked for about 20 minutes to get the crust nice on the edges and the cheese all gooey.  I let it sit for about 15 minutes before I cut into it.  I was so excited about it, I didn't take a picture pre-cut but did get one before any slices were removed.  I've read that a lot of people take it out of the stone or CI to let it cool.  It weighs a ton and I didn't want it to fall apart so I cut it up and got some slices out before I moved it.

A bad picture from the side of the first cut piece:

Here's a picture of the bottom...lots of air bubbles = yummy!

Finally, after cutting into it, I was able to get a good picture of the crust on the inside:

There you have it.  I think this was the best deep dish I've made and it really rivaled what I remember Gino's was.  It is not the healthiest item that can be Egged so I don't make them too often and maybe that's what also makes them so special.

Hope you guys enjoy!!!

jshillin

Looks good!!  Do you preheat the pan/stone at all?

dougengel

Looks awesome - and great step by step images!

StellarEvo

jshillin said:

Looks good!!  Do you preheat the pan/stone at all?

It's funny you ask because I was asking my wife before while the Egg was warming up if I had preheated the stone before.  We went with no preheating deep dish.  We preheat the stone for NY style pizzas though.

KiterTodd

The real crime here is that I'm reading this on a day I won't have time to grab lunch. 

Looks great!

Can you use regular pizza dough or is there something unique about deep dish dough?

Ktim

Wow, very nice ZA, what kind of pan/stone is that?

RAC

Nice looking pie!

StellarEvo

KiterTodd said:

The real crime here is that I'm reading this on a day I won't have time to grab lunch. 

Looks great!

Can you use regular pizza dough or is there something unique about deep dish dough?

Not to rub it in but I had leftovers for lunch!  They say the dough is different.  I'm not entirely sure to be honest, but I know that it is supposed to be "light and airy" so that may be what makes it unique.

Ktim said:

Wow, very nice ZA, what kind of pan/stone is that?

I got the official BGE Deep Dish Pizza stone.  I didn't even know they made it but was in a store and it was one of the best impulse purchases I've made for the Egg.

Ktim

Thanks@StellarEvo I am going to order one right now! Have you ever tried more toppings on the pie?

NPHuskerFL

@StellarEvo‌ I don't have a BGE deep dish pizza stone. I do however have a 10" CI pie pan and have done one pie in it (along with apple pie, sweet potato pie, breakfast quiche and a few others). Have you ever madeor used CI for a pie or only the deep dish stone?
OBW =D> nice pie!

toolpush

That looks good. We like the the deep dish pizza as well. Never tried it with provolone cheese, will do that next time.

StellarEvo

Ktim said:

Thanks@StellarEvo I am going to order one right now! Have you ever tried more toppings on the pie?

I haven't tried with more...only less.  We've had some picky eaters come over that don't eat sausage or/pepperoni.  If you don't eat sausage or pepperoni, you get a cheese pizza at my house.

NPHuskerFL said:

@StellarEvo‌ I don't have a BGE deep dish pizza stone. I do however have a 10" CI pie pan and have done one pie in it (along with apple pie, sweet potato pie, breakfast quiche and a few others). Have you ever madeor used CI for a pie or only the deep dish stone? OBW =D> nice pie!

I was going to say "no CI..just stone" but that's not true.  I've used what was probably a 10" CI pan when we made two pies.  One cheese and one with toppings.

I use the deep dish stone as a baking stone on the egg as well by turning it upside down.  It moves the food a little closer to the dome, which helps the cook.

With that said, both the stone and CI work well.  I think the CI cooks a little faster.

Carolina Q

Nice pie!

I use a Chicago Metallic heavy duty steel cake pan for my Chicago pies. About $10-12. Works great. And it won't break if I drop it. 

NPHuskerFL

@StellarEvo‌ I haven't used the stone style so don't have anything concrete to compare it to. But, on the deep dish pizza pie in CI I ran about 500℉ and the 10" was good within 25-35 minutes. Apple pie, sweet potato pie etc I normally ran at 400℉-425℉ and could go up to 45 minutes-1hr.

MagicMike

Looks excellent! Kinda a cross between a Chicago style and traditional style deep dish pizza. I might have to try this.

Tjcoley

Good looking pie

Moosebranch

Looks great. I definitely have to try this

SGH

@StellarEvo‌
Man those are some fine looking pizzas. Excellent job my friend! =D>

pgprescott

Sweet! Psychic told me this is in my near future. I'm sure she was right.

HDumptyEsq

I bought a 10.5" CI skillet today and cut the handle off. This would be a great first outing for it. Thanks for all the great pix.

stemc33

Magnificent =D>

StellarEvo

HDumptyEsq said:

I bought a 10.5" CI skillet today and cut the handle off. This would be a great first outing for it. Thanks for all the great pix.

Be sure to take a couple pictures and throw up here.  I'd love to see how yours turns out.