MUST READ for chicago style pizza!

Jazzman

I have become obsessed with making the perfect Chicago-style deep dish pizza over the past few months (specifically Lou Malnati's), I have gome on pizza-making forums, bough supplies from pizza-making online stores, and experimented with several types of dough. The last 5-6 pies I have made are (IMHO) near-perfect, and I wanted to share this info with you. I read almost every post regarding pizza, and some of you are making wrong assumptions about authentic Chicago-style pizza.

#1 There is NO CORNMEAL in a Lou Malnati's crust. I have this on good authority (I live 5 miles from a Lou's), and you can also check the ingrediants in the pizzas they ship - NO CORNMEAL.

#2 You must use about 25% (by weight) Semolina Flour, and the other 75% bread flour. It's the semolina that has people confused about the cornmeal - it gives the pizza a "yellowish" cast, and a nice cornmeal-y tasting crust.

#3 I always grease the bottom of the pan with Crisco, not olive oil - another trick I picked up on the pizza forum.

#4 the cheese MUST go on the bottom of the crust, followed by the ingredients, then the sauce LAST. Otherwise, the sauce and ingredients make the crust soggy on top.

#5 If you are a nut for authenticity, you must use the 6-in-1 brand of tomatoes, add some honey, garlic and spices.

#6 True Chicago-style Lou's is not really super deep dish, so don't roll out your crust too thick - roll it out like a normal crust and it will come out just fine.

OK - enough lecture Here is the best Lou Malnati's clone recipe you will ever find. I stole this from the pizza-making forum (with a few minor tweaks added by me), and I am not alone. Over 200 posts on the forum rave about this particular crust. This is for a 14" sqaure pan, and it will make a bit too much for a 15" round pan, but you can make some nice garlic braids from the extra!. On the pizza forum, they use ONLY weights, but I also included the "normal" measurements - and they are close enough to work perfectly. Here goes:

14” square
Flour (75%) 3 cups (hold back ½ cup)/ 407.85 g /
Semolina (25%) ¾ cup / 136.25 g
Water (47%) 1 cup / 255.58 g / 9.02 oz / 0.56 lbs.
ADY (0.70%) 1 tsp / 3.81 g / 0.13 oz / 0.01 lbs. / 1.01 tsp / 0.34 TBSP
Salt (0.50%) ½ tsp / 2.72 g / 0.1 oz / 0.01 lbs. / 0.49 tsp / 0.16 TBSP
Olive Oil (6%) 3 TBS / 32.63 g / 1.15 oz / 0.07 lbs. / 7.25 tsp / 2.42 TBSP
Corn Oil(18.5%) ½ cup / 100.6 g /3.55 oz / 0.22 lbs. /7.45 TBSP/ .47 cups
Butter (1%) ½ TBSP / 5.44 g / 0.19 oz / 0.01 lbs. /1.15 tsp / 0.38 TBSP
Sugar (1.5%) 2 tsp / 8.16 g / 0.29 oz / 0.02 lbs. /2.05 tsp / 0.68 TBSP
Cream of Tarter (0.75%) 1 tsp / 4.08 g / 0.14 oz / 0.01 lbs. /1.36 tsp / 0.45 TBSP
Total (175.95%) 956.78 g / 33.75 oz / 2.11 lbs. / TF=0.126875

I mixed the semolina and salt with the sifted flour, but withheld 1/2 cup of the flour. I added the water with the previously proofed ADY, mixed with a wooden spoon and by hand, covered and let rest for around 25 minutes in a warm part of the kitchen. Then added the rest of the flour along with the oil and the small amount of melted and cooled butter. After kneading for a very short time (est. 1 min.), I again found that I needed a teaspoon or two more of the flour, and then put the formed dough ball into a Ziploc bag and into the refrigerator for 24 hours. (NOTE: the dough will appear too oily, and you will question your sanity - this is NORMAL - it's an oily dough!)

Taking it out of the refrigerator the next day about 2 hours before baking, I patted out the dough ball into my previously "crisco'ed" 14" Pizza ware deep dish square pan with 2" high straight-sides. I crimped or pinched the edges of the crust very hard to give the crust a nice real thin edge, as opposed to a thicker or fatter rim. Pre-bake the crust only 4-5 min I then put in a layer of sliced Mozzarella cheese (use whole-milk mozz), then added some provolone cheese pieces, then cooked sausage (you cook it first so it doesn’t add any “juice” to the pie – other wise things can get messy). I then added some drained 6 in 1 sauce (important to use the “6-in-1” sauce, and important to drain first!) to which I added Italian spices, minced garlic, sea salt, and a good dash of honey (key ingredient) then added a good amount of grated parmesan, and then baked the pizza at 450 degrees (make sure your grate temp is no more than 450, or you'll burn it!). After 15 minutes I turned the pizza 180 degrees and continue to bake for about 10 minutes more.

Sorry for the long post, and sorry for no pictures, but I swear this is a perfect Lou Malnati's clone. I grew up in Chicago, and have eaten Lou's and Connie's and Uno's and Gino's all my life. My wife swears these are the best pizzas she has ever eaten in her life.

Try it and report back. Saturday is pizza night, I promise to take pictures next Saturday!

gdenby

Great post! Measures all the way down to bits if a gram. I'm waiting on a gram accurate scale (seems to be on a slow boat from China) to get a better handle on what I'm doing. Making good dough makes most other kinds of cooking seem easy.

soulfish

nice project. thanks, can't wait for the pics.

Bluecrab3

Thanks Jazzman. Have saved to favorites.

Fidel

Thanks for sharing the recipe. I can't wait to give it a shot.

I watched the deep dish throwdown with Bobby Flay and the Malnati pie was made with raw sausage. They also did not pre-bake the crust any. Other than that your description seems to be spot on with what I recall watching.

I've been reaching for the elusive deep dish and have tried many different methods and recipes. I think this one will be next on my list to attempt.

BENTE

thanks jazzman i really appreceiate it i will try that one next.. i have been searching for some but have not found one i like yet!! but will try yours soon....thanks

Jazzman

Yes, the true Malnati's has a sausage "disk" - one large piece that covers the whole pie. I heard about the pre-cooked sausage idea on the pizza forum and I do like it better, although raw sausage would be just fine, too. I have done both ways, including the sausage "disk" - (a bit too much sausage for the family)The pre-baking idea is also not authentic Malnati's, but I like the way the ingredients hold up better, although I also pre-bake my thin crust pies, too - just personal preference. You could easily make the same recipe with raw sausage and not pre-cook the crust and it would still be excellent!

The Egg from Oz

Quick question from a Noob - what is "Ady"?

EDIT - Answered my own question. Active Dry Yeast!

BENTE

i am not sure but i will give a guess Active Dry Yeast

Chef Arnoldi

Thanks for sharing all your research & final results. looks very interesting, and will give it a try soon.
one question i have- why do you need Cream of Tarter in the dough ?
very unusual and love to know before i make the pizza

thanks
gain

Mike

aturco

Yes, I noticed that too about the Cream of Tarter, it is mentioned in the listing of ingredients but it is not mentioned again for the assembly of the dough.

Also you mention 1 cup of water is there any particular temp that should be and is all that used with the Active Dry Yeast? The recipe says "I added the water with the previously proofed ADY, mixed with a wooden spoon and by hand, ...." Not sure I get what you mean when you say previously proofed ADY.

thanks, I want to try this this coming weekend.

a

danv23

Hi folks. The below site is the Chicago Deep Dish holy grail. I've made his pie for years, so sorry for not sharing sooner!

https://www.realdeepdish.com/

danv23

Hi folks. The below site is the Chicago Deep Dish holy grail. I've made his pie for years, so sorry for not sharing sooner!

https://www.realdeepdish.com/

danv23

Hi folks. The below site is the Chicago Deep Dish holy grail. I've made his pie for years, so sorry for not sharing sooner!

https://www.realdeepdish.com/

danv23

Hi folks. The below site is the Chicago Deep Dish holy grail. I've made his pie for years, so sorry for not sharing sooner!

https://www.realdeepdish.com/

Canugghead

Imagine what happens if @jonessteave got trapped here 

JohnInCarolina

Canugghead said:

Imagine what happens if @jonessteave got trapped here 

bot bot bot bot bot edit edit edit edit edit 

lkapigian

LoL

lkapigian

LoL

lkapigian

LoL

Canugghead

^LoL ^LoL ^LoL

lkapigian

Canugghead said:

^LoL ^LoL ^LoL

Lol

EastTNBGE

Jazzman said:

I have become obsessed with making the perfect Chicago-style deep dish pizza over the past few months (specifically Lou Malnati's), I have gome on pizza-making forums, bough supplies from pizza-making online stores, and experimented with several types of dough. The last 5-6 pies I have made are (IMHO) near-perfect, and I wanted to share this info with you. I read almost every post regarding pizza, and some of you are making wrong assumptions about authentic Chicago-style pizza.

#1 There is NO CORNMEAL in a Lou Malnati's crust. I have this on good authority (I live 5 miles from a Lou's), and you can also check the ingrediants in the pizzas they ship - NO CORNMEAL.

#2 You must use about 25% (by weight) Semolina Flour, and the other 75% bread flour. It's the semolina that has people confused about the cornmeal - it gives the pizza a "yellowish" cast, and a nice cornmeal-y tasting crust.

#3 I always grease the bottom of the pan with Crisco, not olive oil - another trick I picked up on the pizza forum.

#4 the cheese MUST go on the bottom of the crust, followed by the ingredients, then the sauce LAST. Otherwise, the sauce and ingredients make the crust soggy on top.

#5 If you are a nut for authenticity, you must use the 6-in-1 brand of tomatoes, add some honey, garlic and spices.

#6 True Chicago-style Lou's is not really super deep dish, so don't roll out your crust too thick - roll it out like a normal crust and it will come out just fine.

OK - enough lecture Here is the best Lou Malnati's clone recipe you will ever find. I stole this from the pizza-making forum (with a few minor tweaks added by me), and I am not alone. Over 200 posts on the forum rave about this particular crust. This is for a 14" sqaure pan, and it will make a bit too much for a 15" round pan, but you can make some nice garlic braids from the extra!. On the pizza forum, they use ONLY weights, but I also included the "normal" measurements - and they are close enough to work perfectly. Here goes:

14” square
Flour (75%) 3 cups (hold back ½ cup)/ 407.85 g /
Semolina (25%) ¾ cup / 136.25 g
Water (47%) 1 cup / 255.58 g / 9.02 oz / 0.56 lbs.
ADY (0.70%) 1 tsp / 3.81 g / 0.13 oz / 0.01 lbs. / 1.01 tsp / 0.34 TBSP
Salt (0.50%) ½ tsp / 2.72 g / 0.1 oz / 0.01 lbs. / 0.49 tsp / 0.16 TBSP
Olive Oil (6%) 3 TBS / 32.63 g / 1.15 oz / 0.07 lbs. / 7.25 tsp / 2.42 TBSP
Corn Oil(18.5%) ½ cup / 100.6 g /3.55 oz / 0.22 lbs. /7.45 TBSP/ .47 cups
Butter (1%) ½ TBSP / 5.44 g / 0.19 oz / 0.01 lbs. /1.15 tsp / 0.38 TBSP
Sugar (1.5%) 2 tsp / 8.16 g / 0.29 oz / 0.02 lbs. /2.05 tsp / 0.68 TBSP
Cream of Tarter (0.75%) 1 tsp / 4.08 g / 0.14 oz / 0.01 lbs. /1.36 tsp / 0.45 TBSP
Total (175.95%) 956.78 g / 33.75 oz / 2.11 lbs. / TF=0.126875

I mixed the semolina and salt with the sifted flour, but withheld 1/2 cup of the flour. I added the water with the previously proofed ADY, mixed with a wooden spoon and by hand, covered and let rest for around 25 minutes in a warm part of the kitchen. Then added the rest of the flour along with the oil and the small amount of melted and cooled butter. After kneading for a very short time (est. 1 min.), I again found that I needed a teaspoon or two more of the flour, and then put the formed dough ball into a Ziploc bag and into the refrigerator for 24 hours. (NOTE: the dough will appear too oily, and you will question your sanity - this is NORMAL - it's an oily dough!)

Taking it out of the refrigerator the next day about 2 hours before baking, I patted out the dough ball into my previously "crisco'ed" 14" Pizza ware deep dish square pan with 2" high straight-sides. I crimped or pinched the edges of the crust very hard to give the crust a nice real thin edge, as opposed to a thicker or fatter rim. Pre-bake the crust only 4-5 min I then put in a layer of sliced Mozzarella cheese (use whole-milk mozz), then added some provolone cheese pieces, then cooked sausage (you cook it first so it doesn’t add any “juice” to the pie – other wise things can get messy). I then added some drained 6 in 1 sauce (important to use the “6-in-1” sauce, and important to drain first!) to which I added Italian spices, minced garlic, sea salt, and a good dash of honey (key ingredient) then added a good amount of grated parmesan, and then baked the pizza at 450 degrees (make sure your grate temp is no more than 450, or you'll burn it!). After 15 minutes I turned the pizza 180 degrees and continue to bake for about 10 minutes more.

Sorry for the long post, and sorry for no pictures, but I swear this is a perfect Lou Malnati's clone. I grew up in Chicago, and have eaten Lou's and Connie's and Uno's and Gino's all my life. My wife swears these are the best pizzas she has ever eaten in her life.

Try it and report back. Saturday is pizza night, I promise to take pictures next Saturday!

Didn't try it so can't report back but any chance we can get a picture?

EastTNBGE

Jazzman said:

I have become obsessed with making the perfect Chicago-style deep dish pizza over the past few months (specifically Lou Malnati's), I have gome on pizza-making forums, bough supplies from pizza-making online stores, and experimented with several types of dough. The last 5-6 pies I have made are (IMHO) near-perfect, and I wanted to share this info with you. I read almost every post regarding pizza, and some of you are making wrong assumptions about authentic Chicago-style pizza.

#1 There is NO CORNMEAL in a Lou Malnati's crust. I have this on good authority (I live 5 miles from a Lou's), and you can also check the ingrediants in the pizzas they ship - NO CORNMEAL.

#2 You must use about 25% (by weight) Semolina Flour, and the other 75% bread flour. It's the semolina that has people confused about the cornmeal - it gives the pizza a "yellowish" cast, and a nice cornmeal-y tasting crust.

#3 I always grease the bottom of the pan with Crisco, not olive oil - another trick I picked up on the pizza forum.

#4 the cheese MUST go on the bottom of the crust, followed by the ingredients, then the sauce LAST. Otherwise, the sauce and ingredients make the crust soggy on top.

#5 If you are a nut for authenticity, you must use the 6-in-1 brand of tomatoes, add some honey, garlic and spices.

#6 True Chicago-style Lou's is not really super deep dish, so don't roll out your crust too thick - roll it out like a normal crust and it will come out just fine.

OK - enough lecture Here is the best Lou Malnati's clone recipe you will ever find. I stole this from the pizza-making forum (with a few minor tweaks added by me), and I am not alone. Over 200 posts on the forum rave about this particular crust. This is for a 14" sqaure pan, and it will make a bit too much for a 15" round pan, but you can make some nice garlic braids from the extra!. On the pizza forum, they use ONLY weights, but I also included the "normal" measurements - and they are close enough to work perfectly. Here goes:

14” square
Flour (75%) 3 cups (hold back ½ cup)/ 407.85 g /
Semolina (25%) ¾ cup / 136.25 g
Water (47%) 1 cup / 255.58 g / 9.02 oz / 0.56 lbs.
ADY (0.70%) 1 tsp / 3.81 g / 0.13 oz / 0.01 lbs. / 1.01 tsp / 0.34 TBSP
Salt (0.50%) ½ tsp / 2.72 g / 0.1 oz / 0.01 lbs. / 0.49 tsp / 0.16 TBSP
Olive Oil (6%) 3 TBS / 32.63 g / 1.15 oz / 0.07 lbs. / 7.25 tsp / 2.42 TBSP
Corn Oil(18.5%) ½ cup / 100.6 g /3.55 oz / 0.22 lbs. /7.45 TBSP/ .47 cups
Butter (1%) ½ TBSP / 5.44 g / 0.19 oz / 0.01 lbs. /1.15 tsp / 0.38 TBSP
Sugar (1.5%) 2 tsp / 8.16 g / 0.29 oz / 0.02 lbs. /2.05 tsp / 0.68 TBSP
Cream of Tarter (0.75%) 1 tsp / 4.08 g / 0.14 oz / 0.01 lbs. /1.36 tsp / 0.45 TBSP
Total (175.95%) 956.78 g / 33.75 oz / 2.11 lbs. / TF=0.126875

I mixed the semolina and salt with the sifted flour, but withheld 1/2 cup of the flour. I added the water with the previously proofed ADY, mixed with a wooden spoon and by hand, covered and let rest for around 25 minutes in a warm part of the kitchen. Then added the rest of the flour along with the oil and the small amount of melted and cooled butter. After kneading for a very short time (est. 1 min.), I again found that I needed a teaspoon or two more of the flour, and then put the formed dough ball into a Ziploc bag and into the refrigerator for 24 hours. (NOTE: the dough will appear too oily, and you will question your sanity - this is NORMAL - it's an oily dough!)

Taking it out of the refrigerator the next day about 2 hours before baking, I patted out the dough ball into my previously "crisco'ed" 14" Pizza ware deep dish square pan with 2" high straight-sides. I crimped or pinched the edges of the crust very hard to give the crust a nice real thin edge, as opposed to a thicker or fatter rim. Pre-bake the crust only 4-5 min I then put in a layer of sliced Mozzarella cheese (use whole-milk mozz), then added some provolone cheese pieces, then cooked sausage (you cook it first so it doesn’t add any “juice” to the pie – other wise things can get messy). I then added some drained 6 in 1 sauce (important to use the “6-in-1” sauce, and important to drain first!) to which I added Italian spices, minced garlic, sea salt, and a good dash of honey (key ingredient) then added a good amount of grated parmesan, and then baked the pizza at 450 degrees (make sure your grate temp is no more than 450, or you'll burn it!). After 15 minutes I turned the pizza 180 degrees and continue to bake for about 10 minutes more.

Sorry for the long post, and sorry for no pictures, but I swear this is a perfect Lou Malnati's clone. I grew up in Chicago, and have eaten Lou's and Connie's and Uno's and Gino's all my life. My wife swears these are the best pizzas she has ever eaten in her life.

Try it and report back. Saturday is pizza night, I promise to take pictures next Saturday!

Didn't try it so can't report back but any chance we can get a picture?