Detroit Style Pizza

 Pan Pizza is nothing new for me, but the Detroit Style Pizza has it's own way of being.  It is a Pan Fried Pizza, but the way it goes together is a little different than anywhere else.  The Cheeze goes directly on the crust, then toppings, and sauce on top, but not everywhere, just a few stripes.  I guess it is sort of like Cincinnati Chili, kinda weird to us South Westerners.

Now, since this is my first Detroit Style Pizza, I had some trouble shedding my old ways, and did the toppings like I usually do.  Sauce on the dough, then cheeze, and toppings on top.  Maybe I'll do it more correctly next time.  It turned out good, and very filling, much more dough than my normal Pizza.

It's a standard pizza dough crust with flour, yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil, and water.  Also mixed  together just like I usually do with my other pizza dough.  The main difference is the way that it is risen.  First I'm going to make the dough, then place it in a oiled bowl, and let it rise for several hours.

Then we'll gently form it into a pan.  Give it a little stretch, but not too much, you don't want to break the gluten chains.  The double rise will give the dough a sourdough consistency, with lots of air pockets inside.  This makes the inside of the dough soft, while the fried exterior will get krunchy.  Then we'll let the dough rise again for another hour.

After the second rise the dough is puffy, the gluten chains have loosened up a bit, and we can push the dough into the corners of the pan.  We'll punch it down a little with this final form fitting the pan, but the dough will rise again in the oven.

This works best if you can get the dough all the way into the corners.  We don't want the sauce, and the cheeze to get down to the bottom of the pan.  I had a little trouble with this on my first attempt.

I'm going to sauce the dough all the way to the edges.  This pizza will be in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, and the exposed dough will get blackened.

I'm also going to run the cheeze out to the edge of the crust as well.  In the corners I slopped the cheeze off the edge of the crust, and it wound up burning.  With a traditional Detroit Style Pizza you want the cheeze to go over the edge of the dough, but not get down to the bottom of the pan.  This is a process feature that I haven't mastered yet.  I can see that correctly making a Detroit Style Pizza is an art that takes some practice to master.

Then for the toppings.  Traditional Detroit Style Pizza is Pepperoni only, but you know I have to add my favorites.  I was tempted to make a special with Pepperoni, Sausage, Green Pepper, Onion, and Mushroom, but decided to keep it simpler.  So, in addition to the traditional Pepperoni I added Kalamata Olives.  They have been a recent favorite of mine.  Then we toss the Pizza in a 475F Oven for 15 to 20 minutes...

Bam!  Detroit Style Pizza, ala Z.Monkey...  Meh, fairly close, Mo Betta next time...