Detroit-Style Deep Dish Pizza Recipe

It probably isn't an exaggeration to say that pizza is a national obsession. In New York, pizza is so thin, it's folded up like a sandwich, so you get double the sauce and molten cheese in one bite. In Chicago, it's deep-dish pizza with high edges, which allows for even more sauce and cheese. And then there's Detroit-style pizza that's baked in a pan, but the cheese is layered underneath the sauce. "I always LOVED pan-style pizza growing up," recipe developer Stephanie Rapone of Pantry to Plate told us. "And never knew that it was a Detroit thing until recently. I decided I wanted to try it and see if my kids love it as much as I did growing up. And they do!" 

Detroit-style pizza has a few essential elements that make it Detroit-style. It's baked in a rectangular pan, and it has a thick, chewy crust, a generous portion of sliced pepperoni, and stripes of tomato sauce on top. Another delicious feature is that the cheese is layered to the edge of the pan, thus creating a crispy, caramelized, cheesy edge. Is your mouth watering yet? Let's get baking!

If you've ever made homemade pizza dough before, you'll be familiar with the ingredients and the method. If you're a first-time pizza-pie-maker, don't worry: It's easy, but you may not have bread flour in your cupboard.

Bread flour is higher in protein than all-purpose flour and produces more gluten, which gives bread its chewy texture. All pizza doughs have yeast, so make sure that you have the instant yeast (also called rapid-rise or quick-rise), which, according to The Kitchn, dissolves and activates much faster than regular dry active yeast. You'll also need tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, and the usual herbs and spices — basil, oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder — for making an Italian tomato sauce.

For the cheese, you can use either sliced mozzarella or sliced provolone, but Rapone recommends using half and half of both. As for the pepperoni, Rapone told us, "I think pepperoni is an easy thing to skip for personal preference though. I don't really care for just cheese pizza, and this one is still awesome with cheese only."

Rapone recommends weighing out the ingredients for the dough on a kitchen scale. You can use the metric measurements here if you have one. Start by microwaving 220 grams (about one scant cup) of water in 10- to 15-second increments. Use a probe or instant-read thermometer to make sure the temperature is 108 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit (any hotter, and it will kill the yeast).

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 300 grams (about two generous cups) of bread flour, five grams (about 1 ¼ teaspoons) of instant yeast, and nine grams (about 1 ½ teaspoons) of table salt. Stir the dry ingredients to combine, then add the water. Stir everything with a silicone spatula until the dough comes together into a shaggy ball. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes has passed, put the bowl on the mixer with the dough hook. Turn the mixer on medium-low to knead the dough into a smooth ball, about 10 minutes. Oil a medium bowl with approximately one tablespoon of olive oil  — and rub your hands with a little oil too — and transfer the dough to the bowl, shaping it into a ball. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and set the bowl in a warm place for about two hours until the dough has roughly doubled in volume.

Once the dough has risen, add one to two tablespoons of olive oil to the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking pan. Use your fingertips to spread the oil toward the edges of the pan. Transfer the dough to the pan, and turn it to coat it with oil. Press down on the dough and spread it toward the edges of the pan. Spread as much of the dough as you can without tearing it, then cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes. This resting period relaxes the gluten and makes the dough easier to manipulate.

Move an oven rack to the lowest position in your oven, and preheat it to 550 degrees Fahrenheit (or as hot as your oven gets). After 30 minutes, the dough should be pliable enough to stretch it out to the edges. If it's resisting, let the dough rest for 15 minutes, and try again. Once you've stretched the dough to all the edges and corners of the pan, cover it with plastic wrap again, and set the pan aside.

The tomato sauce for Detroit-style pizza is always cooked. In a small or medium saucepan, combine six ounces of tomato paste, a 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, one tablespoon of dried oregano, two teaspoons of dried basil, one teaspoon of garlic powder, one teaspoon of onion powder, a quarter of a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, one teaspoon of kosher salt, and two teaspoons of sugar. Heat the sauce on medium-low heat until it begins to bubble. Keep stirring the sauce to avoid it from burning in the bottom of the saucepan. Once it's bubbling, turn off the heat, and cover the saucepan with a lid.

Press out any large air bubbles in the dough with your fingertips. The next couple of steps are what makes a pizza Detroit-style. Normally, the tomato sauce is spread on top of the pizza dough, but in Detroit-style pizza, the pepperoni and cheese go on top of the dough first. Lay out 30 to 40 pieces of sliced pepperoni evenly on the dough. Next, layer the cheese (10 to 12 slices of mozzarella or provolone or six slices of each) evenly, overlapping the crust. Make sure to lay the cheese so it goes over the edges of the dough.

Next, spoon the tomato sauce in three even rows that run down the length of the baking pan. You'll probably have leftover sauce, and Rapone recommends freezing it to make another pizza another day. Now pop the baking pan into the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, and bake the pizza until the edges are dark brown and bubbly and the cheese that isn't covered in sauce is starting to turn golden brown.

Allow the pizza to set for about 10 minutes, and then run an offset spatula or a butter knife around the edges of the pizza to loosen it from the pan. Lift the pizza carefully with a spatula out of the pan, and slide it onto a cutting board. Cut the pizza into smaller rectangles or squares, making sure that everybody gets some of the crunchy edges. Rapone likes serving the Detroit-style pizza with small bowls of freshly grated Parmesan and red chili flakes to bump up the heat.

Although it may seem sacrilegious to pizza fanatics, it really is better to eat this beautiful pizza with a fork and knife. Or maybe after a couple of polite bites, toss aside the utensils and just use your hands. However you choose to chomp down on this chewy, cheesy delight, you'll be glad you took the plunge to make a perfect Detroit-style pizza at home.