chicago deep-dish pizza - as easy as it gets

Overview

Time: 75 minutes
Dishes: bowl, large cast iron pan or springform pan

Hello, hello Dear Readers!

I really love deep dish pizza but it has always been such a chore, for some reason. This meatless, vegetarian, and vegan pizza, however, took me about 20 minutes to assemble, including the relaxing time for the dough. 

The breakdown of the difficulty is as such: 

• If you use a store bought dough, it's easy.
• If you make the dough, it's moderate, but 
• In either case it needs to bake for an hour, so difficult? 

Not sure how to classify something when you don't actively do anything to it, but I'm going with moderate in this case, assuming you make the dough.

Letting the dough relax in the pan for about 15 minutes allows you to be able to stretch it so that it reaches up the sides, otherwise it just springs back down. Drape the dough over the side, use a knife or a fork to hold it there (if it's relaxed, that's all that it will take) and then when it is layered, allow it to gather and scrunch up on the sides, as in the picture below.

I made this with Beyond Meat sausage, which is really tasty, but improvise: add all vegetables (zucchini and pepper are great), add seitan, add homemade sausage - you decide. I went traditional with vegan sausage and spinach. 

Enjoy!

Speedy Cooking Tips:

• If making the dough, prepare it when you have time and put it in the fridge.
• While the dough is relaxing/warming, thaw the spinach in water and squeeze dry. 
• Prepare any other ingredient and preheat the oven while dough is relaxing.

 

Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza

Makes 4 servings 

moderate

Preheat oven to 450-F

1. Dough: Combine the ingredients in a bread machine or food processor with plastic blade. Knead the dough until smooth, Dough cycle for bread machine and 2 to 3 minutes for food processor. Leave in bread machine or remove and set in a bowl to double, about 1 hour.

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (1 package)

2. Add the Dough to an oiled 12-inch cast iron pan. Spread out to the sides and set aside to relax 15 minutes. Then press the dough up the sides of the pan.

3. Layer the ingredients on top of the Dough in order:  

6 to 10 slices vegan white cheese

4 links Beyond Meat sausages, crushed with hands

1 (16-ounce) bag frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed well

1 tablespoon pizza seasoning**

1 (28-ounce) can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

4. Arrange the edges of any dough hanging over the pan so it looks nice. Brush any visible dough with olive oil. Bake in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes, until the pizza is bubbling or internal temp is 165-F. Cover the pizza with a silicone mat when the dough is getting too brown. Remove from the oven and allow it to sit for 10 minutes. Serve.

 

 ** Pizza Seasoning: blend of dried garlic, onion, chili flakes, salt, basil, oregano. Substitute with 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano and chili flakes and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

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