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NOTE:
A little know fact that people do not know about CHICAGO Stuffed Pizza, unless they speak to the chef, is that the crust is not a traditional pizza dough and there is an additional paper thin crust placed between the cheese and the sauce that creates a barrier between the two. This keeps the sauce from mixing it's oils and colors into the cheese keeping the flavors pristine, creating a completely different taste from stuffed pizza and deep dish pizza that is NOT the same. Too many restaurants claim to make stuffed pizza but do not. There are only few places that make a real Chicago Style Stuffed Pizza (Giordano's, Gino's East & Elio's (retired)
* This step is crucial to the taste of Chicago Style Stuffed Pizza (otherwise it's just deep dish).
Dough Preparation:
Divide the butter half, letting one half warm to a temp that the butter can be spread easily with out any effort. Melt the other half in a microwave and let cool until it's slightly warm but still melted (liquefied). The butter should not be too hot it will kill the yeast.
Combine all ingredients except butter & water into a medium mixing bowl and stir until well mixed, add the melted butter and slowly add the water stirring until mixture starts to clump. Begin to fold mixture with hands until it becomes a dough ball. Place a very light dusting of flour on your work surface and begin flattening, stretching and folding the dough in the dusted area. Keep flattening, stretching and folding the dough until it is well mixed and the dough bounces back quickly with a finger poke.
You should be able to pull your hands away from the dough without dough sticking you your hands, but the dough should still be slightly tacky. If the dough becomes too dry wet your hands with the additional water and fold the bread a few more time until you reach the right consistency.
When you're done folding dough, place 1 tsp of olive oil into a large clean mixing bowl and spin the dough ball around in the bowl until it is coated with olive oil, loosely cover bowl with foil and let rest in a warm place for about 2-4 hours.
After the dough has risen, remove from bowl and begin to beat down the dough then once again stretch and fold for an additional few minutes. Do not add any water or flour. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a large rectangle about a quarter inch thick. Spread 8 tbsp room temperature butter thinly onto the top of the rolled out dough (you don't have to use all of the butter). Tightly roll the dough up from the narrow side then curl the dough so that if fits back into your bowl. Loosely cover the bowl with foil and place in the refrigerator for about 1 hour (second rise).
Sauce Preparation:
Heat a large sauce pan over medium heat, add 2 tbsp refrigerated butter, as butter melts, add onion, garlic, salt, oregano and red pepper flakes, stirring to coat everything with butter. Sate and stir until onions are translucent, continue for additional 2 minutes. Add entire can of crushed tomatoes and sugar, stir to combine all ingredients. Decrease heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally. TASTE the sauce, add oregano or salt if needed. Keep a close eye on the sauce, most not all the water should be evaporated when ready (water may continue to evaporate after removing from heat). Remove from heat and sauce pan, set aside.
Making the Pizza:
Shred about 9-11 oz. of the mozzarella cheese and set aside.
Prepare your meat as desired, (slice the pepperoni, fry and chop the sausage etc...)
Uncurl the dough and cut off about 4" from the end and set it aside, this is for the second crust. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out large enough to fit into and up and over the sides of a 16" x 21/2" deep/high pizza pan
Place the rolled out dough into the pizza pan and press it firmly into the bottom and tightly to the sides making sure the dough touches the pan completely. Press the dough to the sides of the pan (it's okay for some of the dough to hang out over the top of the pan).
Spread some of the meat ingredient into the dough and fill with all of the shredded mozzarella cheese, spreading it evenly out over the meat and dough. Set it aside.
place the set aside 4" piece of dough onto your work surface, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into (literally) a paper thin sheet large enough to place over the pizza pan and the sides. Once large enough, move the thin crust layer onto the pizza, lightly lay it over the cheese and firmly press it against the side of the pizza dough. With the dough in place, there should be a deep area of about an 1" to hold more ingredients and the sauce. Making sure the two dough layer are stuck together and there are no holes in the top layer of dough, trim off the excess dough with a knife cutting along the outside of the pan. If there are any holes in the top layer of dough, roll out small pieces of the remaining dough covering only the holes and press lightly into place.
Your pizza should be ready for the final layer of ingredients. Lightly place more meat and any other ingredients onto the top dough layer and fill with the sauce your prepared earlier spreading it evenly. Top off with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.
Bake at 425 degrees in a preheated oven for 30 minutes
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