Deep Dish Pizza
Serves: 1 pizza
A delicious thick crust pizza which is crispy all over, but soft within. Made with a savoury tomato sauce and your favourite pizza toppings, this deep dish pizza will be the best homemade pizza you have ever tasted! Recipe with step-by-step photos.
Ingredients
For the Pizza Dough
- 250 g (1 ⅔ cup) white bread flour
- 3 ½ g (1 teaspoon) instant dried yeast, see Kitchen Notes
- 3 g (½ teaspoon) fine salt
- 8 g (2 teaspoons) caster sugar, (superfine sugar)
- 150 ml (½ cup plus 1 tablespoon) warm water
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
For the Pizza Sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 200 g (7 oz) canned diced tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
- black pepper, freshly cracked
- parsley, finely chopped
For the Toppings
- 200 g (1 cup) mozzarella cheese, or other cheese for melting, grated
- salami, or pepperoni, thinly sliced
- parsley, or basil, for garnish
Instructions
To make the pizza dough
- Place the flour, instant yeast, salt and sugar into a large mixing bowl. I use an electric stand mixer to make bread, but you can also make the bread by hand.
- Measure the water into a measuring jug, and add the olive oil.
- Lightly mix together the dry ingredients.
- Slowly add the liquid ingredients until the mixture comes together into a dough. You may not need all of the liquid, or you may need to add a bit extra.
- Knead the dough for about 15 to 20 minutes. I generally do this on medium speed with the stand mixer.
- The dough should be ready when it is smooth and elastic in texture.
- Lightly oil a clean, large mixing bowl.
- Place the dough into the bowl, cover with a clean tea towel, and place the bowl somewhere warm for the dough to double in size. This should take 1 to 2 hours. (See Kitchen Notes below)
- Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it back to knock out the air.
- Knead the dough gently (just a few turns) until it soft and smooth again.
For the Pizza Sauce
- Pour the oil into a small saucepan.
- Add the garlic to the cold oil, together with a sprinkle of sea salt.
- Sauté over medium-high heat until the garlic has softened and is aromatic.
- Add the canned tomatoes, together with the dried oregano, sugar, salt and some pepper to taste.
- Simmer the mixture over low-medium heat for about 20-25 minutes, or until it has thickened and is no longer watery.
- Stir the mixture frequently, and use a wooden spoon to help break down the tomatoes.
- Taste for seasoning. Depending on the acidity of your canned tomatoes, you might need to add some more sugar.
- Stir through the chopped parsley.
To prepare the pizza
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/430°F (without fan).
- Place a large metal baking tray to preheat in the middle of the oven. If you are using a special pizza tray, pizza stone or cast-iron pan, also place this into the cold oven to preheat for at least 15 minutes.
- Transfer the dough onto a sheet of baking paper.
- Gently stretch the dough into your desired shape, and which will fit your pizza tray or cast-iron pan.
- Stretch the dough by pushing from the centre outwards, creating a thick crust as you do so. As you stretch the dough, it may shrink back a little. Let the dough shrink or relax after each stretch, before you continue stretching to your desired shape. The dough will rise a little upon baking, so keep the thickness of the dough in mind.
- Spread the dough with the pizza sauce, leaving a small border. I generally use about 6-8 tablespoons of pizza sauce, but use as much or as little as you like.
- Sprinkle over the freshly grated mozzarella.
- Add the remaining toppings.
To cook the pizza
- When you are ready to bake, transfer the pizza - together with the baking paper - onto the pizza tray or cast-iron pan. Be careful - the pizza tray or cast-iron pan will be very hot!
- Trim off any excess baking paper, otherwise it might catch in the oven.
- Bake the pizza for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese has fully melted and the edges of the pizza are lightly golden.
- Garnish with parsley or basil.
- Serve immediately.
Kitchen Notes
- MAKING MULTIPLE PIZZAS
* If you plan to multiply the recipe to make more pizzas, I recommend proofing the dough separately (and not as one large piece of dough). This will allow each piece of dough to trap more carbon dioxide as it is proofing, which will result in a lighter dough.
* I also recommend making the full recipe for Easy Tomato Sauce and freezing any leftovers in a zip-lock freezer bag for future pizzas, or even as a pasta sauce. - DIFFERENT TYPES OF FLOUR
For Swiss readers: I use Zopfmehl (or farine pour tresse) when making bread and enriched dough. - DIFFERENT TYPES OF YEAST
* Please note that there is a difference between instant yeast (also called instant dried yeast or fast-action dried yeast) and dried yeast (also called active dry yeast). If you are not sure what type of yeast you have, please check the packaging for instructions on how to use the yeast.
* With instant yeast, you can add it directly to the flour mixture without having to activate it first.
* With dried yeast, you will need to activate it first (usually in some warm liquid). - PROOFING THE DOUGH
Dough needs a warm environment for the yeast to activate and cause the dough to rise. If you don't have a warm place in your home, try one of the following ideas:
* In the oven with the oven light switched on (works only for some ovens).
* In the oven with a tray of boiling water on the bottom shelf.
* In the oven at a low temperature of about 25-30°C (77-86°F). - OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer's handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly. - CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.