While Chicago style pizza is not my absolute favorite (nothing compares to Windham House of Pizza, obviously), I do appreciate a good thick crust pizza now and again. Now that I have a cast iron pan, I can make a good one at home easily! Sean, who I made this pizza with, thought the crust was a bit sweet (in a good way), which I guess comes from the cornmeal, as there’s no sugar in there.

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 package dry yeast
• 1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tb. warm water
• 3 tb. Olive oil (42 g.) plus more for the pan

Pizza:

• one recipe dough
• 1/2 pound of shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 pound cooked crumbled chorizo (or whatever meat/toppings you like)
• 2 chopped cloves of garlic
• one 14 ounce can of chopped tomatoes, drained well in a strainer
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• handful grated parmesan cheese

Put the yeast in the water in a large bowl and let sit for five minutes. Add the rest of the dough ingredients and stir together until well mixed. Knead briefly – you can do this just in the bowl, with one hand. Cover loosely and let rise either in a warm place for an hour, or in the refrigerator overnight.

Once the dough has risen, preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Pour a teaspoon or so of oil into your cast iron pan and tilt it around. Flatten the dough with your hands and press it into the bottom of the pan and up the sides.

Add the mozzarella.

Top it with the chorizo, then the garlic, the tomatoes, oregano, and lastly the handful of parmesan.

Put the pizza in your preheated oven and reduce the temperature to 400. Bake for 35 minutes.

Delicious! We just ate it straight out of the pan, classy-style. Food that makes it to the table probably wasn’t worth eating anyway.

PS: Wooo 100 posts! There’ll be a cake in a week or two when I get time…

Cast Iron Pizza

From a thread on pizzamaking.com.

Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 package dry yeast
• 1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tb. warm water
• 3 tb. Olive oil (42 g.) plus more for the pan

Pizza:

• one recipe dough
• 1/2 pound of shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 pound cooked crumbled chorizo (or whatever meat/toppings you like)
• 2 chopped cloves of garlic
• one 14 ounce can of chopped tomatoes, drained well in a strainer
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• handful grated parmesan cheese

Combine the warm water and yeast in a large bowl and let sit 5 minutes. Add remaining crust ingredients, stir well, then knead briefly. Cover loosely and let rise 1 hour on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Lightly grease a 10 1/2″ cast iron skillet. Flatten the dough with your hands, then press into the bottom and up the sides of the pan.

Top crust with remaining ingredients in the following order: mozzarella, chorizo, garlic, tomatoes, oregano, parmesan.

Put pizza in preheated oven and reduce heat to 400. Bake 35 minutes, then serve.