Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Good morning, everyone!!!!! How have ya'll been doing this week? I've had a lot of fun so far. Apparently, last week at the ladies' meaning up in the community, they said that they would like to begin exercising a little bit. So yesterday, I went up and did just about 15 minutes of basic exercises. I mean squats, jumping rope....that sort of thing. Well, they enjoyed it and starting in March, we'll be doing mini-workout sessions every week. My main goal is to do bodyweight stuff that they could then do in their own homes. I had a lot of fun, even though I was super nervous beforehand, and am sooo glad that they all enjoyed it!

So Saturday, my mom, sister and I tried out a brand new recipe! We made homemade deep dish pizza!!!!! The crust was actually really easy preparation-wise, it never got sticky at all and we didn't have a huge mess to clean up after kneading it. The hardest part was waiting for it to rise twice! Anyway, I was really proud of myself for having a slice of this because there is a WHOLE lot of cheese in there, and that's definitely one of my "fear foods"! Well, here's the recipe:

Deep Dish Pizza (from this recipe)

Ingredients:

• Crust:
• 1 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 of a package of instant yeast (about 1 1/8 teaspoons)
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons room temp water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon butter, softened
• Sauce:
• 1/2 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons grated onion
• Oregano to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 (14.5 oz) can minced petite tomatoes
• pinch of sugar
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• For assembly:
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. For the dough, whisk together flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar and yeast in a medium sized bowl. Mix in water and melted butter. Turn out and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. 
2. Drizzle a little bit of oil into another bowl. Place the dough in that bowl and turn to coat it with the oil. Cover and let rise for 45-60 minutes. 
3. Turn risen dough out and roll into an 8x6 in rectangle. Spread the tablespoon of softened butter onto the surface of the dough, leaving a border of about 1/2 in around the edge of the surface of the dough. From the short end, roll the dough into a cylinder, sort of like a cinnamon roll. With the seam side down, flatten the roll into a rectangle. Fold into thirds like a letter, pinch seams to form a ball, place back in the bowl, cover, and let rise in fridge for 40-50 minutes. 
4. While the dough is rising for a second time, prepare the sauce. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and add the onion, oregano and salt. Cook until soft, about 4 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes and sugar, increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Once it boils, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and any other herb you like. 
5. Once the dough has risen in the fridge, take it out and roll out into a 13 inch disk (or just about 4 in longer and wider than you dish is). Slide dough into a prepared 9-in cake pan, pressing to line the bottom of the pan, and about 1 inch up the sides of the pan. Sprinkle half of the cheese over the crust of the pizza, layer the sauce on top of that, and finish with the rest of the cheese. If  you want, you can also add some parmesan at this point. 
6. Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is golden. Remove from oven, let sit 10 minutes or so before serving. 

We doubled the recipe and had 1 cheese pizza and 1 ham pizza! So, so good!!!!! :D Have you ever had Chicago-style pizza? Did you like it? What is your favorite kind of pizza? I really just love a good cheese or veggie pizza.....that way you really get to taste the sauce and crust! I definitely think that we might add some thinly sliced onion and bell pepper to the top of our pizza the next time we make it! 

Well, that's about it for today....off to do some school work!