Cake pan pizza | deep-dish Sicilian/Detroit-style (kinda)

***RECIPE, MAKES ONE 9x9 in (23x23cm) PIZZA***

1 cup (237mL) warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dry yeast
2 teaspoons coarse salt (10g, maybe 1 teaspoon of a fine salt)
2-3 tablespoons cornmeal
2-3 tablespoons whole wheat flour (just for flavor, not necessary)
bread flour or all-purpose (about 1.5 cups, 200g, but it depends)
olive oil
sauce (I use Pastene Kitchen Ready ground tomatoes with a little dried herbs, olive oil, pinch of sugar and a tiny splash of vinegar)
cheese (I use four 1 oz (28g) sticks of Galbani whole milk, low-moisture mozzarella string cheese with a little grated parmesan underneath)
any other toppings you want

Put the water in a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar and yeast and let bloom until the yeast start foaming up or showing any other signs of life. Put in the cornmeal, whole wheat flour (if using), salt and a little glug of olive oil (maybe two teaspoons). Then stir in as much bread flour as you can easily stir in with a spoon — no hand kneading. Cover and let rise slowly in the refrigerator for at least a day and up to a week.

Line a 9x9 in (23x23cm) cake pan with parchment paper — crumpling it up first will help it fit down in the corners. Coat the paper in a thin film of olive oil. Pull the dough out of the fridge and knead it a few times with a spoon or oily hands. Stretch it out a little bit in the air then lay it down in the oiled paper, stretch it out into a full square as much as possible (don't worry if it's not quite there yet), cover and let proof until puffy, 1-2 hours at room temperature or a day in the fridge. After it's proofed, it should be easy to stretch it into the corners if it's not there already — be gentle so as to not deflate it.

Position a rack at the very bottom of your oven and move the others as high as possible. Heat the oven to its maximum temperature on the normal, non-convection heat setting, or whichever setting on your oven works primarily by heating the bottom element.

Top the pizza with sauce and cheese, and bake on the bottom rack until almost but not quite finished — mine took about 9 minutes. Take the pizza out, let it cool and solidify for a minute, then use the parchment paper to lift the pizza out. Peel the paper off and lay it on a cooling rack. Use the cooling rack so slide the pizza back into the oven, directly on the bottom oven rack. Finish baking the pizza to your liking — mine took about 4 minutes at this stage. Slide the pizza back onto the cooling rack and let cool before cutting.

[ianmsutherland]

1:30 "so the dough needs to season itself"

Adam got rid of the cutting board middleman. We've gone peak seasoning.

[johnnyharris]

The crumbling of the parchment was the greatest thing I’ve seen in 2021

[jeffreyxu]

2:06 "Leave the spoon in there, we'll knead it later."

I see what you did there Adam

[Samyboi]

6:27 I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this already, but since I can't see it anywhere, 550°F is 290°C, not 190 - just in case anyone tries to convert it (or wonders why Adam's oven is so underpowered!)

[BrianLagerstrom]

Classic Ragusea! Especially the spoon in the dough. I love this vid.

[bspep]

That parchment paper crumpling trick is genius

[TheCmanPLPro]

"School lunch pizza that grew up and went to a fancy college" is probably one the best and most accurate descriptions I've read for this kind of pizza. As a school janitor, I definitely felt that.

[kylemeyers]

Video idea: A food history video on the different types or styles of pizza (New York, Chicago) and how they came to be as well as The discrepancies between Sicilian style pizza in Sicily, and Sicilian style pizza in the US!

[Kskillz]

This has become a yearly thing
End the year with a pizza video

[piercemorrison]

As a foreigner in Korea, my Korean girlfriend and I find your comment about not needing special equipment especially humorous. Here, an oven is special equipment.

[michaelfortier]

Great content Adam. As an engineer, I love the science-y aspect of your channel, everything just makes so much sense when you explain it and gives me confidence to follow your advice carefully. Never thought I'd fall in love with cooking this much, but you've really made me discover a passion over the past year. Thanks!

[russelldunlap]

Ugh, yet another Ragusea pizza recipe that I'm going to have to try and will inevitably fall in love with!

[ceno]

I live in the US, but I like that Adam uses both metric and imperial measurements in his descriptions during the video. I bet it helps anyone trying to make this, outside of the US. Converting recipes I find from Europe can be a pain.

[sKid]

For a true Detroit style, use sliced or shredded cheese as your first layer and top it with the sauce instead. This guarantees that your dough to toppings interface won’t be doughy and underbaked, and then you can use more sauce!

[skall]

Adam have you ever tried putting down a layer of provolone cheese to separate the sauce from the dough first? You can add a little extra sauce, which is something I like. Then add the parm abs mozz on top as normal. This gives an extra cheesey pizza and amazing cheese pull. I also think the provolone and mozz combo taste amazing on pizza. Maybe try it and see what you think.

[vierte_]

I like how practical you make these recipes. It feels like real cooking, allowing approximate ingredients, encouraging using what you have. I really appreciate this way of cooking!

[alannaverdant]

My boyfriend and I both make this whenever we're craving pizza, it saves us money and its more consistent than our local pizza joints. We split the dough into two aluminum round cake pans and we top them how we want. This is our go to recipe now, thanks!

[petermusante]

I already tried it, although with a shorter rise (about 8 hours), and it came out perfectly. The pizza was fluffy with a crispy crust and lots of caramelized edges. An 8 inch round cake pan made for a good personal size pizza.

[loki.odinson]

Adam I love how easy you make it look to make everything in each of your videos. I love how you cut to the chase and don't waste time talking about things I am not interested in. I love your channel. Keep doing what you are doing. It's making me rekindle my love of cooking.

[thstreetmedia]

I like the tip about finishing on the oven rack! I have always done two bakes on my Sicilian pizzas: one with just dough and sauce and then another after adding the cheese to the already baked crust. Can be very good, but I have gotten the bottom too done on a number of occasions.