What's cooking at the Bennetts: 'Giordano's' Stuffed Pizza

I used to make deep dish pizza, but it had been years. I found a copycat recipe for Giordano's stuffed pizza (from The Food Hacker website) and gave it a try. As usual, I made a couple slight modifications, but pretty much stuck to the recipe on this one.

Homemade crust and sauce does take a bit of planning, but since you do a few things at least a day ahead, it doesn't seem like so much work. Just do it already. The dough is made 1 or 2 days ahead and the sauce can be done early as well and stored in the fridge.

The original recipe was for a 10 inch pan, but mine was 13 inches so I made the crust recipe 1 1/2 times the size. My larger version is in the main recipe and the 10 inch version at the very bottom. I adjusted the sauce recipe a bit, but not to 1 1/2 times.

We actually did a side by side taste test against a real Giordano's stuffed pizza, and I gotta say...mine measured up! I'm seriously looking for an excuse to make this again. Do I need an excuse?

'Giordano's' Stuffed Pizza

Crust

(must be made 1-2 days early!)

1 1/8 c. water

3/4 t. active dry yeast

1 1/2 T. sugar

24 oz. all-purpose flour

1 1/8 t. salt

1/2 c. veg oil

9 T. butter, softened

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water.

Combine the flour and salt in your stand mixer bowl. Add the oil, butter, and yeast mixture and mix until the dough forms in a ball. Don't kneed it too much!

Place the dough in a covered container in the fridge for 24-48 hours. This will produce a more mellow, tender, less doughy crust.

Sauce

28 oz. can San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes

14 oz. can diced petite tomatoes

2 1/2 T. vegetable oil

1 1/4 t. garlic powder

1 1/4 t. dried basil

1 t. salt

1/4 t. ground pepper

1 1/2 T. fresh basil

Add the whole and diced tomatoes in a medium saucepan and cook for 5 minutes. Then use a potato masher to mash the tomatoes into smaller bits. (The sauce should be a little chunky.)

Add all the other sauce ingredients except the fresh basil and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the fresh basil and cook for another 5 minutes. Cover and cool.

Pizza

1 1/2 lbs. good quality sliced mozzarella, room temperature

2 T. butter, softened (for greasing the pan)

3 T. grated Parmesan or Parm/Romano mixed

Topping Choices

Cooked Italian Sausage

Pepperoni (thinly sliced from the deli works great)

Green Pepper

Onion

Mushroom

Black olives

Spinach

(If doing veggies, give them a short sauté them just to soften them a bit)

Take the dough out of the fridge a couple of hours before you want to assemble the pizza and let it warm to room temperature.

When you are ready to make the pizza, put a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 425 degrees. The stone will help give the bottom an even heat and crispier texture.

Slice off 1/3 of the dough and set it aside. Roll out the larger dough on a floured surface to 17-18 inches for the bottom crust. Rub the bottom and sides of a deep dish pizza pan with the 2 T. of softened butter. Place the dough in the pan and up the sides.

Line the bottom of the pizza with slice mozzarella and up the side just a bit for a cheese filled crust. Then add your choice of toppings. If any cheese is left, add it to the top.

Roll out the the smaller portion of dough to about 14 inches and a bit thinner than the bottom dough. Add this to the top of the pizza and up the sides. Press the two doughs together and trim off any excess with a knife or scissors. Using a knife, make some vent holes in the top crust.

Top the pizza with sauce (you'll probably have about 1/3 left over to use later)

Bake the pizza for about 35-40 minutes, until it begins to brown on top. Spin the pan half way through for even baking.

When the pizza is done, use a knife or spatula to loosen it from the pan. Remove the pizza from the pan, sprinkle with the parm/romano cheese, and slice.