Nate got me fired up to do a deep dish pie based on his recent post. I thought I would try a few new ingredients and a couple of technique changes to see what Bisbee and I could do.
Griswold 8" skillet to cook with. The measuring cup has yeast blooming for the dough:
Bisbee gets the call. I fired up 1 chimney of lump and browned some sweet italian sausage in the CI skillet
Seemed like a waste to drain all that good sausage fat, so I scooped out the meat and left the drippings to coat the skillet and absorb into the crust:
Homemade dough. I won't bore you with the recipe as they are readily available. This one took about an hour to rise and provided a pound and a half of dough. It was just about right:
First layer into the same skillet:
I was searching for more ingredients. Pizza sauce, check. Shredded mozzarella, check. sliced mozzarella, check. I was thinking of additional toppings when I remembered that I had saved 6 turds from my last cook (chef's snacks). I sliced them up and used them as the topper:
I lit a second chimney of lump and put it around the sides. Instead of a pizza stone (which usually cracks), I put 2 firebricks in the center to raise the pan. Additionally, this kept the bottom of the pizza from scorching while the toppings cook. When the lump was ready, I put the skillet on the firebricks and closed the lid:
Bisbee was good and hot:
I left the pizza in for about 10 minutes. I did not remove the lid during the cook as it lets all the valuable heat out. I managed to temp the crust of the pizza with my themopen through the upper vent. I pulled the pizza when the crust hit 190.
The payoff:
I let the pizza sit for about 10 minutes before slicing. The moisture content was still a bit too high, but I can adjust for that. Thanks Nate for your post on Deep Dish - it is a winner!
Winz