Detroit Style Pizza

For Christmas last year Madeline bought me a LloydsPan Detroit Style Pizza Pan which I use for this recipe.

You can probably use another type of pan that’s roughly the same dimensions.

This recipe calls for Brick cheese, which is a cheese available that’s mostly only available in Wisconsin or online. Rather than order this I just use a combo of Jack/Pepperjack and Low-moisture Mozzarella.

I’ve modified the Serious Eats recipe slightly, but the whole article is a good read so you should check it out. I use Ken Forkish’s FWSY Sauce for this pizza.

My modifications are increasing the bread flour and water (in proportion) in order to make it easier to get everything stretched in the pan, and changing the oven temp and cook time to account for my home oven.


Dough Ingredients:

  • 350g bread flour
  • 5g instant yeast
  • 9g salt
  • 255g water
  • Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed

Topping Ingredients:

  • Pizza Sauce
  • Cheese
  • Meats?
  • Veggies?

Instructions:

  1. Combine flour, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Stir to combine, then add water.

  2. Mix on low speed until dough comes together into a rough ball, then shut off mixer and let rest for 10 minutes.

  3. Continue mixing at medium-low speed until dough forms a smooth, silky ball, about 10 minutes longer. (It should stick to the bottom of the bowl as it kneads rather than riding around the edges.)

  4. Remove dough hook, form dough into a tight ball, set in the bottom of the mixer bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set aside in a warm place until dough has roughly doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

  5. Pour a couple tablespoons olive oil in the bottom of a Detroit-style anodized aluminum pan or two 8- by 8-inch cake pans. (Split dough in half if using cake pans.) Transfer dough to pan(s) and turn to coat in oil.

  6. Press down on dough and spread it toward the edges. You won’t be able to get it all the way to the edges; this is okay. Spread it as much as you can without tearing, then cover tightly in plastic and set aside for 30 minutes to allow dough to relax.

  7. Return to dough and stretch it out again. It should be able to reach the edges this time. If not, let it rest a little more and try again. To get the dough to stay in the corners, stretch it up beyond the corners so that it pulls back into place. Once dough is stretched, cover again and set aside.

  8. From here you have two options. You can make the sauce and finish making the pizza, or you can stash this in the fridge for a day or three. Pull it out of the fridge a few hours before baking to let come to room temp.

  9. I think the official way of making Detroit Style Pizza is to do cheese, toppings, then sauce. This is good and tasty but feel free to go sauce, cheese, toppings if you want.

  10. Preheat the oven to 450F. Once at temp, bake the pizza for 15-17 minutes, or until it looks done.

Recipe adapted from Serious Eat’s Detroit-Style Pan Pizza Recipe.