Deep Dish Pizza

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Yeah Friday!  It’s here again and I look forward to a warm weekend in Virginia.

Oh pizza.  Crispy, chewy, saucy, cheesy yumminess!  We love pizza at our house and Saturday nights are perfect for a little deep dish and a movie.  We recently made a recipe I found on Cookin’ Canuck for Focaccia Bread.  We made it a few weeks ago and watched it disappear in a matter of minutes.  My son and his homies rolled into the driveway a few minutes after I took it out of the oven.  Minutes.  The whole focaccia gone.  We thought it was worth making again and would be good as a pizza crust.  Boy were we right!

Focaccia 

1 package (1/4 Oz. Packet) Dry Yeast
1 cup Warm Water
1 teaspoon Honey
2-½ cups All-purpose Flour
½ cups Plus 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil, Divided
2 teaspoons Kosher Salt, Divided

In a medium bowl, stir together yeast, warm water, and honey. Let rest until yeast blooms and bubbles form on top, about 10 minutes. Stir in flour, 1/4 cup olive oil and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead until dough is smooth, 5 to 10 minutes. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap, and let rest in a warm place until dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Prepare your pizza toppings of choice.  We used:

Green Pepper
Onion
Black and green olives
Pizza sauce
Shredded mozzarella

Remove dough from bowl and press it into a lightly oiled 9- by 13-inch baking sheet until it touches the edges.  I used two round deep dish clay Pampered Chef pans, one small and one large as we wanted a thicker deep dish crust.  Using your finger, poke holes all over the dough. Drizzle the dough with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Let rest until the dough becomes puffy, about 20 minutes.

Top with pizza sauce, meat, vegetables or just shredded mozzarella cheese.

Bake until the pizza is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack. Cut into pieces and serve.

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With so much tragedy in Japan, so many lost, and more that will be affected by the nuclear disaster, I just want to say that I feel very blessed and lucky.  We try to enjoy everyday and share what we can.  We continue to pray for those less fortunate and those affected by this unending disaster.

I hope you have a terrific weekend.  Pie No. 12 is a special request from my son’s roommate.  Check back on Monday and see how it turns out!  I’ve never made one before so it should be fun.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Tricia