Carol Schmidt
Feb 19, 2003, 12:30 PM
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Deep dish pizza recipe for high Mexican altitudes
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This certainly isn't an authentic Mexican recipe, but pizza might as well be a national Mexican favorite. I live at 6400 feet in San Miguel and could not find deep dish Chicago pizza style pizza here in any restaurant. When I tried to make it myself, I found out why--regular recipes rise much too high and overflow the pan and don't cook the crust through. So here's my adaption.
The basic recipe came from the PBS "America's Test Kitchen" show on cable, with the addition of the potatoes and the pre-baking of the crust as the major changes from most deep dish pizza recipes.
DEEP DISH PIZZA
Heat oven to 200 F. for 10 minutes to proof. Have inside oven on the middle shelf a pizza stone. (We bought a regular plain ceramic floor tile from a tile store in town that we use instead since we couldn't find a pizza stone anyplace.)
CRUST:
1 1/3 cup riced cooked potatoes, or grate on a hand grater using the large holes, lightly packed in the measuring cup.
3 cups regular white flour
1 tsp instant active dry yeast
1 3/4 tsp salt
Put above ingredients into food processor to mix, or stir by hand.
Then add:
1 cup warm water and process or stir until shaggy, like pie dough.
Then add:
6 Tb extra virgin olive oil, process or stir until it comes together sticky. If you hand-stirred it, knead dough a few times.
Put dough into big oiled bowl, turn dough so it is coated in oil.
Turn off oven that was set to 200 F. for 10 minutes, put bowl with dough inside and let rise for 25 minutes.
Press dough down, shape into a 12-inch circle, and put into a 14-inch deep dish pizza pan that has 1/4 cup olive oil underneath. We use instead a paella pan with oven-proof handles that is about 10 inches across, and we make two crusts. The recipe says two 10-inch cake pans will work as well. The oil seems like a lot underneath but it helps make the bottom of the crust crispy.
Let the partially-stretched-out dough rest for 10 minutes, covered with plastic wrap, on the kitchen counter, room temperature. Now it won't pull back from the edges so much.
Work it out and up the edges of the pan(s) an inch. Cover again with plastic wrap, let it sit 30 minutes more on the counter.
Fork it all over to prevent bubbles rising and pre-bake the crust 425 F. for 8-10 minutes on the pizza stone, until crust just starts to look golden.
While it is baking, make topping:
3-4 large Roma tomatoes, quartered or 1-inch cubes and seeded. (You can blanch them and peel them first if desired but we don't bother.)
1/2 red and/or green sweet pepper, small slices
1/2 large onion, small slices
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 to 1 large serrano, minced.
You don't have to have the onion or pepper or serrano, and you could use mushrooms or anchovies here, too, in any combination you like.
Toss together with oregano, basil, marjoram, rosemary, or pre-mixed Italian seasoning in whatever proportions you like. (Thyme can also be used but neither of us like it, and we tend to just use oregano and basil, fresh when possible.) Add a little salt and pepper if desired, knowing that the cheese and meats are salty, and add crushed red pepper flakes if desired if you want extra heat besides the minced serrano.
Spread on top of crust after the pre-baking.
Then layer on pepperoni or pre-cooked and drained Italian sausage in any amount you wish, if desired. It can be vegetarian.
Then add 2 cups hand-shredded whole milk mozzerella cheese and 1/2 cup freshly shredded parmesan. (We've substituted good old Kraft in the green can and it's fine but the fresh does taste better.) It will be heaped high but the ingredients collapse in cooking.
Put pizza back on pizza stone at 425 F. for 10-15 minutes, then put pizza on the top shelf of the oven without the pizza stone for another 5 minutes at 425 F.
Let cool slightly before slicing. The recipe said you can add more shredded fresh basil on the top before slicing if desired, or just use basil at this time and don't use any of the other herbs if desired. We prefer to stir them in with the tomatoes so they cook in.
As you can see, this is a flexible recipe--the secret is the reduced amounts of flour and yeast and rising time and the pre-baking of the crust before you add ingredients and the riced potatoes to make it more of a foccaccio dough.
It's a lot of work but we think it's worth it.
Carol Schmidt
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