How to Make Crispy, Chewy Detroit-Style Pizza

Detroit-

style

pizza

is all thanks to one woman, a waitress named Connie Piccinato, who worked at a small restaurant in Detroit called Buddies back in 1946. Now that she spent much of her childhood in Sicily, she really missed those thick,

chewy

slices of

pizza

. focaccia from her youth, so she convinced Buddy's owner, Gus, to help her recreate it, so they topped it with a little cheese and just a little tomato sauce, and it was a big hit putting Buddy on the map as the home of Detroit-

style

pizza and Brian, you really went there. Learn how to

make

it from the creators, that's right and part of your key to success is this blue steel pan.

Okay, they were originally made in the 1930s and 1940s by a company called Dovers Parkersburg and they were scrap metal pants used by assembly workers in the automotive industry. They kept nuts, bolts and scrap metal while they were building the car, so from the shop mechanic to the kitchen, how did it work? It worked out pretty well because after repeated use, these pans cure very well like a well-used pot. cast iron skillet, so in the end you were able to get a nice

crispy

crust and a lacy cheese edge that is key to friends pizza. Now I have to say that it looks a lot like our classic 9x13 baking pan, that is, even down to the folded edges, that's right. but there's a clear difference here, you'll see on the inside of this pan, the bent metal is on the inside instead of just in the house, oh yeah, and that's where you get a lot of fat from the cheese, a little bit of milk and you get this fried and

crispy

corner and you still understand that today some of the pans they use at Buddies are between 50 and 75 years old.

Oh, I bet they're pretty valuable, they're very valuable, so it's a hard skillet to get these days, so we're. Moving on to our trusty 13 by 9 inch baking pan, this is a nonstick pan, but we went ahead and sprayed it with some nonstick vegetable spray and that's really just to keep the cheese from sticking to the edge and just to develop that weathered patina and that seasoned blue steel effect, we're going to add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and just brush it all over the sides and into the corners of the pan and actually, that's not that unusual.

If you think about making pan pizza, you usually put a little more oil in the pan, okay, so the pan is seasoned and we can focus our attention on the dough now, you should think of this as a Neapolitan style dough with the Sicilian. whole baked in a Detroit scrap pan so that it is thick and a little doughy with crispy edges, that's right, we have two and a quarter cups of all-purpose flour, to that we will add one and a half teaspoons of sugar and one and a half teaspoons of instant or wrapped yeast rice, then we're going to beat it, it's easier to beat this to incorporate it instead of hooking it to the mixer, yeah, and then we're going to put it in the mixer and we're going to turn the mixer on to low speed and while it's running we're going to continue Go ahead and add a cup of room temperature water, so when using instant yeast it's best to use room temperature or even slightly warm water because it helps. activate the yeast and start it, we will let it act for about two minutes until all the flour is hydrated and a nice cohesive ball begins to form, okay Julia, you can see that we have a nice ball of dough formed at the bottom there and we want let this dough sit for about 10 minutes to hydrate before adding the salt because salt can inhibit gluten development and hydration so we're just going to cover it with a piece of plastic and let it sit for 10 minutes and go back and add that salt so that's actually called car leasing and it's a good idea to do it every time you

make

bread okay Julia it's been 10 minutes and now we're ready to add the salt that I have. three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt and we're going to put the mixture on medium speed and let the dough knead for about eight minutes, at which time it will develop a nice satiny appearance and come away from the sides. from the bowl we will have a lot of gluten development during that time, okay Julia, it's been about eight minutes and you can see that the dough is coming away from the sides of the bowl, it's really sticking to the bottom and that's exactly what we want once that We have a good hydration in that dough, we're going to move the dough here to a lightly floured counter and we're going to give it some needs just to bring it together into a cohesive ball and Brian as it is. when you knead it you almost hit it more than it really needs to because it's so sticky that's right you need to use enough table flour so it doesn't stick to the counter and that's how you know you have just the right amount and don't be afraid Add more if it sticks to your palm or bench, so the dough has come together and now we can transfer it to our prepared pan.

We are going to let the dough rest in the mold for about 15 minutes covered with plastic wrap during this time the gluten in the dough will relax and allow us to stretch it, this is because if you try to stretch it now, if you like to stretch an elastic band, it will continue breaking down, okay? Julia, it's been 15 minutes and you can see the dough is nice and relaxed, yes it's softened, so we're just going to press it into the corners of the pan with lightly oiled fingertips to see this resemblance to focaccia. And like me.

I work my fingers into the dough, I'm also incorporating just a small amount of oil, which will also help contribute to that nice crispy crust, make it taste rich, okay, the dough is pushed almost into the corners and if there is just a little bit a little bit of exposed metal okay because as the dough rises it will fill the pan okay so we're going to let this rise right here on the counter until it triples in volume and that takes about two to three hours, okay, Julia, it's time. to make some sauce, okay folks, the crust is the star of the show, so there's sauce, it's herbal, it's a little sweet and it's a wonderful sauce, but used sparingly on pizza, okay , so I have a cup of canned crushed tomatoes. here and two I'm going to add a tablespoon of chopped fresh basil a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil a clove of minced garlic a teaspoon of dried oregano a teaspoon of dried basil so the fresh basil adds a little bit of sweetness and a kind of licorice flavor, while dried basil adds a little bitterness and a little pepper.

I have half a teaspoon of sugar again, the sauce is just a touch sweet, half a teaspoon of pepper and a quarter teaspoon of salt, so just mix everything well so that the sauce is ready, now we can go back and talk about the cheese, our dough has risen for about three hours and you'll see that it has tripled in volume and filled out in the right corners and in Detroit things are a little bit backwards so we'll add the cheese before we add the sauce which is backwards. Friends, they use a Wisconsin brick cheese, which is a slightly spicier and fattier version of mozzarella, since we couldn't easily get it on our couch.

At the markets we opt for another spicy, fatty cheese that melts well, it's Monterey Jack, so it has a little more flavor than your average mozzarella. That's right, so we'll add two and a half cups of grated Monterey Jack cheese, it still looks a little off. We are making pizza and the cheese goes directly to the dough, but it tastes very good and you really want to spread it until you reach the edge of the pan, that is the best part of the pizza. crispy edge with cheese, so now we're ready to add the sauce and the way we're going to add the sauce like they do at Buddies is to add it in these little thin stripes across the pie, so with a large pizza, you get three stripes, a small pizza, you get two stripes.

I like how you call them racing stripes because it's from Detroit, yeah, it's auto, okay, and just to finish the gap, we have three perfect little racing stripes that I really love. what it looks like yeah the crust is the start of the show so you don't want too much sauce okay now we're ready to put this on the low rack of a 500 degree oven for about 15 minutes until the cheese is nice and bubbly and brown hello julianne, let's take a look at this beautiful pizza, right, it's beautiful, okay, you're ready, it's a beautiful but unusual looking pizza, so we have to wait at least five more minutes.

I'm actually very happy to hear you say that. this is hot melted cheese, if we tried to take the pizza out of the pan right now we would probably lose all the cheese on the counter, we can't do that, we'll let it sit for five minutes and come back and cut. inside, okay, okay, Julia, it's been five minutes. You know, as it cools, the sauce really sinks in there. Yes, we are getting closer and closer. I'm just going to run a paring knife around the edge of the pan. You can see how important it is. to baste the pan because the cheese wants to stick and you definitely want to eat that part right now, the trickiest part, I'm going to take a step back, yeah, I just want to slide it under the cutting board, you can see that lacy edge of Cheese, oh me.

I'm looking forward to that, okay, so let's cut this into eight big pieces, so that they fit perfectly in half, well, you can actually hear the sound of how crispy the crust is. Okay, turn it around and cut it once along the center line, oh. that looks good, I have some plates in the corner ready, there are only four corners, so you must know someone, okay, it's nice and sturdy, so you can lift it up, yes, you can see the bottom is nice and brown like a good focaccia, it really looks more like a focaccia than a pizza with that crust, I mean you can even see how golden brown it is on the bottom, that's nice and crispy and rich.

I see that the sauce really complements the sauce, yes, because there is not much of this sauce. having such an intense flavor with those herbs is really good, the cheese is a little different than mozzarella, it really makes the pizza unique, so if you want to make a Motor City pizza yourself, you don't need to look for a blue steel pan , simply take a 9x13 and drizzle it with vegetable oil and olive oil, make a focaccia dough and press it into the pan with well-oiled hands after the dough has risen, top with monterey jack cheese and those iconic lines of tomato sauce just 15 minutes in the oven. and you're good from cook's country a great recipe for Detroit style pizza I think I'm going to need another one now that we're running out thanks for watching cook's country from America's test kitchen so what do you think?

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