I've only made desserts from the Cook's Illustrated/Cook's Country/America's Text Kitchen folks because most of their main course/side dish options incorporate meat or some sort of meat flavoring. This finally changed though a few weeks ago when I received the January/February 2010 issue of Cook's Illustrated. I knew after just quickly glancing at the cover that I would definitely be making a savory recipe from the issue -- whether or not it included meat! (To clarify, this means, I would have taken the time to modify the recipe to be vegetarian, not actually prepare a meat meal :-))
That recipe is the Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza. I have spent most of my adult life in Chicago, and I've LOVED Chicago Deep Dish Pizza ever since my childhood visits to Illinois. My favorite Chicago pizza place is Gino's East (SO delicious), and I absolutely abhor the fake Chicago pizza that you can find outside of the Windy City including the horrible, horrible Uno's and D.C.'s Armand's "Chicago" Pizzeria. Although I've had so many bad Chicago pizza experiences outside of the city, I had faith -- some might say a bit of desperation because I haven't been to Chicago in over a year (!) -- that Cook's Illustrated would get it right. I am incredibly pleased to report that Cook's Illustrated didn't let me down.
I followed the magazine's recipe almost exactly, and I found that following the multi-step dough process is critical to achieving the wonderfully flaky and buttery crust (which is so spot on for real Chicago pizza). While I had a bit of doubt about whether the crust would turn out correctly given how thin it was after rolling, it really did rise perfectly. The pizza sauce was also very simple and delicious -- much better than the standard sauce we use for our homemade pizzas (meaning I have a new favorite pizza sauce recipe!).
The only changes I ended up making were to add some chopped red bell pepper, jalapenos and onion on top of the cheese layer, and to use two springform pans to bake the pizzas -- one was slightly smaller than recommended (8.5 inches) and the other was slightly larger (9.5 inches). The larger pizza I baked for maybe 4 minutes longer than the smaller pizza, but there was no difference in taste or consistency. The two pizzas ended up serving 4 hungry adults.
Of all of the Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country recipes I have recommended, this is definitely my favorite. It's a fantastic meal to make when a few friends are coming over, and perfect for winter months. It's almost exactly the medicine I need given how much I miss Chicago and all of the wonderful food there! Definitely, definitely pick up this edition of Cook's Illustrated this month!
this was so, so delicious. the crust WAS buttery. it was just right.
Posted by: jenny | January 21, 2010 at 22:14