detroit pizza

This is not everyday pizza. It's not every-week pizza. It might not even be every-month, if you want to live to a reasonable age. But damn, is it good pizza. So good that it's worth a trip to Detroit just to taste it. So good that it's worth devoting months of time, weeks of research, and dozens and dozens of experiments to developing a recipe to duplicate it at home. So that's exactly what I did. Here's what I found.

Detroit-Style Pan Pizza Recipe

For the Dough:

bread flour (10.5 ounces; about 2 generous cups)

instant yeast (0.15 ounce;

salt

water (7.75 ounces;

Extra-virgin olive oil,

For the Sauce:

(30 milliliters) extra-virgin olive oil

garlic, minced

(about 5 grams) dried oregano

red pepper flakes

(28-ounce; 800 grams) can high-quality crushed tomatoes

(about 6 grams) granulated garlic powder

(about 6 grams) granulated onion powder

(about 15 grams) sugar

Kosher salt,

To Finish:

(340 grams) high-quality natural-casing pepperoni,

To Make the Dough in a Stand Mixer: Combine flour, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Stir to combine, then add water. Mix on low speed until dough comes together into a rough ball, then shut off mixer and let rest for 10 minutes. 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.) 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.

To Make the Dough in a Food Processor: Combine flour, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Add water, then turn on processor and process until dough forms a ball that rides around the bowl of the processor, about 30 seconds. Continue processing for 30 seconds longer. Transfer dough to a bowl, form a tight ball, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set aside in a warm place until dough has roughly doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

To Make the Dough by Hand: Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk to combine, then add water and stir with a wooden spoon until a rough ball of dough has formed. Set aside for 10 minutes. Turn dough out onto a countertop and knead until a smooth, silky ball has formed, about 10 minutes. Transfer dough to a bowl, form a tight ball, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set aside in a warm place until dough has roughly doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

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. 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. 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 while you make the sauce.

For the Sauce: Adjust oven rack to lowest position and preheat oven to 550°F (290°C), or as close to it as your oven gets. Heat 2 tablespoons (30ml) olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add minced garlic, oregano, and pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, garlic powder, onion powder, and sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook until reduced to about 3 cups, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt.

To Form the Pizza: Press down on dough with your fingertips to remove any large air bubbles. Lay half of pepperoni (if using) evenly over face of dough. Top with cheese, spreading it evenly all the way to the very edges of the pan, then add remaining pepperoni. Spoon sauce over surface in 3 even rows. (You will need only about half the sauce—save the rest for another pizza.)

Transfer to oven and bake until edges are black and bubbly and exposed cheese on top is starting to lightly brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a trivet or folded kitchen towel on countertop.

Run a thin metal spatula all the way around the edges of the pan to loosen the pizza. Carefully lift it out and slide it onto a cutting board. Cut pizza and serve.

The BEST Detroit Style Pizza recipe is cheesy and chewy with crispy edges! The toppings are spread all the way to the edges and it is baked to perfection. Nothing beats a slice of this!

Detroit Style Pizza

+ 2 Tbsp lukewarm water

yeast

bread flour*

sea salt

Pizza Sauce*

cheese

natural casing Pepperoni (, thinly sliced)

parmesan cheese

Make dough: Stir all ingredients together in a bowl or stand mixer. Knead for several minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

First rise: Place in a well-greased bowl, turning once in the bowl to coat in oil, then cover and allow to rise for 2 hours. (Don&#39;t skimp on the rise times!)

Press into pan: Oil the bottom and sides of a pizza pan*. Stretch dough into a rectangle and lay into pan(s). Cover and rest for 15 minutes, to allow the gluten to relax. Without handling the dough too much, gently spread the dough all the way to the edges of the pan, poking it into the corners, in a flat even layer (there’s no “crust” edge in Detroit pizza).

Second rise: Rise again for 2 hours, or until the dough has risen about 1/3 way up the pan.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. I recommend baking the pizza on a pizza stone, or if you don&#39;t have a pizza stone, use a baking sheet, and allow it to preheat in the oven.

Add cheese: sprinkle cheese all over the dough, making sure it covers all the way to the edges.

Add sauce: spoon pizza sauce into 2-3 lines/stripes going down the pan, over cheese—you don’t want to cover all the cheese in sauce.

Add pepperoni, laying it in a single layer over the top. Lightly sprinkle parmesan on top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is golden and bubbly. Cool for a few minutes in the pan before slicing into squares.

https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/rJpGxzDI.mp4

The BEST Detroit Style Pizza recipe is cheesy and chewy with crispy edges! The toppings are spread all the way to the edges and it is baked to perfection.

Detroit-style sourdough crust topped with a ricotta/cream cheese mix, fresh dill, capers, pickled red onion, and delightful layers of smoked salmon. No bagels necessary!

Smoked Salmon (Lox) Detroit Pizza

Detroit Sourdough Pizza Dough, (prepared and risen)

ricotta cheese

cream cheese, (softened)

low moisture mozzarella cheese, (shredded)

tbsp capers, (drained)

tbsp freshly chopped dill, (for garnish)

pickled red onion, (for garnish)

Begin by preparing the Detroit-style dough 2 days before making this pizza. Remove your dough from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature for 3 hours.

When ready to bake, carefully add your dough to your oiled Detroit-style pan and press to even out. Allow to sit for 1/2 hour.

Meanwhile, add the ricotta and cream cheese to the blender with a little salt. Pulse until well-incorporated. Set aside.

Preheat your pizza oven to 700-800 degrees F for about 20 minutes so it gets nice and hot. If using a home oven, preheat it to 550 degrees F.

Place the dough in the oven to par-bake for 3-5 minutes, then remove.

Top the dough with the mozzarella cheese and return to the oven for 4-5 minutes in a pizza oven (lowering the flame or covering the pizza to avoid burning toppings) or 7 minutes in your home oven.

Once crisp and cooked through, remove the pizza. Top with dollops of the cream cheese/ricotta mix, then capers, then folds of lox, followed by the dill and pickled red onion.

Serve hot and enjoy!

With its distinctive brick shape, thick, fluffy base, crispy crust and stunning cheesy edges – aka the “frico” or the caramelized cheese crown – Detroit-style pizza is distinctive in look and flavor. Since its invention sometime in the 1940s, it’s become one of the most popular pizza styles around.  In 1946, Buddy’s Rendezvous, a bar owned by Gus Guerra, was struggling to make money. Gus decided to add new items to his menu and just happened to have a few unused blue steel industrial utility trays, which he thought would make a good Sicilian-style pizza. The trays helped the dough keep its soft and airy crust while also allowing the exterior to be soaked through with oil. Who exactly came up with the dough recipe is under debate (maybe Guerra’s wife, Anna, or an “old Sicilian dude named Dominic”) but what’s fact is that its roots are, indeed, Sicilian.  On top of the dough, Gus often included pepperoni, followed by a generous portion of brick cheese from Wisconsin all the way to the edges of the pan, followed by more toppings, and the final touch: streaks of red sauce, honoring the history of the automotive roots of the Motor City.  Soft on the inside and crunchy on the surface, in our version, we use mozzarella, cheddar and lots of pepperoni for a hit of salt and spice. Comforting, filling and highly addictive, this nod to the original Detroit-style pie is hard to beat. 

Detroit-style Pizza

For the dough::

(350 grams) strong bread flour

(260 grams) warm water

(10 grams) salt

For the topping::

(80 grams) shredded cheddar cheese

mozzarella

(120 grams) pizza sauce

For the dough:

Add the water, yeast, and olive oil to the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the flour and salt, then mix the dough on a low to medium speed for 5 minutes, or until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined and you have a smooth, silky dough with good elasticity. Tip: If you don't have a stand mixer, mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon or your hands, then knead by hand until a smooth dough forms, about 15 minutes. 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (clingfilm) or a kitchen towel and leave it to proof at room temperature for about 3 to 4 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.  Tip: If you prefer to cold proof the dough, at this point you should put it in the fridge for 72 hours, then take it out 2 to 3 hours before cooking. Allow the dough to return to room temperature before continuing the following steps.

Generously drizzle the bottom and sides of your baking pan with olive oil. This will help the pizza develop a nice crust and ensure your base is crunchy. 

Transfer the dough to the pan and ‘dimple’ it with your fingers; using the pads of your fingers, gently press the surface of the dough, shaping and pushing the dough into the corners. Cover the dough and leave it to rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Once the dough has relaxed and become more pliable, dimple it again using your fingers, pushing it towards the corners of the pan. 

Fire up your oven and allow it to preheat for 15 to 20 minutes. Aim for 650 °F (340 °C) on your baking stone. You can check this quickly, accurately and from a safe distance with an infrared thermometer. 

For the toppings:

Once the oven is preheated, add the cheese, making sure to pay particular attention to the edges – this will create the “frico” or cheesy, crusty crown. Add the pepperoni, followed by 2 stripes of sauce on top.

Check that the oven is up to 650 °F (340 °C), then turn the flame down to its lowest setting. Place the pan at the front of your oven so it’s not too close to the flame. If your oven has a door, leave it on while it’s cooking. At the start of the bake, use your pizza oven gloves to rotate the pan every 2 minutes so the bottom bakes evenly as it draws heat from the stone. Bake the pizza for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the crust's thickness and the pan's size.

Tip: If the flame is coloring your pizza too fast, turn the flame off for 3 to 5 minutes.

When finished, remove the pizza from the pan using a spatula and let it rest on a cooling rack for 2 minutes. Slice into 4 pieces, serve and enjoy!

Thick yet airy, this deceptively simple Pizza al Taglio has a focaccia bread crust, tangy sauce, and tasty layers of mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.

Pizza al Taglio (Thick Crust Pizza)

warm water ((240 ml/g) (110°-120° is the optimal range for yeast growth))

tsp honey

tsp tsp active dry yeast (not instant yeast)

olive oil

all-purpose flour ((163 g))

flour

tsp salt

28 oz can whole San Marzano tomatoes

Italian seasoning

garlic powder

tsp brown sugar (dark

oz natural casing pepperoni,

oz (115 grams) grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Generously oil or butter a metal 13x9" baking pan (preferably a darker, nonstick pan. Never glass.) Pour 3 tbs of olive oil in the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, stir together lukewarm tap water, honey, yeast, and olive oil. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until it becomes foamy on top and smells “bready”. Stir into flour and salt in a medium bowl. Mix with your hands, danish dough whisk, or a wooden spoon until just combined, approximately 2-3 minutes, then let the mixture rest for 15 minutes.

After resting the dough, you will fold it to strengthen the gluten and develop an airy crust. Starting at the twelve o’clock 🕛 position, use a slightly wet hand, or a flexible dough scraper, to grab the edge of the dough, pull it toward the center, and over to the other side of the dough.Turn the bowl a quarter turn and do it again, and continue until you’ve done four folds, all the way around the dough. Cover the dough again and allow it to rest for 5 minutes. Repeat the folding technique 2 more times (for a total of three times) 5 minutes apart.

Place in your generously oiled baking pan. Before covering with plastic wrap, spray the dough side of the plastic with nonstick spray. Cover with the wrap and let rest and rise in the oven (not turned on), or another warm spot, for 1 hour. Hot Tip: I buy cheap clear plastic shower caps and use those to cover bowls and pans when proofing dough. I get 15 caps in a package for about $2. So much easier than wrestling with plastic wrap that won&#39;t stick.

Cold kitchen proofing hack: If you have a gas oven, an easy way to do this is to turn your oven on to 350° for exactly one minute. Turn it off and your oven will be a nice warm environment that your dough will love. Electric oven? Turn on your oven light before starting the dough making process and leave it on the whole time the dough is rising. It gives a nice gentle warmth to the oven.

After 1 hour, remove the plastic wrap and set aside. Using oiled hands, and working as gently as possible to maintain air bubbles, push and stretch dough into the corners of the pan by pressing out from the center and nudging it to the edges of the pan. It will bounce back, but just keep nudging and you should get it to stay pretty close to all edges and corners. Re-cover with the plastic and let rise another 2-3 hours, or until it has reached about halfway up the sides of the pan. When it’s risen, set aside on the counter while you preheat the oven and make the sauce.

Preheat oven to 500°. If you have an oven that heats from the bottom, set the rack to the lowest level. If you have a baking steel or a pizza stone, warm that up with the oven to place the pan on while baking (it’s all about that crust folks!)Pour the can of tomatoes into a medium bowl. Using your hands (your best tools) crush the tomatoes as small as possible. Mix all the other ingredients in and allow to sit for about 10 minutes for the herbs to bloom and the flavors to marry. Slice your pepperoni and sneak a few pieces while you wait for the oven to heat up.

Shingle the mozzarella across the entire surface of the pizza dough, going all the way to the edges.

Spoon the sauce over the top. You want to cover the cheese, but not make it soupy. You won’t use all the sauce, but it’ll be delicious added to pasta later in the week!

Sprinkle with grated Pecorino Romano cheese, reserving some for after it comes out of the oven, if you'd like. Evenly cover the top with pepperoni slices, giving really good coverage. Remember, pepperoni shrinks, so you want to really cover the whole pizza!

Bake at 500° for 20-25 minutes or until pepperoni is curled into cups and filled with that delicious grease (yay!) and cheese edges are browned. Run a thin metal spatula or thin paring knife all the way around the edges of the pan to loosen the pizza. Carefully lift it out using 2 spatulas and slide it onto a cutting board. Let cool for a little bit (it’s molten lava under there) and then slice into big ol&#039; squares. Serve with more romano. Enjoy that crispy cheese skirt on the side. Share if you’re feeling generous. Don’t share if it’s been a rough week.

I made this last night. It takes a lot of time, but isn't labor intensive. Since everything is made either in a bowl or in the pizza pan, I didn't mess up the kitchen counter with flour. The crust was excellent - light and crunchy almost like a good Chicago deep dish. I thought the amount of cheese and pepperoni was about double what was needed. I will definitely make it again.

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Detroit-Style Pan Pizza Recipe

Detroit Style Pizza

Smoked Salmon (Lox) Detroit Pizza

Detroit-style Pizza

Pizza al Taglio (Thick Crust Pizza)

Top 5 detroit pizza recipes from across the web

The most viewed detroit pizza recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Detroit-Style Pan Pizza Recipe

Detroit Style Pizza

Smoked Salmon (Lox) Detroit Pizza

Detroit-style Pizza

Pizza al Taglio (Thick Crust Pizza)

The most viewed detroit pizza recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine