Pizza Graduation

I've pretty much perfected my thin crust pizza recipe. My roommates and friends all seem to enjoy being treated my brand of homemade pizza, so that speaks positive things about my cooking.
The beer-crust pizza I make isn't really going to get any better than it is already, so I felt it was finally time to take the big step and make a thick crust pizza.

I used the first recipe I found online, which was mistake number one.

It just wasn't very good, too dry I found. I won't even share it here because it was such a waste of time.

But here's the dough after I let it rise for a period of time.

Then I flattened it out and it surprisingly made the perfect amount of dough to construct a deep dish crust.


Then because I had some homemade meat sauce left over from a friend's visit this weekend I laid that down, then I put down a layer of mozza. Another friend dropped the hint that I should put the cheese on before the meat. It really made perfect sense, especially since I always prebake my pizza crust.

So I baked the base for 10-13 minutes, laid down the salami, pepperoni, some more cheese, and called it a day.


Because my dinner guest couldn't make it til' later this pizza spent a significantly longer time in the oven baking at a low temp than I had intended, but it didn't turn out too bad.

Overall, not bad for my first ever thick crust. But the dough was too heavy. It didn't fluff up at all or expand that much in the oven. So if anyone has any tips or ideas how to make a fluffier, lighter thick crust pizza dough, I'm all ears.

K-OS - The Seekwill



EDIT: It's come to my attention that I should have perhaps shared my Beer-Crust Pizza recipe, here's what I've found works best:

BEER CRUST PIZZA

SERVES 4-6 PEOPLE OR 1 REALLY DEPRESSED PERSON

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup of beer (preferably not light beer, I like to use Moosehead Lager or Guinness)
1/4 tsp. granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
Olive Oil
Pizza sauce or Tomato sauce
Mozza Cheese
Meat, vegetables, whatever your toppings are


1) Mix the sugar and beer together in one bowl seperately.
2) Put the flour and salt in a separate bowl, and then pour the sugar/beer in.
3) Work the mixture until it becomes fairly even dough. If it's too sticky, add more flour, if it's falling apart, add more beer. You'll know when you have a happy medium.
4) Take a large cookie sheet, and spread olive oil on it, especially on the side walls of the pan because this a really bad spot for dough to become stuck.
5) Put the dough on the cookie sheet, and spread it out as thinly as possible to all corners of the pan.
6) Spread your Sauce out on the base, and sprinkle any spices like oregano or basil you want on there.
7) Put your mozza cheese on top of the sauce, right to the edges of the dough.
8) Pop that base in the oven at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.
9) Take it back out, put your toppings on (meat, mushrooms, whatever), put a light sprinkling of cheese on it again, and bake that pizza for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees.
10) You'll know it's done when the cheese is crispy on top.

Depending on how many toppings you put on the pizza may need longer in the over to get a crispier crust. It's a little different each time you make it depending on the beer you use, so you'll just have to make lots of pizza and figure out what works best for you.