If you are a fan of pizza, you absolutely must try Detroit Pizza.

Without needing to go to the city of Detroit, one can sample this highly-popular pizza made in the Detroit style. In recent times, this deep-dish and square-cut pizza has been in high demand; however, this style of pizza has existed since at least the 1940s. An owner of the bar, along with his wife, at that time decided to bake pizza dough in the form of a rectangular steel pan normally used for transporting automobile-related items. This developed into a trend when they decided to top it with cheese and sauce. When it came out from the oven, the crust was nicely crisp, with its edges charred from the pan.

Since then, pizza lovers have enjoyed it, being an instant hit when it reached the streets. Although it’s unlikely you have a Detroit-style pizza pan-or even something for auto parts-in your kitchen, it’s nonetheless possible to make this style at home by using a 9×13-inch saucepan. All that would remain then is for you to make your own pizza dough and find the very best ingredients for the toppings that you can muster.

How Is Detroit-Style Pizza Different?

What is known as Detroit-style pizza differs from other pizzas in a number of important ways.

One ingredient that makes any pizza in the Detroit style is the crust. This dough is moister than any other pizzas and thus has an airy, chewy core, while the surface is crusty.

This is generally a deep-dish form of rectangular pizza that is made in a black steel pan with slanted edges outwards. The reason for this design is to allow the top surface area of the pan to be larger in size compared with the bottom area of the pan. The typical measurements of the pan are 10 inches by 14 inches. Because so many people may not have this unique Detroit-style pizza pan, the following recipe has been modified to work in a standard 9×13-inch pan.

Cheese: The most traditional cheese used to make this pizza, instead of mozzarella, is Wisconsin brick cheese. This semi-soft cheese has a mild flavour, but a high fat content gives it a buttery flavour. Instead, it is chopped, not shredded, and spread all over the surface of the crust, creating a sure fire characteristic of cheese which would have charred around the edges of the pan. That said, if you are finding brick cheese challenging to find in your local grocery, it is recommended that you give a mix of cubed mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheese a try.

The toppings are layered: Unlike other pizzas, the toppings and cheese on a Detroit-style pie are simply piled onto the dough before laying the sauce atop the pie.

Detroit-style pizzas are cut into squares, not slices. Given that these squares are served red hot from the oven, it’s perfectly acceptable to eat this style of pizza with a knife.

Chicago Versus Detroit-Style Pizza

A Detroit pizza crust is both soft inside and crispy outside, almost like a focaccia. That is the difference from a Chicago pizza because both Detroit and Chicago pizzas are deep-dish pizzas with their sauces on top. A typical Chicago pizza is baked in a round pizza pan, has a more flaky crust, and is served in wedges.

Detroit Versus Sicilian Pizza

Compared to the Sicilian pizza, in Detroit-style pizza, the cheese goes on the crust first, then the topping with the sauce.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons rapid rise or instant dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the bowl and pan
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 12 ounces brick cheese
• 8 ounces pepperoni

Instructions

• In the bowl of a stand mixer to which a dough hook attachment has been added, place one teaspoon kosher salt, two and half cups of bread flour, one and a half teaspoons of fast rise instant yeast. Add one cup of water that is lukewarm.
• Mix the dough using the dough hook attachment at lowest speed over the period of about one minute till it takes the shape of a shaggy ball. From time to time, you might have to scrape the flour from the sides of the basin.
• Now, let the dough rest in the bowl for a period of ten minutes. Continue to knead in mixer on lowest speed until dough is smooth and forms a ball – about ten minutes.
• Remove dough from bowl and form into a ball. Lightly oil inside of bowl with olive oil. Place dough in bowl, turning to coat dough in oil. When the dough has doubled in size, which should be about an hour or two, cover the bowl with plastic and let the dough rise in a warm place.
• Lightly grease the inside bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with olive oil; add dough.
• Gently begin pulling dough out towards edges of pan-dough will start to snap back-and work dough as far as it will go.
• Cover pan with plastic wrap and let rest twenty minutes. Once more, stretch the dough to a point where it no longer snaps back, and let it stay at the edges of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm spot until puffy. It shall take roughly twenty more minutes.
• Meanwhile, place a rack in the deepest part of your oven and preheat the oven to 500°F. Prepare your toppings and sauce. Grate three cloves of garlic. In a medium saucepan, heat two tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high until it is shimmering.
• About thirty seconds after adding the garlic and one tablespoon of Italian spice blend, the garlic should be fragrant. Add one can of crushed tomatoes (28 ounces) and one tablespoon of granulated sugar. Bring to a hard boil. To maintain a simmer, or preserve a simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low.
• Let it cook until, after about twenty minutes of cooking, most of the liquids evaporate and leave about three cups of sauce behind.
• For this, keep stirring the mix occasionally. Remove pan from heat. Cut three cups of cheese from a twelve-ounce brick by cutting it into half-inch cubes. If using, slice 8 ounces of pepperoni, into 1/8th of an inch thickness, or approximately 2.5 cups.
• When the dough is complete, and stretched towards all the edges of the pan without springing back, for the first time the pizza can be assembled on the pan.
• Any air that has accumulated between the top and bottom of the dough should be forced out so the dough can be gently pressed down. Place the pepperoni evenly onto the dough, slight overlap each time to assure total coverage of the dough’s surface.
• The cheese should be spread out evenly and should cover all the way to the end of the pan. Put a uniform layer of sauce over the pizza. This will give full coverage of pepperoni, yet the cheese would still be visible.

• In the oven, this cheese should be bubbling, and the edges browned in about 15 to 20 minutes. Using a butter knife, immediately remove it from the pan by running it around the sides of the pan. Let the pizza cool on the oven rack for ten minutes.

Recipe Notes

• Move the pizza to a cutting board. Cut into squares and serve. If you can’t find brick cheese, you can substitute six ounces each of low-moisture mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheese.

• Leftover pizza will keep in the refrigerator, in an airtight container, up to five days. Reheat in 350-degree oven for ten to fifteen minutes, until warmed through.

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