Charred Pepperoni Pan Pizza with Brick Cheese (Detroit-style)
My quest for a homemade Detroit-style pizza started with lots of recipe testing and experimenting and finally settling on a cupped pepperoni pan pizza with light bakery crust, caramelized brick cheese and crispy edges. Learn how to make this Motor City pizza for your next pizza party.
Servings 4
Equipment
- Detroit style pizza pan I have the large size, 10" x 14"
Ingredients
For the dough
- 400 grams all-purpose flour almost 3 cups
- 12 grams sugar
- 12 grams instant yeast
- 290 grams water
- 12 grams kosher salt
Toppings
- 1 lb brick cheese grated
- 6 oz Boar's Head Natural Casing Pepperoni sliced thin
- fresh grated Parmesan cheese for serving
For the sauce
- 28 oz canned tomatoes
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- crushed red pepper optional
Instructions
Make the sauce:
- In a small saucepan, smash the tomatoes with a potato masher (or slightly puree in a blender). Add the remaining sauce ingredients and simmer for about 15 minutes over medium heat. Cool.
For the dough:
- In a large bowl, stir the flour and water together. Allow the flour/water mix to sit for about 10 minutes. This is called an autolyse and allows the flour to be hydrated. This process makes for more stretchy, more flavorful dough albeit results in a slower fermentation.Stir in the yeast and the sugar Once mixed, add in the salt and mix together in a bowl either by hand or a stand mixer. You can also use a food processor.
- Bring the dough together and knead for about minutes on a floured counter until smooth. Conversely, use a dough hook/blade in either a stand mixer or food processor and mix on medium low until the dough is smooth. It will be sticky to the touch.
- Tips: wet your hands with a little water when kneading the dough.
- Pour dough into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside for 24 hours.
- About 2 hours before you want to eat, butter and oil a Detroit style pizza pan. Place the dough in the center and stretch it to the edges. Allow the dough to rise for another hour. Dimple with hands.
- Preheat oven to 475˚
Top the pizza:
- Parbake pizza at 475˚ for about 5 minutes. Remove the crust from the pan so it doesn’t get soggy. Add the crust back to the pan
- Sprinkle the cheese on the edges of the pie first and tuck some down the sides of the pan. Then sprinkle in the middle. Spread on sauce either in rows (diagonal) or clumps. Top with pieces of sliced pepperoni.
- Place the pizza on a rack right below the middle. Bake until the top is golden and the edges are dark and the pepperoni is charred and curled.
Notes
We are making a dough of 72% hydration that will rise overnight on the counter.
