TRADITIONAL CHICAGO DISH: STUFFED PIZZA
INSTRUCTIONES
The origin of Chicago pizza we have to look for in 1943, at the hands of chef Rudy Malnati. The main difference with other pizzas is mainly in the dough. There are two variants of Chicago pizza, one open called deep-dish pizza, and another closed by a second layer of dough, calzone type, called stuffed pizza, that is, a stuffed pizza and it is the one that we will do next. This is placed in a round mold and climbs up the walls of the mold. It was in the mid-’70s at another Chicago venue, Giordano’s, where they experimented and began to prepare the stuffed version, so let’s get to work.
Ingredients
375g strong wheat flour
240g Water
8g Salt
45g sunflower oil
10g dry baker’s yeast
15g sugar
200g grated mozzarella cheese
300g tomato sauce for pizza
Parmesan cheese
In a bowl mix the warm water, sugar, and dry baker’s yeast. Let it rest for 30 minutes in a warm place so that the fermentation begins. When the pre-ferment is active, we start with the dough. In the bowl of an electric mixer, if we have one, add the flour, salt, sunflower oil, and fermented yeast. We begin to knead the mixture until we have an elastic dough. This process will take between 15 and 20 minutes to work. When this time has passed, turn the dough onto a floured surface and work it for 2 or 3 minutes. Form a ball and place it in a floured bowl. Let the dough rest in a warm place for 1 hour. After this time the dough will have risen and turned back onto a floured work surface. Divide the dough into two parts and reserve one of them. With the help of a rolling pin, we stretch the dough. We place the stretched dough in a round and removable mold or another round mold that we have with high walls. We adjust the dough to the walls and the base of the mold without caring, for now, that there are remains outside. We will cut these remains in due course. We distribute all the mozzarella cheese on the base of the pizza and place slices of pepperoni on top to taste. We reserve. We repeat the stretching operation with the second half of the dough, the one we have reserved. Once stretched, we place it on top of the mozzarella cheese and the pepperoni, as an empanada lid. We place the dough in such a way that it sits perfectly on the filling ingredients and seal the perimeter with the dough that we had as a base. We trim the excess dough leaving a border of 1 or 2 cm. all around the pizza. We make some cuts in the dough that we have put on the lid so that it breathes during baking. We cover the pizza with the tomato sauce and, with the oven previously heated to 180º C, we bake, with heat from below for 35-40 minutes, until we see that the dough is golden. When the pizza is ready, remove it from the oven and cover it with grated Parmesan cheese so that it melts with the heat of the freshly baked pizza. We serve at the moment.
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Thanks for traveling with me, until next week!!
