Detroit-Style Pizza

by cookingwithauntjuju.com

Sauce on top!!! My niece Bethany and I recently attended a Zingerman’s Bakehouse class on Detroit (Michigan) Classics. This might be the best class I have ever attended, not just because I shared this experience with my niece, but all three recipes we made were just delicious, especially the pizza. See below for the history of Detroit Style Pizza. Also, I actually made this pizza at home. You know how it is when you take a class then never make what you learned like I did with Zingerman’s New York Style Pizza. Nothing compares to Detroit Style Pizza – I absolutely love, love, love this pizza!

I am fortunate to have this Floridian living in Ann Arbor for 2 months who is taking a Chinese class at the University of Michigan before she flies off to China to teach for a year! An added bonus, her longtime boyfriend Garrett, has an internship with a national company located near Ann Arbor! Oh, did I mention  Bethany brought up her two rescued dogs, Cal and Holly – life is never dull around here now!

Bethany (picture in class was not very good), pizza dough is proofing and the baked pizzas!

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Finishing touch is the warm sauce on top – yum!

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This is not any ordinary pizza; first comes the dough, you knead it for 8 minutes and it rests for 15 minutes, then pressed out in a special “Blue Steel Pan” (see comment below) for 1-2 hours to rise. Next comes a layer of pepperoni, topped with a mixture of Brick or Havarti and Mozarella cheese.  The Havarti helps to make the cheese mixture not so stringy! Parmesan cheese is sprinkled around the sides of the pan which will form a crispy caramelized edge on the crust. Then it’s baked and the delicious warm sauce is added before serving. That’s why it is called “Detroit Red Top Pizza”.

Detroit-Style Pizza, Adapted

Dough:

  • 1 cup water, 0.48 lb. or 2.18 g.
  • 3/4 tsp instant yeast
  • flour, 2 cups +2-1/4 tsp., or 0.64 lb., or 290 g.
  • 1 tsp. sea salt

In a bowl, mix the water and salt until the salt dissolves. Add the flour and yeast and mix with a spoon until the dough becomes somewhat shaggy.

Turn the dough out of the bowl on to a work surface and knead for about 8 minutes. I do this on large board and do not add add more flour no matter how tempted you are. Use a bench knife and work the dough and fold it over. The dough will be sticky but become tighter in texture and will be able to hold a slight round shape. Have a small bowl of water nearby and you can dip your fingertips into it if the dough is too sticky to work with.

Place the dough into a slightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 475°F at least 30 minutes before baking the pizza.

Lightly oil or butter the inside of a 10×14-inch Blue Steel Pan. Place the dough in the pan and using your fingertips begin to spread out the dough. You can tip your fingers in oil to make stretching the dough easier. Take your thumbs and press the dough into each corner and hold for a few seconds.

Cover the pan with plastic and let rise in a warm area from one to 2 hours or until the dough is about 1-1/4-inches tall in the pan. I always turn the oven light on and place any dough I make in the oven to rise.

Toppings:

  • 2 cups Mozzarella, shredded, or 0.50 lb., 227 g.
  • 2 cups Brick or Havarti, shredded (Brick is hard to find so the instructor suggested Havarti or any mild white cheddar cheese)
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan shredded or 0.10 lb. or 45 g.
  • pepperoni, 8 large slices (optional – you can leave out and make this pizza vegetarian)
  • sauce (see below)

Once the pizza dough has risen in the pan, sprinkle the parmesan around the very edge of the entire pizza where the dough touches the sides of the pan. This forms a crispy caramelized edge on the crust which is absolutely delicious.

Place each large pepperoni in two rows of four down the length of both sides of the pizza, and gently push into the dough.

Sprinkle the brick/mozarella mixture over the surface of the entire pizza.  You can season with a pinch of salt and oregano, but I chose not too. There is enough salt in the cheese and pepperoni and there is oregano in the sauce.

If you’re wondering what happened to the sauce, it is placed on the pizza after it has baked – how unique!

Bake the pizza for 15 to 20 minutes in a preheated 475°F until the cheese takes on an amber color and the edges are crispy.

While the pizza is cooking make the sauce.

Sauce:

  • 28 oz. crushed San Marzano tomatoes
  • 3 tbsp. + 1 tsp. sugar,  to taste (add this to taste – I found that I liked this amount and it was almost identical to what we made in class)
  • 1 tsp. dried oregano
  • 1 tbsp. dried basil
  • 1-1/2 tsp. minced garlic
  • sea salt and black pepper to taste (remember there is quite a bit of salt in the cheeses and pepperoni)

Combine the above ingredients and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Make the sauce according to your taste. Use an immersion blender  puree the sauce until smooth and place back over the heat. Simmer for 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally. It can refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for up to 3 months.

Remove the pan from the oven and gently detach the sides of the pizza from the pan using a small knife. Place on a cooling rack. If you want a crisper bottom, put the pizza directly onto the oven rack and bake an extra five minutes.

I have ordered the Blue Steel Pans but have not received them yet.  Be sure the bottom is oiled as I had to cut the pizza  in half to remove it.  Kind of wanted to stick…

Once the pizza is removed from the oven and the pan top with the warm sauce. Ladle it in two rows down the length of the pizza and serve warm.

You can keep this pizza in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat on a lightly oiled sheet pan in a 475°F oven until heated through and the bottom crust is toasted. You can also freeze it for up to 2 months.

Recipe by cooking with aunt juju  http://cookingwithauntjuju.com/2015/06/28/detroit-style-pizza/  

This is a pizza for everyone (with or without the pepperoni)  in addition to a little bit of Detroit, Michigan history. I am sharing this fabulous pizza with Fiesta Friday.

This is what Bethany and I made in our Detroit Classics baking class; three classics that have been around since the 1920’s and 1940’s.From left to right: Michigan Windmill Cookies, Long John Coffee Cake ( I froze the coffee cake and icing separately) and Detroit-Style Pizza (I froze the pizza and sauce separately) from the Detroit Classics baking class at Zingerman’s. I saved all of these goodies for the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

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My successful attempt at making another pizza with the ingredients Zingerman’s let us take home. Yes, the dough is shaggy and ready for the 1-2 hour rise.

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It did not rise as much as the dough in class  even though I gave it two hours (not quite 1-1/4-inch) and the layer of pepperoni (optional).

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Next comes the 3 cheeses… The sauce is cooking…

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I ate one piece with the sauce and froze the rest – I mean I had to try it! Delicious – the next time I will ask to have the pepperoni sliced thicker. I froze both pizzas to have for the Fourth of July weekend – lots of family for 3 days!

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I topped this delicious pizza with lots of this especially delicious warm sauce. Very good and one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten 🙂

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HISTORY OF DETROIT STYLE PIZZA (from Zingerman’s Bakehouse class hand-outs!)

Greeks – Plankuntos (meaning flatbread) and essentially used as an edible plate with various toppings

6th Century B.C. – Persian Empire (521-486 B.C.) Soldiers of Darius the Great baked a flat bread on their shields and covered the bread with cheese and dates

79 A.D. – evidence of a flat flour cake that was baked and eaten at the time was found in Pompeii (vacationed there) and nearby Neopolis, the Greek colony that became Naples (vacationed there). We found the modern day city but had a hard time locating the ancient city. Fabulous driving trip… – we just loved Italy!

16th Century (1522) Tomatoes were introduced to Europe from the New World (Peru). The people of Naples created the first simple pizza, as we know it, using flour, olive oil, lard, cheese, tomatoes and herbs

17th Century – Pizza had achieved a local popularity among visitors to Naples who ventured into the poorer sections of town to taste this peasant dish by men called “pizzaioli” (a person who makes pizza)

Pizza migrated to America with the Italians in the latter half of the 19th century

1905 – Gennaro Lombardi claims to have opened the first United States Pizzeria in New York City at 53-1/2 Spring Street in Little Italy

1946 Detroit served as “The Arsenal of Democracy” for the American war effort in WWII. The wartime use of automobile plants for the production of aircraft, tanks, and jeeps in southeast Michigan was now reverting back to automobile production. Pizza had become a national favorite since the opening of Lombardi’s in NYC, and soldiers returning home from the war increased the demand for new foods with European flair

Gus Buerra’s business, named Buddy’s Redezvous, on the corner of Six Mile and Conant in Detroit, a former blind pig during prohibition and then a struggling tavern, began offering Sicilian-style pizza. It was in 1946 that Gus used a classic blue steel auto parts tray from a Detroit assembly line, brick cheese, and his wife’s Sicilian family pizza dough recipe to create what became known as “Detroit-Style Pizza”.

Gus and his wife Anna sold the business in 1953 to Billy and Shirlee Jacobs who then passed it on to their son, Robert Jacobs, who is the current owner.

Another business by the name of Shield’s bar begins selling Detroit-Style pizza after hiring Loui Tourtois St. who had previously made the pizza pies at Buddy’s. The original Shield’s bar is located on the corner of Davison and Shield Street, just east of Buddy’s.

Loui Tourtois Sr. took his passion for the pizza and opened his own restaurant, Loui’s on Dequindre Avenue in Hazel Park in 1970 in a former Italian restaurant space.

Buddy’s, Shield’s, Cloverleaf and Loui’s are successful businesses that paved the way for many other pizzerias in the area today such as Jet’s and the Detroit Style Pizza Co.

BLUE STEEL PANS (Zingerman’s Bakehouse hand-outs)

Blue steel pans were used by the automobile industry in Detroit to hold hardware and other items for use in the assembly process for an automobile. Gus Guerra decided to use this type of pan as a baking pan for this style of pizza. The tradition of using this type of pan and the connection to the city of Detroit remains to this day. The steel provides superior heat conductivity and carmelization on the crust (the mark of the great Detroit-style pizza). The “Blue” in the name refers to the dark color of the steel of a brand new industrial pan. Although a great Detroit-style-pizza can be made in many common household baking trays, tradition and the desire for extra caramelized and crispy corners calls for using blue steel pizza pans.

My blue steel pans finally came in July 14th!

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20 thoughts on “Detroit-Style Pizza”

    • Similar ingredients but not in the order they are layered. Chicago is famous for its deep dish pizza; first the dough, then the cheeses, then the meat and sauce. Detroit style is thinner where the meat follows the dough, then the cheeses and then baked and the sauce is added. Both delicious – it was just fun to make Detroit Style and get a history lesson too 🙂

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  6. This pizza is making me really hungry! I love Zingerman’s. How fun that you took a baking class there. I bet they are really good classes, because their food is soooo good! 🙂

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