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[loowaters]

Gorgeous pie Loo! I'm going to try your recipe this weekend.
Thanks

Thanks Fingerstyle.  Make sure you get some pics and give us your thoughts on it.  Good luck.

Loo

[PizzaHog]

I knew that you'd come back with too dry and too crunchy but didn't want to ask if that was the case before hearing your take.  I've been there with the overcook but you can't tell it's going to be turn out that way just by looking at it.  This also comes back to cooking the pie on the stone, something that I used to always do but have gotten away from to just shorten up the time the oven is on.  I've never overcooked the pie when using a stone but placing directly on the center rack of the oven I have had it turn out too dry and crumbly.

The cheese sounds like just low-moisture, part-skim mozz and not some type of low fat mozz.  Nothing wrong with low-moisture, part-skim mozz, it's all I use.  My experience with some pre-shredded low-fat mozz, that I bought accidentally, was that it definitely did not melt nicely.  In fact, I think it just got warm, keeping that same shredded form.  Nasty.

Loo

Good advice, thanks loo.  It's warming up here and I am trying to avoid that hour preheat too so will take it easy on the next one, which will be this weekend if not sooner.  Looks like I will going with the cast iron again since a decent deep dish pan is just not be had locally and I'm itchin' to have another go at one of these.  So I stopped at the deli and that Galati cheese is gone but I bet you are correct on that too.
Can I ask you about any tips for adding veggies?  I once got an unbaked loaded from Uno's (franchise location) and it ended up pretty wet when I baked it.
Thanks All
Hog

[loowaters]

Veggies?  Many here sautee the veggies before topping the pie with them as that will sweat out some of the water.  I'm thinking most pizza places don't do that but some may.  Having talked with some guys about how they do it at their shops I've learned to cut onions thin as they contain a ton of water and with more surface area more of the water will evaporate out of the onion during cooking.  Same with green peppers.  Olives should go on top as should mushrooms due to their high moisture content...or in the case of mushrooms, their ability to absorb moisture making them too mooshy if they take on too much water.  These are just thoughts from a couple guys I know but others may have other thoughts.

My father in law loves ham and pineapple on his pie and while I find that on a deep dish to be total sacrilege I do make that for him when he's over.  The first time I did it he had pineapple soup but the next time I just laid out the drained pinapple chunks on some paper towel and patted them to remove some of that pineapple juice.  I'm sure that process could be used with just about anything that has a high moisture content.

Loo 

[PizzaHog]

Had my pizza testing panel over this weekend for a second go at one of these, and let them select the toppings which ended up being everything they brought with them plus anything in the fridge.  Luckily for me, these deep dishes can hold a ton, but I still had to sorta mound it up in the center. 
Got the temp right this time and the crust was fantastic!  The whole pie turned out excellent as well, even overloaded as it was.  Comments included "I love this crust", "This blows Uno's away" (we have an Uno's franchise nearby), and "I can't stop eating this" (that was me).
This beast had mozz, prov, caciocavallo, sausage, and sauce, which I baked alone until time to rotate it half way thru, then added pecorino, kalamata olives, red onion and feta, then peperoni for the last 5 minutes.  All wet toppings were "dried" first and the pep was pre-cooked and the pie ended up with just a bit of wetness but did not cause any soggy crust or other problems and the pie held together fine.  I also got lucky on the proportions as everything held its own flavorwise and every bite was diff mix.
Thanks again, loo, for the recipe and advice.  This pizza is now ranked #1 around these parts.  Now I definitely have to find some pans since making these one at a time will just not do - no leftovers!
Hog