Little Caesars Pizza Clone

[Grilled Pizza]

I am trying to make a Little Caesars clone.  There was an old forum that I read through to get started (I will post highlights below).  I made the pizza but the dough was missing the texture/taste.  The cheese and sauce was very close, but the dough was off.  I did not have the high gluten flour, but used KA Bread flour.  Any current or past Little Caesars employees, please let me know any additional techniques or ingredients I should do or use.

Dough:
100%: 322 g    High-gluten flour
59%: 192 g       Water
5.3%: 17 g         Sugar (high-fructose corn syrup solids)
3.1%: 10 g         Soybean oil
1.9%: 6 g         Kosher salt
1.0%: 3 g         ADY
? Sugar:salt:yeast; 3:1:1

Sauce:
Do not cook
Ingreigents:
Sauce: Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste), Pizza Spice (Salt, Sugar, Spices, Dehydrated Garlic, Dehydrated Onion), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Modified Food Starch, Citric Acid.
1 12 ounce can Hunts tomato paste
1−1/2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon Accent (optional−−−but if you want it exact, use it.)

Cheese:
Cheese blend is 2 thirds mozzarella, 1 third muenster (by weight)
It's crumbled, not shredded, to maximize surface area for better thermal transfer
Their own brand of cheese was shipped through Blue Line

Directions:
1.   Mix dough
2.   Weigh out into chunks.
3.   Roll each chunk into a tight ball (S10, M14, and L18 oz balls)
4.   Oil sheet with Vegetable oil
5.   Briefly lay top side down to oil the top, then flipped over
6.   Place sheet into fridge and leave to ferment and rise (24 hours – must be used within 72 hours)
Take them out of the fridge and at room temperature at least 30 minutes (6 hours for best results)
Take each dough ball and douse into a mound of flour to coat both sides
7.   Flatten it by hand just a little and pinch all around the edge to form a disc with a crust
8.   Feed dough through a sheeter twice (Feed once and then turn it 90 degrees and feed again)
9.   Stretch the rest of the stretching by hand (no tossing)
10.   Sprinkle pan with corn meal fairly generously and place the stretched out dough in the pan with that hard side down.  If it is a new pan, be sure to oil.
11.   Place dough on pan and allow the pan of dough to sit on the rack for at least 30 minutes before use
12.   Add sauce
13.   Add toppings
14.   Bake pizza at 475.

Note:
Crust was typically just barely browned
Open the oven doors and check about midway and pop bubbles
Sauce and cheese assembly was done with a ring so as not to get sauce/cheese/toppings on the crust
Cheese always overlapped the sauce

Crazy Bread:
1.   Crazy Bread is made with a medium pizza dough
2.   Feed dough through the sheeter once
3.   Placed dough on a corn mealed cookie sheet
4.   Slice into 8 slices, separated eache slice by ½ inch and then let to rise (do not shape the slices in any way, leave the dough in an oval shape)
5.   Cook
6.   After cooking, place on wax paper, brushed with garlic butter/salt and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese
7.   Roll up and shoved in a bag then stapled shut and placed under a warmer

[Pizza!!]

You should probably just forget about the pizza and make some crazy bread instead, that stuff rocks!

[MB5]

I worked at Little Caesars for about 3 months this spring and the only thing i see different from how your cooking it is we used shredded cheese. Also we wouldn't create a crust, the dough would be flat when we placed it in the pan. Thats all i can see for now. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Grilled Pizza]

Did you use a ring to keep the cheese and sauce away from the edges?

Thanks,
Grilled

[c0mpl3x]

Did you use a ring to keep the cheese and sauce away from the edges?

Thanks,
Grilled

there is a technique called 'locking' that prevents cheese on the crust.   sauce ladle control keeps the sauce off

[CraigSnedeker]

That.. looks really good! 

[MB5]

Yeah we would use a ring to make sure the cheese and sauce doesn't go to the edge of the pizza. My managers were always telling me to put the cheese to the outside of the pizza because it will creep into the middle during baking.

[chickenparm]

That looks BETTER than Little C's. We have a little C's in a Kmart in town and that pizza you made looks nothing like it,in fact way better.They are making the correct pizza at the Kmart store,I used to eat Little C's pizza from the chain itself...so I know what it looks like and tastes,but the sauce these days suck bad on them.Need prilosec to eat one.
 

[chickenparm]

http://www.littlecaesarsclub.com/pepperoni-cheese-pizza.jpg

Looks like a frozen tombstone in them pics!
 

[RyDub69]

http://www.littlecaesarsclub.com/pepperoni-cheese-pizza.jpg

Looks like a frozen tombstone in them pics!
 

I thought the same thing but to be honest with the way the economy is right now I decided instead of spending money on a local pizza place or one of the chains I would try Lil C's since I hadn't had it in like ten years. So I went to the store and those large pizzas are 5 bucks a pie (hot and ready come in three toppings cheese, pepperoni, and sausage) all three of them taste really good and the only complaint i would have about it is some times the cheese/dough will have a large air bubble on the pie. I know some people like that (like the wife) but not me.

[chickenparm]

Our local K mart has a Little C's inside and for some reason,it does not taste as good as the other places I tried many years ago.I know it isnt my aging taste buds,everyone I know said the same thing.

That said,they put so much cheese on these pies,and for 5 bucks,there is no way I can do this at home cheaper than them!

Btw,the home made pies in the pics look even better than the store bought ones!
 

That said,I always wondered how these pies would taste if they used a stone or a deck oven.
The crust is so-so on them conveyor belt units.

Im going to try and see if they will sell me a dough ball I can test at home on a stone and do my own thing.
 

[tcarlisle]

I worked at little caesars as a kid around 1986. The kmart little C's really aren't the same as vintage little C's.

The pie in this thread looks darn close. As has been pointed out, the lilttle C's dough is flat not with a built-up crust. The dough is sheeted out, then hand stretched, and put into the pan. This was done in advance by a few hours so there is some pan rise time. Then at assembly time, when the pie is sauced, the weight of the sauce/cheese/toppings would push down the non-crust area, and the crust would be by virtue of the pan rise.

When the store got busy and the assembly line got behind such that the dough had to be sheeted out then immediately sauced and topped, the pies would be flat and unrisen.

The pies were pretty much undercooked by most people's standards. Rarely would a little C's pizza be browned or crunchy crust. It was soft and chewy, a little on the raw side.

Dough was made in the morning and rolled into balls and placed on a well greased sheet and then placed in the walk-in. The dough balls weren't covered or sealed air tight, and would get quite dry and develop a hard skin. When the dough balls were sheeted out and then stretched and placed in the pan, the side of the dough ball that developed the skin would become the top side.  The pan would typically be fairly greasy and sprinkled with corn meal before putting the dough in it.

[PizzaMe]

I don't have a kitchen scale nor do I think I will be getting one for a while. But can someone tell me if my estimation on the dough ingredients seem about right for us simple folk?

Flour 1.4 cups
Water .81 cups
2.2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp salt
1.25 tps yeast / 1/2 pack

what does ADY stand for, ___ ___ yeast?

[Chicago Bob]

I don't have a kitchen scale nor do I think I will be getting one for a while. But can someone tell me if my estimation on the dough ingredients seem about right for us simple folk?

Flour 1.4 cups
Water .81 cups
2.2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp salt
1.25 tps yeast / 1/2 pack

what does ADY stand for, ___ ___ yeast?

Yes, ADY...active dry yeast. Here is our pizza glossary to help you in the future PizzaMe.
Your recipe looks ok...try just a half tsp. of ADY though. 

[Giggliato]

My first job was making the dough at little caesars. At the moment I am still making pizza dough 

Anyway, the oil was added halfway through the mixing process.

[Chicago Bob]

My first job was making the dough at little caesars. At the moment I am still making pizza dough 

Anyway, the oil was added halfway through the mixing process.

You can take the prep boy out of the kitchen....but ya can't take the kitchen outa the prep boy. 
Hope your clone turns out great Giggliato !

[TXCraig1]

Anyway, the oil was added halfway through the mixing process.

This is why: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,23345.msg236814.html#msg236814