So, I've decided to go for it...(buzz's deep dish dough recipe)

[UGAChemDawg]

<img src="http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a175/InfiniteDomain/MikesLJPhotos/pizzadoughingredients002.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

These are the ingredients that, hopefully, will become the dough for the pizza. The pan is a 9" x 1.5" cake pan that I already had. I hope it will suffice.

A few follow-up questions before I begin:

The flour that I bought is unbleached all purpose. I assumed that I was not supposed to get the self-rising kind, because that is what the yeast is for.

Apparently, proofing yeast with sugar is a common technique, because the instructions are on the back of the yeast packet. Did I get the right kind of yeast? I bought the normal "active dry" kind, but they also had fast rising yeast. The recipe didn't say anything about rapid rising yeast, so I didn't get that.

Is the kosher salt used over regular salt for a reason pertaining to the quality of the dough that it makes, or is this just a reflection of religious preference (ie is it ok to use normal iodized salt). It is also "coarse" kosher salt, but that's the only kind of kosher salt they had so that's what I got.

There was extra light and extra virgin olive oil at the supermarket. I didn't know the difference between them so I got extra light like the recipe said to. A look at the Food Network says extra light is best for high heat applications like baking and extra virgin is better for lower heat things like cooking and putting on salads, so they are not different names for the same thing, as I initially guessed.

Does everything look ok with the ingredients from the picture? The sugar is 100% pure cane premium granulated sugar.

As far as kneading the dough is concerned, I can't find a kneading board. Can I just do it on a wood cutting board or a clean counter top?

Where can I find info on dressing the pizza once the dough is made? Is it ok to use premade pizza sauce from a can for this initial attempt? I would hate to go to all the trouble to make a sauce from scratch only to find out that the dough didn't come out right.

Thanks,

Mike

[canadianbacon]

Hi Mike,

The pros will jump in here like Peter, but everything looks great.  I see you are using all purpose flour..... if you
could get your hands on King Arthur, it's too bad you didn't pick up some of their high gluten stuff which we Canadians CANNOT get our hands on 

In any event, you will make some very good pizza, and with some help you will be on your way.

I see you have the beginnings of a great PHOTO story also.  Please make sure to keep us up to date with new
images as you go along, I for one really enjoy and really appreciate it when the pizza guys show us their journey
through the magic of photography.

The pan looks just like one of the ones I use, and I've had super success with it.

All ingredients look great.

One thing which is nice is this..... get a recipe together with the stuff you have there.  Then
make the pizza.  Take some notes, take lots of images.

Then, with Peter and other's help you can then tweak your ingredients, change some totally, change some
of the percentages, and then bake again, and this way you have something to judge your  second pizza to..
it's a great way to start off.

Anyway good luck, and no you don't need anything special to knead dough, if you dont have a Kitchen Aid or DLX mixer
then you will create some good forearms in the next few months    I use my countertop as many do, and that's
totally fine.  I use canned pizza sauce all the time, just because I can't get my hands on the good stuff many of the guys get down south of the border.  Anyway don't worry you will make good pizza 

As Charlie Papazian says "don't worry, relax and have a homebrew"
( he's the most famous American homebrewer in history )

Good luck and keep us post, and don't give up.  One great thing is to keep coming back to this website, I make it my homepage so it's always there and on my mind.

[UGAChemDawg]

Do you homebrew too! Cool! I was going to take that up as well. I'm getting a starter kit soon. Know of any good forums for that. Beer and Pizza! What a great combination.

[Pete-zza]

Mike,

You have asked several good newbie questions.

You have all the right ingredients. You want to use all-purpose flour for buzz's recipe. And, as a generalization, unbleached and nonbromated all-purpose flour is preferable over the bleached bromated varieties. You don't want to use either self-rising flour or high-gluten flour for deep dish. A good brand of all-purpose flour for buzz's recipe, if you can find it in your area, is the Ceresota brand. It's a regional brand and the one that buzz himself uses. But there is nothing wrong with the King Arthur brand. It is one of the best.

I normally don't use sugar when proofing my active dry yeast (ADY). However, if you do so, you should only use a small amount--maybe 1/4 teaspoon. Too much sugar in direct contact with the yeast can cause fluids to leach from the yeast cells by osmotic pressure and impair its performance and that of the dough. You can also use instant dry yeast (IDY) in buzz's recipe if you wish. You will need to adjust the amount of the IDY, however. The labelling on the backs of yeast packets usually give the equivalency factors. The advantage of using IDY is that it can be mixed dry directly with the flour. There is no need for proofing in water.

The differences between regular salt and Kosher salt are discussed in the Glossary (http://www.pizzamaking.com/pizza_glossary.html) under Kosher salt. You can use either. I usually use more Kosher salt, by volume, when substituting Kosher salt for regular table salt, and vice versa. Some Kosher salt producers suggest using the same amounts, mainly for convenience and to spare consumers from doing any mathematical conversions. I personally like sea salt because it doesn't have all the additives that are usually added to regular table salt and the sea salt has small amounts of minerals that may be good for you. You still have to be careful though. Some sea salts are processed like table salt. The best sea salt to use in pizza making, according to one of our member experts, pizzanapoletana, is Sicilian sea salt, because of its highly hygroscopic qualities (see the Glossary for a definition of hygroscopic).

As Mark (canadianbacon) has pointed out, it is fine to use your countertop to knead your dough. I use a large cutting board. Either way, you want to be sure that the work surface is clean and free of potentially-harmful bacteria.

Your understanding of the differences in the use of different oils is correct, although in the final analysis you should go with what you like best. With sufficient experimentation, you will find out what that is.

I personally do not use canned sauces except in cases of emergency, so I am not the best one to comment on them. I'm sure that buzz, scott (one of our member tomato experts) or others can recommend some standard supermarket brands of tomatoes that will work well in buzz's recipe. My sense from what others have posted is that most members use a good quality canned crushed tomatoes or a combination of crushed and canned whole tomatoes (crushed by hand) if some chunkiness in the sauce is desired. If time is of the essence, you may want to look under the Chicago Style board for guidance or do a search on the forum. Ultimately, you will want to try the Escalon 6-in-1 canned crushed tomatoes. They may well be the most popular among our members of all the canned tomatoes used for the deep-dish style.

There is a fair amount of variation in how to "dress" a deep-dish pizza. The classic approach is to put the cheese down first (some use shredded but slices seems to be more common), followed by the toppings, and finally the sauce. However, some will put things like uncooked sausage on top of the sauce or just under it to be sure that it cooks completely. Also, some will use more than one layer of cheese. These are but a few examples. One piece of advice I'd like to offer, however, is to drain the sauce a bit so that it isn't too liquidy, especially if you also plan to use a lot of uncooked vegetables, which will also contribute a fair amount of liquid to the pie. Sauteeing the vegetables will help reduce the amount of liquid they will contribute to the pie.

Peter

[canadianbacon]

Hi UGAChemDawg,

go to www.brewboard.com - this is the largest homebrew community in the United States,
also try www.tastybrew.com ( I am on this one also )

When you are www.brewboard.com just click the "Beer" forum link and you are ready to go.

so to sum up:

BrewBoard: forum link: http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showforum=2
TastyBrew: forum link: http://www.tastybrew.com/forum/

By the way, BrewBoard ( known as the GREEN board) is hoppin', you will find later in the day and evenings hundreds
of people on that forum at anytime.  Home brew is a huge hobby, and is a big business $ wise.

Sorry for the OT on this one, I will add in a few of my deep dish pizzas so that Mike can see what his pizzas may look
like.  This is a pizza forum, so don't want to get into trouble posting too much info about beer, but it's also a super hobby and if months from now somebody sees this info and then picks up the hobby of homebrewing then there's nothing wrong with that I guess 

As for pizza ? ... you ARE on the "official" website.  This website is going to be known as the holy grail of all pizza websites, there are no others out there that offer a forum and very great teachers like Peter ( Pete-zza ) and some of the others that offer their time and experience free of charge to us.  So bookmark www.pizzamaking.com as it's THE site to visit if you want to learn about pizza, and remember that many guys that have owned or worked in pizza joints past and present are also members on this forum.

Do you homebrew too! Cool! I was going to take that up as well. I'm getting a starter kit soon. Know of any good forums for that. Beer and Pizza! What a great combination.

[buzz]

Mike--

It looks like you have the essentials. KA is perfectly fine, as is Ceresota (aka Hecker's), like Peter says. Currently I've been trying Gold medal AP, and that works just fine, too.

You don't need a separate kneading board (you can use the floor, if you want to), but it's nice to have.

I proof my ADY in the water with a tiny amount of sugar, maybe an eighth of a tsp., if that

I like Kosher salt because it has a cleaner taste than regular iodized salt. Sea salt is good, too--I have some from Penzey's, but wow, is it powerful! A little goes a long way.

More refined olive oils (like extra light) will have a higher smoking point than extra virgin, but you're not frying here, so it doesn't matter. I like canola oil best, because it doesn't affect the flavors of the rest of the ingredients.

If you like sauce from a jar, then use it. But I think you'll fnd that if you start making your own sauce, you'll prefer the results.

Layer the cheese first--you can use either slices or shredded.

Have fun!