I recently made a couple of "mini" deep-dish pizzas based on DKM's recipe posted at the Main Menu on the website. Since DKM's recipe is based on using a 15-inch, 2 1/4-inch deep pan, and since I have a set of mini deep-dish pans that are roughly 6 1/4 inches in diameter, with a sloping side around 7/8-inch, I had to reverse engineer and downsize DKM's numbers to get to an amount of dough that I would need to make two deep-dish pizzas in my mini pans.
Specifically. knowing that DKM's recipe produces around 36 ounces of dough and that the pan used by DKM for the dough is 15 inches in diameter and 2 1/4 inches deep, and that DKM runs the dough all the way up the side of the pan, I calculated the thickness factor (0.1274) for DKM's dough and applied it to my case. I calculated the total surface area of my 6 1/4-inch pan, including the bottom and the side, and multiplied that number by 0.1274 to get the amount of dough that I would need for one of my mini pans. That came to roughly 6 ounces for one pan, or roughly 12 ounces for two pans. (I'd be happy to lay out the math in greater detail or to calculate the amount of dough for any other size deep-dish pan, given the diameter and depth of the pan. For example, I have a 12-inch, 2 1/4-inch deep pan also, and I calculated that I would need about 25 ounces of dough following DKM's recipe.) Using DKM's baker's percentages, I calculated the amount of each ingredient I would need. (For those who are interested, I can show the math for these calculations also).
I followed DKM's recipe as closely as I could. The only problem I experienced was kneading in the oil in my stand mixer. This was more of a problem of trying to knead too small an amount of dough in the mixer, and it was easily remedied by transferring the contents of the bowl to my food processor to incorporate the oil, following which I returned the dough to my mixer to finish kneading.
Since I had two mini deep-dish pans, I decided to use slightly different ingredients. The first pizza included the 6-in-1 tomatoes (right from the can), a little bit of Penzeys pizza seasonings, a fresh mozzarella cheese, provolone cheese, Italian sausage (raw), pepperoni, diced sweet red pepper, and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. The second pizza was nearly the same as the first one but included a deli (County Line) mozzarella cheese instead of the fresh, dried oregano and dried basil instead of the Penzeys, some crushed red pepper, and a finely diced clove of garlic. The two pizzas were baked at the same time, but rather than putting the pans on the lowest rack of the oven as called for by the recipe, I put them on the middle rack. I also lowered the oven temperature a bit so that the pizzas would not burn before they were baked, and I baked the pizzas for about 15 minutes total.
The results were wonderful. As between the two pizzas, I can't say that one was any better than the other, although the pizza with the fresh garlic had a little extra zip, which I liked. If I were to change anything, I might be inclined to mix some nice San Marzanos in with the 6-in-1 tomatoes to soften the 6-in-1's a bit. I would also like to try adding a little bit of egg-shade or similar yellow food-grade dye to see if I can recapture the imagery I retain of the days when I lived in the Chicago area and ate the "colored" versions of Chicago deep-dish pizzas.
The photo below shows the two mini deep-dish pizzas in relation to one of the pans. The one on the left has the Penzeys seasonings and the one on the right has the dried oregano and basil, which is noticeable in the photo.
Peter
