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the various and sundry creations of sylvus tarn
Detroit Style Pizza
recreating my childhood.

I grew up eating Buddy's Pizza, the original ‘Detroit style’ pizza; eventually the chef ended up at his own place, Loui's, so if you'd like the most authentic, this little hole in the wall in Hazel Park is the place to go, though Buddy's and Shield's are—or were 20 years ago, anyway—reasonable approximations. (Sadly the stuff sold in Costco is not.) I still have family living in the tri-county area, so when outstate sibs visit, eating out at Loui's is one of our go-to activities. Last time we did this, I snagged some and froze it so various members of our Monday[1] Night Dinner group, some of whom had never had the original before, could do a comparison with my version.

Yeah, this isn't even a real phone camera pic, it's a text (or signal) of one, and pretty awful. But it gives the idea of what the finished product looks like—both the square aluminum pan on a ceramic pizza stone, or baked in a cast iron pan—both work and seemed pretty similar to me, so use whichever is most convenient.

No-one disputed that the original is greasier (& thus, the crust is crispier), nor that their sauce has more flavour, but on the whole, the group preferred this version, which was pretty amazing to me—I honestly would've been thrilled if they'd said it was almost as good. This recipe works with all-purpose flour, and I want to try incorporating whole-wheat flour, but it's definitely easiest with the King Arthur bread flour, so I recommend that if it's available to you; ditto the brick cheese, which was a mild, cheap cheese when I was a little kid—I remember my mom buying it in the grocery store—and probably a big part of the reason it got incorporated into the iconic recipe but now, alas, is available (at least to me) only at specialty shops. But it's still good with the traditional mozzarella; feel free to sub any kind of cheese you like that will melt into gooey strings when baked at a high heat.

Here's the square pan on a 2 qt sauce pan of warm water—note the napkin to the side, that's what I used to cover the dough. Note the shredded brick, mozzarella pre-sliced, and sauce on top.

So! This is not perfectly authentic; it's a (slightly) less caloric accessible-to-the-home-cook version that's tasty, and that we like. Enjoy:)

Make marinara. (Or use commercial spaghetti sauce/marinara)

I will eventually sub in my own version of that popular, super easy online version, but really it can be any kind you like. It should be on the thinner side (add water if necessary). Most commercial varieties will have about the right viscosity.

And here, since it fit into our biggest stock pot, is the cast iron pan being warmed. Note here the brick is already starting to melt, even at this low heat.

Make dough:

Allow 3–5 hours to let it rise thoroughly; ISTR starting this around noon or one and serving it by 17:30.

  • 240g or 1 cup of 80-85 degree F water
  • 2g or 1 tsp rapid rise standard ole’ yeast
  • 335g or 2 1/3 c KA bread flour
  • 7g or 1 1/4 tsp salt
  • Two 8"x10" Lloyd pans (or 8"x8" or 9"x9’"baking pan, but crust may be less crisp)
  • olive oil

Method:

Note: I don't have a bread proofer, so I make do with short bursts of my oven's lowest (keep-warm) 170 degree setting. You could also put a big pan of boiling water in the oven. The idea is to create a nice warm—90d or so—environment. If you're doing sourdough with starter, of course you'll want a longer, slower rise, but I killed my starter and I just don't bake enough to keep up with one, really.

  • if cold[2] , set oven to preheat (170 d F) for five minutes
  • weigh or measure first four ingredients into large mixing bowl; stir
  • will make a shaggy dough
  • soak tea towel and place over bowl
  • place bowl in oven for (approx) 30 min
  • remove, coil and fold dough 5–6x until it stops responding,
  • coat generously with olive oil, replace in oven, goosing up the temp with 4–5 min of 170d F keep-warm setting if it's cooled too much;
  • repeat coiling and folding as necessary every 30 min or so until achieving a smooth and elastic round, without lumps—I think I did this 2 or mebbe 3x?;[3] then put back in oven for a final rise;
  • when doubled in size and showing blisters, repeat coils and folds; wet hands to keep dough from sticking
  • cut dough in half; let relax;
  • place oil only in the central part of pan, not edges!
  • hang and stretch dough (half), then,
  • distribute dough (half) to 9x9 aluminum pan (and/or) cast iron pan, squishing dough into edges and corners of pans, to which it will not want to stick. Keep squishing and shoving until it forms a crust around the perimeter of the pan.
  • Repeat with 2nd half of dough, or reserve in fridge for pizza on the following day.
  • Optional: oil edge, sprinkle with sesame seeds[4]

Suggested vegetable toppings

choose any two, mebbe three; do not pile too thickly!):

  • mini-peppers, cut into fine (4–5mm strips or cubes), 1 per pizza
  • onions, minced, about 2 T per pizza?
  • fresh baby spinach
  • thinly sliced black olives
  • chopped rehydrated shiitake mushrooms
  • fresh basil leaves
  • etc.

Assemble crust:

  • grate approximately 1/3 lb of brick cheese per pizza; more if you like your pizza extra cheesy or plan to use only brick. [5]
  • pull out mozzarella and prep (not necessary if it's the pre-sliced kind)
  • thinly sprinkle on choice vegetables (except basil leaves)
  • thickly sprinkle brick until it covers everything except edges
  • lay on slices of mozzarella
  • N.b., feta and/or grated parmasian reggiano can be substituted for some or all of the mozzarella—or the brick, in a pinch
  • spread dollops of marinara on top of the cheese, covering roughly 2/3 – 3/4 cheese surface area. (See picture)
  • encourage dough to rise by placing pans on pots with water in them and turn cooktop to lowest setting[6] . The bottom of the pan should warm but not hot to the touch and the final rise should take an hour or so
  • 30-60 min before intending to bake pizza, get out pizza stone, preheat oven till 500 d F
  • after pizza dough has risen, place on stone, reduce heat to 450 d F, bake until top is bubbling, about 15–20 minutes
  • remove from oven (& pans), place on cooling rack. You can check bottom crust by lifting it up with a spatula; it should be brown and crispy looking (if it isn't and top isn't burning stick it back in the oven to cook some more)
  • If using fresh basil, place on pizza
  • Cut into slices with kitchen shears and serve

Prior Versions:

9x9 aluminum pan pizza

This makes better detroit style pizza (for me) even than the skillet version. The secret is letting the dough rise adequately!

  • 200 (approx) g flour
  • 3/4–1 C starter
  • 1-2 T olive oil
  • 1 t salt
  • water to mix
  • mix into shaggy dough, fold a few times.
  • Preheat oven to 170, turn off oven, put dough in bowl, cover w damp cloth, let rise; (1 hour or more)
  • coil and fold to thoroughly mix;
  • oil 9x9" pan generously (1 T or more of olive oil) & with a combination of hanging (to stretch) and pushing from the center, stretch dough to edges.
  • Make edges higher/thicker than center
  • preheat oven again, cover with damp cloth, let rise (1–2 hours)
  • When dough is mostly risen, remove from oven, insert pizza stone into oven and preheat to 500d F.
  • To keep dough rising & warm in winter, place large pot on burner, heat water to boiling, then down to a low temp to stay warm. Place pizza on top:)

Toppings:

The 2jan23 pizza had a mix of hard mozzarella (i.e. kroger), feta, and some random leftover from Solstice rather dried out cheeses from zing's (which I grated) –extra went into a salad while I was waiting for the dough to rise:) caramelized onions (1/2 large onion—extra went into sauce) rehydrated mushrooms—shiitake & assorted fancy, a new product I quite like. The water from rehydrating them was mixed into the sauce

Sauce:

  • extra carmelized onions
  • fancy mushroom rehydration water
  • a couple of adobo peppers
  • oregano -1 T or so
  • 8–10 small garlic plants from garden, washed, roots & yellow leaves removed, chopped
  • some basil tomato sauce (kroger) perhaps 3/4 – 1 C

Blended with stick blender. N.b., it was too thick—this stuff should be at least as thin as it comes out of the jar! The above made plenty, easily enough for 2 pizzas.

Add'l notes: third try using the aluminum pan version. 2nd time around I didn't let the dough rise adequately, 1st & 3rd time I did—should probably allow 4 hours (at least) to let this rise adequately, but it makes a delicious (& much less greasy than the authentic version) pizza. Quite happy with it.

Cast Iron Skillet Pizza (dough)

This is a stuffed variation:)

entered 21apr2022; feeds 2 as a main course, or 4 with plenty of sides & dessert

  • 300 g ka flour
  • 1 t yeast
  • 1 t salt
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 150? g warm water
  • preheat oven to 170, then set to ‘light on’
  • mix above in large mixing bowl
  • knead till smooth and elastic
  • coat bowl with oil
  • place dough in bowl, cover with damp towel
  • let rise, about 1 hr
  • remove from oven, put in pizza stone, preheat 500 d
  • envelope fold dough
  • let chill while
  • cooking onions, garlic & spinach (add spinach after onions are browned)
  • and/or grating parmasian (approx 1 C) &
  • slicing mozzarella (3/4–1 C?)
  • remove filling from pan &
  • oil and spread cornmeal on skillet
  • divide dough in half
  • stretch 1st half into round
  • press into skillet
  • spread as much filling as will fit, reserving rest for sauce
  • stretch 2nd half into round, seal, edging excess dough up sides of pan
  • oil & sesame seed edges
  • add minor veges (bell pepper, sliced olives, a bit of sundried tomato, etc)
  • spread parmasian, then mozzarella, then sauce, either homemade or commercial marinara (to which any extra spinach mixture will have been added.
  • Bake 30 minutes, with lid on
  • another 10 lid off
  • remove from pan, cut into slices with kitchen shears, enjoy.

Bread/Baking links:

[1]or Wednesday or Thursday, depending on people's schedules

[2]i.e. not 90 deg outside...I mostly make this stuff after the furnace goes on, so this condition basically always applies

[3]the original recipe calls for just once, but I think you have to do more kneading up-front

[4]This is the least authentic part, true Detroit pizza has the cheese and sauce going right to the edges, but I love bread, so I incorporated this from a pizza joint I worked at for about a week while in college—one of the many, many, many jobs I failed to retain. If you're not into crusts, just spread the cheese and sauce right to the edge of the pan:)

[5]I had leftover buying roughly 0.75 lb. for 2 pizzas.

[6]I have an induction cooktop, so I set it to ‘one’.


tags:

[recipes] [2023]