How to make Detroit Pizza

The popularity of Detroit Pizza has boomed worldwide with everyone asking for these square, deep dish pizzas. If you’ve not heard of the trend until now you may be wondering ‘what makes them so special?’.

Well, we have put together a step by step tutorial so you can give them a go yourself – if you haven’t already! Detroit Pizza is a truly unique and well-loved contribution to the pizza industry from the American Motor City. Be warned, these pictures will make you hungry…

Detroit Pizza baked with Lloyd Pans Detroit Pans.
Photo and pizza credit to @pizzaislovely on Instagram.

Although it’s a rectangle (commonly baked in sizes 8×10″ or 10×14″) it is referred to as square pizza. This may be confusing, but it’s all part of Detroit Pizza tradition!

Detroit pizza dough is light, airy and resembles focaccia or Sicilian-style dough as opposed to thick, heavy Chicago-style pizza dough.

Now, this is where it gets interesting… for authentic Detroit pizza you basically have to reverse the usual way to load pizza. Firstly, toppings go directly onto the dough, followed by cheese – true Detroit pizza uses Wisconsin Brick Cheese, not mozzarella. Finally, ladle on top your sauce – hence the nickname ‘red top pizza’!

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WHAT YOU’LL NEED

For the dough:

- 1KG Strong Flour
- 700ml Water
- 5g Instant Dry Yeast
- 25g Salt

For the toppings:

- Pizza sauce
- Wisconsin Brick Cheese (we’ve used mozzarella)
-Your choice of pizza toppings

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We assume you’re not total pizza newbies so let’s say you’ve got your dough prepped. (If you haven’t, we have a great video here on how to make pizza dough.) Once your dough is ready, take it from the mixer and rest it for 30 minutes in a container. After 30 minutes, pop your dough on a clean table ready to portion.

2. Make sure you oil every container that will come into contact with your dough so it doesn’t stick.

3. Measure your dough out into smaller portions. You can calculate the correct dough ball size by using your tray/pan dimensions. The following formula will help:

(TRAY LEGNTH CM x TRAY WIDTH CM) / 2 = ______

For example, this was the formula we used for our 10 x 14″ Detroit Style Pizza Pans:

(25cm x 35cm) / 2 = 437g dough ball.

4. Once you have portioned out your dough, fold it into a nice, round dough ball and place it into your (previously oiled) container.

5. Wrap the container using cling film or a lid, and leave the dough resting for another 2 hours so it can prove.

6. We are using Detroit Pans from Lloyd Pans, distributed in the UK by White’s Foodservice Equipment. It has a special Lloyd Pans PSTK coating which makes it totally non-stick, metal utensil safe and there’s no need to season your pans before use. Take a look at Detroit Pans in the UK by clicking here. Proving/stacking lids are also available.

7. Generously oil the pan you are using. Then, take the dough ball and roll it out inside the pan. If it shrinks back just leave it for a couple of minutes, after which it should be easier to stretch.

8. Once the dough is rolled out in the pans and covering the whole surface, cover with the Detroit Pans lid. Give the dough one final prove before loading your masterpiece. We recommend at least 1 hour.

9. After an hour, dock your dough to get the bubbles out, or gently pinch any bubbles that have formed during your prove.

Once this is done add your toppings! We’ve gone with pepperoni – you can add anything you like (straight onto the dough!).

10. Then, add your cheese. Authentic Detroit Pizza is made with Wisconsin Brick Cheese. This is famously hard to get hold of in the UK, so we’ve gone with good old mozzarella (it was still delicious, may we add!).

To finish off, load your sauce on TOP of the cheese for that gorgeous red-top pizza look.