Baking Fail

[unknown]

I have been majorly craving stuffed Chicago style pizza and I finally attempted it. It did not turn out as planned. The bottom layer of dough was more like a hard baked pasta and the top layer was at least edible, but not great. It was only okay because the cheese under and the sauce above it made it softer.

Does anyone have a good dough recipe that would work for a stuffed pizza?

BTW...the sauce was great! I used Trader Joe's stewed plum tomatoes and basil, tomato puree, red wine, garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper and black pepper. Really good. Too bad it and tons of cheese just went to waste.

[Takala]

Great picture!

Love the cast iron pan.

What recipe and what flours did you use that didn't work ? (I'm more of a thin crust type, myself )

[unknown]

Thanks! I'm not sure why I had to buy the 12 inch cast iron skillet...I felt like my wrists were gonna snap pulling that beast out of the oven. Probably for the same reason I had to buy the largest screw driver I could find at Home Depot. All those years of watching Home Improvement as a kid messed me up. I have an inner Tim Allen telling me to go bigger. I can't even use that screw driver, it's way too heavy.

I think my biggest mistake here was assuming I could just sub gluten-free flours in a regular dough recipe. I used rice flour (both white and brown), tapioca, potato and xanthum gum. I did everything by weight, as the original recipe said. Then I measured out how many cups it was to see how much xanthum gum I needed. I used 1 t per cup. I was way wrong though. I found a gluten-free recipe after that only called for half the amount of xanthum gum and more yeast than I used.

Do you have a gluten-free dough recipe that you would recommend?

[RiceGuy]

The most desirable dough recipe for you depends on what type of crust you prefer. Crispy, or soft, or chewy, etc.

In any case, I'm thinking it'd probably work best to bake the crusts first, then assemble the pizza, and bake to melt the cheese.

[Marilyn R]

Have you tried Chebe mix yet? I'm thinking, and beware, I don't always think correctly, but maybe if you added a tsp. of baking powder to the pizza crust mix and proceeded with your cast iron pan cooking. It still won't be the same, but it would be edible and I reckon enjoyable. Maybe try Calzone first. My ex owned a pizza parlor, I've spent a fair amount of time finding something pizza wise that is edible. A hint with Chebes: it seems to help to have the oven racks on the top and the bottom. Spend the first half of the baking time on the bottom, then move whatever you're baking to the top. Good luck with your deep dish pizza!