Cast Iron Pizza Goodness

For the last couple of years I've been obsessed with homemade pizza.  I've tried many recipes and techniques and discovered that unless you completely burn it, homemade pizza is pretty forgiving and always yummy.  It wasn't until recently that I took Bill's suggestion to try a pizza in our cast iron skillet.   This is the first time I've made something that actually tastes like it was made in a restaurant.  I've made this pizza countless times and every time it comes out perfect.  We did experiment with the tomatoes, trying sauce instead of diced tomatoes and I definitely think it should be made with diced.  If you're fortunate enough to have a pellet grill, I highly recommend baking it that way.  Such a great pizza treat!

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Crust:
In your bread maker, add the following ingredients in order listed:

1 cup warm water
1/3 cup oil
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 packet FRESH yeast

Set your bread maker to the dough cycle.  When there is about 40 minutes left on the cycle, start the other ingredients.

Tomatoes:

2 cans diced tomates, drained
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8-1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Mix together and set aside.  The longer it sits, the better it gets!

Toppings - Choose whatever you like on your pizza.  This is what I do:

1/2 pound bulk turkey sausage, browned and crumbled
1 small can sliced black olives
1/2 onion, chopped
8-10 mushrooms, sliced
8 oz sliced mozzarella cheese

Sauté onion and mushrooms until soft.  I find this step crucial.  If you put the veggies on raw, the pizza gets puddles moisture on the top.

Assembly:

When dough is done, grease your skillet with butter.  Grease it well!

Press your dough into the skillet, pulling the dough up the sides of the pan in equal thickness as the bottom.  The dough will slide down the sides of the skillet.  Keep working until the dough is the correct thickness on the bottom.

Layer cheese slices over the top of the dough.  Press the cheese deep into the corners to hold the dough in place.  Make sure cheese is covering entire bottom of dough.

Spread toppings over cheese.  Cover toppings with tomatoes.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bake in a 425 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.  Peek in on the pizza the first time you make one to make sure you don't overbrown the crust.

I blot the top when it comes out to get the pools of moisture from the tomatoes.  That way the liquid doesn't gather in the bottom of the pan when you cut the pizza making the rest of it soggy.

Let pizza rest about 5 minutes before cutting.

Try not to eat the whole thing.