A Detroit Style Pizza Party

Have you heard of Detroit Style Pizza? I hadn’t until the Food Network reached out to me to ask if they could use one of my Instagram Photos for an upcoming episode of The Kitchen featuring Detroit Style Pizza. Sure I said, why not. I was confused what my photo of Brick Cheese had to do with it, but after watching the episode, and being disappointed they didn’t say my name, I knew what Detroit Style Pizza was all about. I decided I wanted to make it so I started doing some research. There are several unique things when making a proper Detroit Style Pizza:

1. You need to use a steel pan that is like a sheet pan for cakes.
2. You use Brick Cheese or a mix of Brick and Mozzarella.
3. Typically a Detroit Style Pizza has pepperoni.
4. The sauce goes on the top of the cheese.

All of this was new to me, but I figured I still wanted to give it a try. I am a long time, thin, cracker crust type of pizza lover. Something about the caramelized crust Detroit Style Pizza had me intrigued. I did a hashtag search on Instagram and it came up with some great pizzas as well as a Detroit Style Pizza Company that actually sold the pans. You can check their website HERE. The company was started my Pizza making champion, Shawn Randazzo, whose life mission is to make Detroit Style Pizza known worldwide. You can read all about the history of DSP on their website. I reached out to Shawn and asked him if he wanted to collaborate and he was more than glad to partner. I was very excited. Shawn sent me the 8″ x 10 ” Steel Pan, an awesome pair of grips, a spatula and a dough mix. There was also directions on how to season the pan and make the pizza which was quite helpful.

I knew that I was headed “Up North” for a couple of weeks so I had it in my plan to stop at my favorite Wisconsin Cheese Shop and get some good quality Brick Cheese. I stopped at Ehlenbach’s Cheese Chalet in DeForest, Wisconsin and got a Butterkase Brick Cheese and a Full Cream Brick for my pizza experiment.

The Butterkase was a deep yellow while the Full cream was a snowy white. If you have never had a brick cheese, to me, it tastes like a mozzarella that hung out with a stinky Asiago for a little while. But that may just be my palate.

Original Tipsy does not like Pepperoni on her pizza (I know, I know, I may need to do a genetic taste to make sure she’s actually my Mom) so I decided to go with a spicy sausage crumble and some mushrooms. I also have to admit that we couldn’t find our favorite pizza sauce, so we had to use a jar of marinara. It turned out fine, but next time I won’t forget to bring some North with me.

Now that I had all my supplies assembled it was time to get down to work. First up, I had to mix the dough. Shawn sent a mix that all you need to do was add water and combine it well. I kneaded it a few times and then the directions said to let it sit and dry out for about 15 minutes since I was using a newer pan. This dough couldn’t have been easier to work with.

After it sat out, I had to stretch the dough into the pan and let it sit for 1 to 3 hours. We were starving and wanted to get some fishing in so I only let it sit for 1 hour. It still came out great.

Next, it was time to assemble my pizza pie. I did sausage, mushroom, the two kinds of cheese and then topped it with the sauce. Yes the sauce goes on top, which is so weird to me.

I popped this baby in the oven at 450 degrees and let it bake away! It took about 35 minutes for it to bake up. It said specifically in the directions that it would take three or four uses to get the perfect crust so I wasn’t expecting much, but it came out GREAT!

I can see that as the pan ages the crust will get more caramelized but for this pan’s first run I thought the crust was pretty solid! It was nice and chewy and the sauce on top made it so gooey and delicious!

I was really pleased with this culinary experiment and I can’t wait to try more variations on this pie. I am especially appreciative to Shawn Randazzo and The Detroit Style Pizza Company for sending me such great products to make this dish possible. If you have any interest in making this type of pizza I highly recommend ordering one of their pans. All in all it was a fairly painless recipe an I can’t wait to eat the leftovers.

Happy Eating!

For another great Pizza Recipe check my post about Pizza’s On The Grill