Just Cyd.

After my friend Doug shared his beautiful Detroit style pizza on the 'gram, I decided I needed to give it a go. The catalyst for his was finding Wisconsin brick cheese, which is apparently the traditional cheese for this. With that in mind, some friends and I made a trek to Jungle Jim's, where I was able to acquire two kinds of WI brick cheese (in the German cheese section?), as well as Pizza Flour type 00.

To start, I used King Arthur's recipe. For the first time ever, I weight the flour rather than measuring it with measuring cups. I should have at least checked to see how the two compared. I did not weigh the water, and it did not occur to me to do so until much later.

it's a very basic dough, and the initial mix to "shaggy" was my first indication that i had too much water or too little flour. I let it rest, then started the kneading in my KitchenAid. It was more like batter than bread dough, so i added more bread flour, three spoonfuls in all (about 1/4c), to get it to actually hold together, kneading it well, then let it take its first nap. By this point I was texting Doug, and he provided some much-needed encouragement and inspiration by showing me his just-baked bagels.

Not knowing if my yeast was still good, I was please to see that after two hours, the dough had easily doubled, and had that yeast-y smell. I divided it into the only dark pans I could find - a 7" springform and a Perfect Brownie pan. both had the ability to free the contents easily, were dark and nonstick.

The dough only needed one rest between smushings to get it to fill the pan, and then it was time for nap #2. During the dough's nap I cubed up the cheese, two different kinds of WI Brick. One was commercially packaged, and was drier, and tried to crumble a bit when broken, the way a sharp cheddar will. The taste was mild and pleasant. The second cheese came from a larger block and was re-packaged by JJ's. it was much creamier, but had that pungent bite of a sharp aged swiss. It also had some of the glossy interior bubbles you see with swiss. very strong, and it lingered. The creamy texture was divine, but even my dormant tastebuds could register this one, and disapproved.

The dough puffed some during this final rise, but I didn't see the big bubbles that I thought I would. With the oven heated to 500F, it was time to assemble and bake. I tossed the combined cheeses onto both pizzas, making sure each got the appropriate amount for the available surface area (equitable vs equal?), then dolloped on some (too runny) canned pasta sauce. Into the oven for 12 minutes, worried that the full 15 would have been too much.

I should have used the full 15 minutes. I did have the crusty burned cheese along the edges that is the hallmark of Detroit style pizza, but the crust was a bit under-done. Also, the sauce was too runny and/or the cheeses were too much or too fatty? lots of extra and unexpected grease. The crusty cheese released well, and once cooled enough to handle, I devoured the smaller of the two. It's not exactly the same as the stuff I get locally, but with some adjustments, I think i can get a LOT closer for a lot less money.