Deep Dish Stuffed Crust Pizza

I was born and raised on the East coast-- I knew nothing of this deep dished stuffed crust pizza... until I took a trip out to Chicago to visit a friend. Then I was introduced to Giordano's... As much as I love my NY thin crust pizza-- the deep dish stuffed crust pizza rocked my world! On my quest to make anything and everything I'm ever in the mood for I worked on nailing my deep dish stuffed crust pizza recipe and I GOT IT! Not, close-- I'm saying as exact as humanly possible without having worked there. Ok, here's what I do.

You need a deep dish pizza pan.

Preheat the oven to 475.

I make pizza dough in a bread machine & follow the bread machine's pizza dough recipe. It is really good. I make the 2lbs recipe and divide it in two when it is finished.

Use extra virgin olive oil and evenly coat the bottom and the inside walls of the pan.

I evenly roll out or stretch out the dough and make sure the dough comes over the sides (bottom crust).

Then I lay sliced mozzerella cheese on the bottom and then put in my filling.
Today I'm just going to take frozen spinach- defrost it and squeeze out all the water before putting it in. I've also taken bits of sausage and added it... but you can put whatever toppings you want in there.
Then take the second piece of pizza dough- stretch/roll it out on top of your filling and crimp it together with the bottom crust that you (hopefully) pulled up around the sides of the pan.
I make a couple of slits on the top crust to let steam out.
THEN I add tomato sauce- where I sprinkle oregano, basil, garlic, salt & pepper AND drizzle some more olive oil on
Last step- I top it with cheese- grated or shredded.

Bake that off for 30 minutes.

You'll love this one!

If anyone is interested in me posting the pizza dough bread machine recipe I use, feel free to email me at diycookingnation@yahoo.com and I'll be happy to post it!!!

ENJOY!!!