Family Pizza Night and the Almighty Chicago Deep Dish (with a Family Pizza Pack Giveaway!)

October 30, 2015 By Kelle

This post is sponsored by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

*The sponsors I work with provide fun opportunities to share things we love, and I enjoy these occasions to talk about both products we’ve always used and new things we’ve discovered in a way that fits with how I write and share on this blog–and hopefully feels fun for you to read as well. These partnerships help support our family and the time and work that goes into writing this blog–time and work that, thankfully, I truly enjoy. This partnership was especially fun and easy to support because Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board simply asked, “Want to join our Friday Night Pizza Party?” I mentioned the opportunity to Brett and he smiled. “Seriously? We LOVE Friday night pizza parties. You said yes, right?”

Making pizza at home with our family is one of our favorite things to do, and Friday nights set the perfect tone for a party. The best homemade pizzas include–yep, you got it–Wisconsin Cheese.

Also, Happy Almost Halloween!

For this pizza party, we invited our friends Vinny and Wylie to join us because they are the experts of pizza–Vinny’s family used to run a pizzeria in Brooklyn–and because, well, we like them. I set my standards high for this pizza. I wanted to attempt the Chicago deep dish, something I’ve never done from scratch. I grew up taking the Amtrak into Chicago and never visited without hitting up either Giordano’s, Gino’s or Uno’s.

(from our Chicago visit in 2012)

It was time we recreated this cheesy wonder of the world in our own home.

Deep Dish is serious business though, and you don’t approach it lightly. Our friend Vinny knows pizza like the back of his hand, but he’s an Italian New York boy, so I gave him what he’s good at–sauce, cheese and toppings–and I took over the responsibility of the Chicago deep dish crust. I researched that mother like I was writing a thesis on it, and the recipe I chose turned out to be nothing short of perfection. I followed Sally’s Baking Addiction deep dish crust recipe to a T which uses flour, salt, sugar, yeast, warm water, butter and cornmeal. The secret of a deep dish crust which resembles a pie crust more than a pizza crust is three things: cornmeal, sugar (it’s a little sweeter than regular pizza dough) and laminating butter into the dough.

So I pre-made the deep dish dough, set the table for company and then watched as my friends arrived and took over our kitchen LIKE A BOSS. Friday night just got real.

The dough recipe I followed rolled out beautifully to make two deep dish pizzas. We lined the bottom of two 9-inch tall cake pans, lightly oiled, with the dough and brushed it with an olive oil mixture with fresh garlic and Italian spices.

You can add whatever toppings you’d like to a deep dish pizza. We sauteed red peppers, cooked sausage and added pepperoni.

I thought a good homemade pizza sauce would be pretty complicated but was pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was. Vinny says you don’t need to add much to a good can of crushed tomatoes and not only that you can add it right to the can; don’t dirty another dish. He also says don’t cook pizza sauce because the tomatoes will taste old if you double cook them. We topped off a can of crushed tomatoes with fresh basil and oregano, a heaping tablespoon of sugar (I like a sweeter sauce for deep sauce), a swig of olive oil, and salt and pepper. Stir together and that’s it!

The other secret of deep dish pizza is you reverse the toppings–do not pour sauce directly on crust. It’s CHEESE FIRST. I’m sure Wisconsin Cheese would agree with this life motto–cheese first.

Then toppings.

And finally sauce.

Repeat those layers, fold in the dough that overlaps the pan and then shave some fresh Wisconsin Parmesan on the top. Bake at 500° for around 40 minutes depending on your oven, but keep checking until crust looks golden, cheese is fully melted and consistency is to your liking. Important: let it set for at least 10 minutes.

We made some regular dough for the kids so they could make their own mini pizzas, have fun with the dough and watch Vinny throw it in the air.

The kids loved theirs…

And ours? Sweet Mother of Melted Cheese. Best pizza ever. Even Vinny–the king of pizza–was raving, taking pictures of it, texting it to family.

And now comes Brett’s favorite part. He used to work in a pizza parlor when he was in his 20’s and for years has been raving about the cool pizza cutter he used to use that stretched across the entire diameter of the pizza–talked about it so much that my mom finally found one and gave it to him for Christmas last year. He loves every opportunity to whip it out.

And I love any opportunity to be with friends, eat pizza and enjoy a Friday night together. Success! Mad success.

Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board has a lot more Friday Night Pizza Night fun and a slew of great pizza recipes for you to try.

Plus, they’re giving away a prize package full of Wisconsin Cheese and pizza-making supplies (Epicurean Pizza Peel, Williams-Sonoma Pizza Chopper, and Silicone Trivet) so you can host your own Friday night party.

Use the below Rafflecopter widget to enter for a chance to win and have Friday night pizza party fun of your own! The giveaway is open through 11/5. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For another chance to win a #FridayNightPizzaNight Prize Pack, share a photo of your Friday night pizza on Instagram using the hashtag #FridayNightPizzaNight and tagging @WisconsinCheeseTalk.

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