Detroit-Style Pizza & Peter Reinhart's Genius
TWO THINGS TO KNOW:
1. Peter Reinhart was my first pizza guru and remains top of the list for me.
2. Your friends will lose their minds over Detroit-style pizza. (I never saw this coming and it was a revelation.)
Because of Peter's book American Pie: My Search For The Perfect Pizza, I was able to finally make a pizza that tasted exactly like the kind of East Coast-style pizza I love--and could never find in Los Angeles. (The city of angels has become a much better pizza town since I moved away almost two decades ago--but that doesn't change the satisfaction of being able to thrill my friends by whipping out a killer pizza with my home oven whenever I feel like it.)
When Peter released his book Perfect Pan Pizza I was sold immediately. I'd never really been pan-pizza curious, but I figured if he was selling the idea, I was willing to listen. Besides, by the time I got around to it, it was COVID lockdown. I was happy for the distraction.
With the first Detroit-style pizza, my wife was an instant fan. (She's got a discriminating palate. Nothing is ever a sure thing there.) Since then, I've continued finding that this style of pizza is a huge crowd pleaser.
The Bonus Factor: Nobody I know has a favorite Detroit pizza--if they've ever even had it. And this pizza is filling. It's easy to bring one of these babies to a party and feed a crowd.
Since I have not yet written my Detroit-style pizza book (New York is coming first), Peter's exceptional guide through pan pizza is my top recommendation. You also don't need to invest in Lloyd Pans to get started. You can use whatever pans you have in the kitchen already. But I have found that the Lloyd product brings just a little more satisfaction to the party.
The links below are Amazon affiliate links. They take you to the product pages on Amazon. If you decide to make a purchase, Free The Pizza earns a small (REALLY small) percentage at no additional cost to you. (Annually, Amazon purchase probably cover our bill for web hosting. Maybe.)
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TURN UP THE AUDIO SO YOU CAN HEAR THE SOUNDS OF PIZZA! The dough is very wet, and sounds like it. (It's also easy to use since, you're never trying to stretch it--it gets pressed into a pan.) The two side-by-side pizzas just came out of the oven, and the sizzle is impressive.
THE BOOK
Perfect Pan Pizza: Square Pies to Make at Home, from Roman, Sicilian, and Detroit, to Grandma Pies and Focaccia
If you're already making pizza, this is almost like a jump-start guide. I admit that I didn't read the entire book before I dove in. And what a pleasure it was. If you've never made pizza before, this is a lower-friction style of pizza that doesn't require quite so much hands-on skill development. Either way, I recommend it highly. Like so many cookbooks, I own both the hard copy and the Kindle edition. (Highlighting and searching a Kindle book is so expeditious.)
THE TOOLS
Honestly, there isn't much required. If you already have decent baking pans, that's about all you need. The offset spatula is helpful, especially if your pans don't release easily. And the Loyd Pans raise the bar over the lightweight baking pans people often have at home. But seriously, don't rush into buying these things until you've made a pizza and decided you like it--or you're like me, and you just love new kitchen tools.
Lloyd Pans 8x10-inch Detroit-style pizza pan
I use a pair of Lloyd Pans 8x10 inch Detroit-style pizza pans. They're dense, hard anodized pans with high sides. The high sides are helpful because it gives the cheese a resting place to develop frico, which is the crunchy, caramelized edge that develops around a Detroit pizza and has people fighting over the corner pieces.
The reason I use two of these instead of one big pan? The dough recipe in Perfect Pan Pizza is perfect for two 8x10 pizzas, and two small pans create more edge than a single big pan.
SIDEBAR: It's also not often you see any product on Amazon that gets a near-unanimous 5-stars from thousands of customers. That's one of those simple things that gives me confidence in buying a new product that I've never tried before.
THE OFFSET SPATULA
Mercer Culinary 8-inch offset spatula
There are a ton of these things on Amazon. There were also none in any of my local stores, which I found curious. So, I sifted through the endless listings at Amazon until I found a single spatula (not a set) that was long enough, had enough reviews and was (yes) expensive enough to instill confidence. If you find one you enjoy using, please let me hear about it.
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When you click those links to Amazon (and a few other sites we work with), and you buy something, you are helping this website stay afloat, and you're helping us have many more glorious photographs of impressive pizza.