Lou Malnati's Chicago Stylepizza Crust - Dough

The recipe is not correct. Use AP flour only; there is--and never has been--cornmeal in Chicago deep dish pizza. Butter isn't used except to 9sometimes) grease pans--the buttery taste comes from corn oil. More oil is needed (2.5-3 Tablespoons per cup of flour). Proof the yeast first, then mix for 1 minute and knead for 2. You don't need to laminate it or keep it in the fridge (although you can, if you want to). Let rise for at least 4 hours, then roll out and drape into deep dish pan.<br/><br/>Use either hand-crushed whole tomatoes (a la Malnati's)or premium crushed or ground tomatoes, like 6-in-1 (a la Giordano's). No butter in the sauce, no fire-roasted tomatoes, and do not cook the sauce.

This is a good pizza dough recipe but mine did not turn out similar to Lou Malnati's. I eat Lou Malnati's as often as I can since I am fortunate to live in the Chicagoland area. I noticed that the real Lou Malnati's pizza did not have corn meal on the bottom of the crust. My pizza dough turned out chewy rather than crispy. I decreased the recipe by 1/4th to make one pizza. By doing that, I got 12 ounces of dough, which was a good amount to make the pizza in a 10 inch cast iron skillet.

There is no corn meal in Lou Malnati's pizza. I have spent years developing what, in my estimation, is the closest to the actual crust. I get rave reviews from both people who have lived in Chicago their entire lives and people who have never had authentic "Lou Malnoti's" style Chicago pizza. The list of ingredients in my recipe (which are very much in line with the ingredients list on the box of a Lou Malnoti's pizza) are as follows: 7/8 cup (3/4 cup + 2 Tbl) 90 – 100 degrees Filtered Water ½ cup Dark Corn Oil 2 Tblsp Olive Oil ¾ tsp Salt (Mediterranean seal salt or Kosher Salt is preferred) 3 cups AP Flour 1 tsp Sugar 1/8 tsp Active Dry Yeast - I do add white corn meal to the bottom and sides of the cake pan to give it that extra crunch but not in the dough itself. Good luck in your quest!!!

I'm pretty sure a Malnati's brother would have not forgotten to add the corn meal.

Not right. Turned out too bready for a Lou's crust. Not right flavor either.