Detroit-Style Pizza

Michigan’s own pizza: a thick, airy rectangle baked in an oiled pan, with cheese pushed right to the edges so it fries into a dark, crisp frame, and sauce spooned on top in stripes. Born at Buddy’s Rendezvous in Detroit in 1946, in steel pans borrowed from the auto plants.

Untested: I have not cooked this one yet — the pizza oven has not been bought. It is here for the Pizza Ovens dive, and it is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

Dough

260 g (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) water
3 g instant dry yeast (or 4.5 g active dry, or 9 g fresh)
20 g (1½ tablespoons) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the pan
350 g strong bread flour
10 g fine sea salt

Topping

80 g cheddar, shredded
100 g mozzarella, shredded
100 g pepperoni
120 g Uncooked Pizza Sauce or other pizza sauce

Directions

Dough. Mix everything on low-medium about 5 minutes until smooth (or knead about 15 minutes by hand). Cover and leave at room temperature 3–4 hours, until doubled. (Or refrigerate up to 72 hours and take it out 2–3 hours before using.)
Pan it. Oil a 9 × 13-inch metal pan generously. Press the dough out toward the corners, rest about 30 minutes, then dimple it out to the corners again.
Top. Scatter the cheese all over and right to the edges of the pan — that edge is the point. Add the pepperoni, then spoon the sauce on top in two stripes.
Pizza oven. Heat the oven until the stone reads about 650 °F, then turn the flame to its lowest. Set the pan at the front, away from the fire, door on if there is one. Bake 10–15 minutes, turning the pan every 2 minutes early on. If the top browns too fast, let the flame die back for 3–5 minutes.
Kitchen oven. Bake on the lowest rack at 550 °F for 12–15 minutes, until the edges are black and bubbling.
Serve. Loosen the edges with a thin metal spatula and lift it out.

Notes

Sources Pizza-oven method and quantities from Ooni, “Detroit-style Pizza.” Kitchen-oven timing from J. Kenji López-Alt, “Detroit-Style Pan Pizza,” Serious Eats (550 °F, 12–15 min).

The cheese The traditional cheese is Wisconsin brick, a high-fat aged cheese. Ooni substitutes cheddar and mozzarella; Kenji’s closest substitute was half low-moisture mozzarella and half Jack.

The pan Buddy’s used steel industrial parts trays; Kenji uses a 10 × 14-inch anodised aluminium Detroit pan, or two 8-inch square cake pans. A well-seasoned square cast-iron pan is sometimes used, but no source here tested one.

History Buddy’s Rendezvous, Six Mile and Conant, 1946, Gus and Anna Guerra.

The Pizza Ovens dive on the Food site covers the oven, the fire and the dough in depth.