Detroit / Pan Pizza Recipe

Detroit pizza is the thick, rectangular pan pizza with the best edges in the business: cheese taken all the way to the walls of the pan so it melts against the hot metal and fries into a lacy, crunchy, caramelized crust the locals call frico. Underneath is a crisp fried bottom and an open, airy, almost focaccia-like interior. It is built in a pan, topped in a particular order, and forgiving enough for a confident beginner.

The dough runs wet — 76% hydration, much higher than New York's 65% — and that water is what produces the light, bubbly, focaccia-style crumb rather than a dense slab. There is a little oil (3%) in the dough, 2% salt, and 1% yeast for a reliable rise in the pan. Like focaccia, the defining fat is not in the ratio: the pan gets a generous coat of oil (a tablespoon or two, separate from the dough) so the bottom and edges fry rather than bake.

The order of toppings is the trick that makes it Detroit. Cheese goes directly on the dough and pushed all the way to the edges; sauce goes on top, traditionally in stripes added after baking or just before. That keeps the cheese in direct contact with the pan walls so it can caramelize into frico, and keeps the sauce from steaming the crust soft. A brick-style cheese (or a mix that browns well) is traditional because it crisps instead of just oozing.

Press the wet dough into the oiled pan, let it proof until puffy, top in that order, and bake hot until the edges are deep brown and crunchy. The corner pieces, all crust and frico, are the ones people fight over.