Cheat’s deep dish pizza

Deep dish pizza made in minutes using a clever shortcut will become a family favourite in no time. Add all your ultimate toppings for a lazy weekend feast.

You guys, this lazy-cooking thing has turned into a monster I can’t quite contain. I am looking for shortcuts in everything I cook, not that I’m complaining. Less time in the kitchen and more time watching Brooklyn nine nine is fine by me.

But before we get into this pizza, I want to tell you about this new idea I’ve been thinking about for a couple of weeks. You see, I watch a lot (understatement!) of YouTube videos. My subscribed to list is as long as my arm and I am obsessed with everything from daily vloggers to beauty YouTubers and more. And something I’ve noticed is that they often collaborate with one another, sharing content and reaching each others’ audiences. I started wondering if food bloggers could do the same. After all, we share a community and I am always looking for new bloggers to follow. Because seriously, who doesn’t want more glorious food in their lives? That’s when the seed was planted. I’m going to be doing more collaborations with food bloggers from across the world to bring you, my readers, more cool content from all over the web and hopefully we can grow this (not so little) community of ours and share the love a little.

The first person I thought of reaching out to writes one of my favourite food blogs. Mary Ann from The Beach House Kitchen came onto my radar a few months ago when I kept seeing her beautiful images pop up on my social feeds. I started reading her blog and fell in love immediately. Her writing style is lovely and relaxed, her recipes are beyond awesome and her photos are just so beautiful. Everything about her and her blog are just lovely. We discussed which recipe we would both be doing for the first collaboration and decided that pizza would be it. I think you’ll agree with me that Mary Ann’s BLT Phyllo pizza looks absolutely scrumptious. I mean that is some drool-worthy stuff right there. Please go check it out and do yourself a favour and subscribe to her mail list, her recipes are not to be missed.

(Side note: if you would like to get involved in this collaboration thing, please comment below and I’ll get in touch. The more, the merrier!)

So back to this cheat’s deep dish pizza recipe and to me being the ultimate lazy cook lately. A while ago, Aidan (my son) asked if we could make our own pizzas. I said yes without really thinking about it and on that Friday night, he held me to it. “When can we start making our pizzas mamma?” Um, crap. Mamma might have completely forgotten about it and now she has to very quickly find a solution. I told him I had to go buy some more toppings and while I was at the shop, spotted the ready-made dough my local supermarket sells. It’s a very “bready” dough, not so much suitable for things like pizza bases but I knew I didn’t have time to make my own bases and picked up a packet. Besides, I thought, I would just sell it to the kids as my version of deep dish pizza. Back at home I rolled it as thin as I could and then ladled on the pizza sauce (which I had frozen from making pizzas previously).

I pre-baked the base with the sauce to ensure it would be cooked through, especially since it’s a much thicker dough, and then piled on the toppings. I’m legit not lying when I tell you that this pizza was absolutely awesome. The kids are obsessed and ask for it weekly now. Sometimes I use my pizza dough recipe (because let’s face it, making your own is always better) but on days that I need dinner done in a flash, the cheat way comes in quite handy. 

The beauty about this way of doing deep dish pizza is that you can roll the dough out to fit baking sheets and make big pizzas to feed a crowd so easily. Bowls filled with all kinds of toppings makes for a great DIY pizza party and anything goes. I love ham, olives, feta and fresh basil while C wants ALL the bacon, mushrooms and garlic and the kids want every kind of meat with olives but no green stuff please mom. *eye roll* Such great weekend food and definitely quicker than getting a takeaway. Deep dish pizza for all!

Cheat's deep dish pizza

5 from 3 votes

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Course: Dinner, Pizza

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 4 -6

Author: Alida Ryder

Ingredients

• 1 kg shop-bought bread dough alternatively, make your own dough with this recipe
• Pizza sauce
• Toppings of your choice fried onion, sauteed mushrooms, fried bacon, slices of ham, slices of sausage, pitted olives, anchovies, different cheeses, etc. all work well
• Grated mozzarella cheese
• fresh herbs to garnish

Instructions

• Pre-heat the oven to its hottest temperature (you want the pizza to cook quickly to create a good crust.)
• Roll the dough out as thin as possible then transfer to a suitable baking dish (cake pans work quite well).
• Ladle on some of the sauce and spread to cover the base.
• If you're using shop-bought dough which tends to be thicker and more "bready", place the dough topped with the sauce in the oven now and bake for 5-7 minutes until the dough has risen a little and has formed a bit of a crust. (If using home-made dough, leave out this step.)
• Remove the pre-baked dough from the oven then top with a little mozzarella cheese and your favoured toppings. Add a little more mozzarella to the top then place back in the oven.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the base is cooked and has formed a good crust.
• Remove from the oven, top with fresh herbs and slice.

More pizza recipes you’ll love:

Bacon, mushroom and crispy onion pizza

Vegetable-loaded pizza quesidillas

Pizza rolls with garlic butter