Ooni Detroit-Style Pizza Recipe
Easy & Authentic Detroit-Style Pizza Recipe for Ooni Pizza Ovens and Ooni Detroit-Style Pizza Pans.
Looking for more recipes for your Ooni Pizza Oven? Check out my cookbook: Epic Outdoor Pizza Oven Cookbook. All the recipes are dialed in for making at home in an Ooni Pizza Oven. More recipes along with tips and tricks on how to make epic pizza with your Ooni are here on my blog and on the Santa Barbara Baker YouTube Channel.
What makes this Detroit-Style pizza recipe easy?
This Detroit-Style Pizza Dough recipe can easily be made by hand without using a mixer. The dough recipe uses King Arthur Bread Flour which is easy to find at most grocery stores or online. The Ooni Detroit-Style Pizza recipe doesn’t require obtaining any hard-to-find or expensive ingredients either. Instead it uses cheeses and toppings easily found at your local grocery store or deli.
What makes this Detroit-Style pizza authentic?
This recipe stays true to the traditional preparation of Detroit-Style pizza made famous at Detroit pizzerias such as Buddy’s Pizza. The classic preparation doesn’t include par-baking the dough. Instead, the un-baked dough is topped “upside-down” with the pepperoni below the cheese and sauce.
What about Wisconsin “Brick Cheese?”
Wisconsin “brick-cheese” along with low-moisture mozzarella cheese is traditional, but I’ve found the brick-cheese to be difficult to find locally and expensive to order online. As a substitute I head to the deli-counter for a thick slab of Muenster cheese. It’s the best I’ve found for re-creating that distinct, rich and butter flavor without having to travel all the way to Detroit.
Do I need to use an Ooni Pizza Oven for Detroit-Style Pizza?
Of course not! You don’t need an expensive oven to make Detroit-Style pizza. This recipe can be made in any oven. However, I can confirm this recipe produces excellent results using the Ooni Volt 12 Electric Pizza Oven. In my testing the Ooni Volt excelled at producing delicious and authentic Detroit-Style pizza. The oven is equipped with a “balance dial” which allows the user to better control heat source and direction. This feature allows the oven to mimic the baking environment of real Detroit-Style pizza easily at home. This homemade pizza recipe can also be made in a home oven (bake on the lower rack with a steel).
Do I need an Ooni Detroit-Style Pizza Pan to make Detroit-Style pizza recipes?
Of course not! This recipe is even more true to “real” Detroit-Style pizza when made in a traditional 8-inch x 10-inch Detroit-Style pizza pan. No modifications to the recipe are needed. While a bit expensive and oddly sized, the Detroit-Style Pizza Pans from Ooni do work really well for making Detroit-Style pizza at home. The pizzas bake up to a perfect even golden brown in the pans and they are easy to release from the sides of the pan, some of the easiest I’ve encountered. They also come with a lid designed for the pan, really helpful for easily proofing your dough.
Ooni Detroit-Style Pizza Dough
Equipment
- 1 small Ooni Detroit-Style Pizza Pan or a standard 8-inch x 10-inch Detroit Style Pizza Pan
Ingredients
- 110 grams Filtered water
- 5 grams Kosher salt
- 1 gram Instant dry yeast
- 155 grams King Arthur Bread Flour
- 1-2 tablespoons Unsalted butter
Instructions
about 24-72 hours before baking pizza:
- Pour the filtered water into a small mixing bowl, add the salt, and stir to dissolve completely. Sprinkle the yeast on the surface of the water and let the yeast absorb some of the water, about 1 minute, before stirring to dissolve completely. Add the flour.
- Using your hands, mix the ingredients, stirring and pinching with your fingers till all the ingredients are fully incorporated and no dry flour remains. The high hydration of this dough can make it feel sticky, a light splash of water on your hands can help prevent the dough from clinging to your hands. Cover the bowl of dough and let rest at room temperature (about 70℉) for 20-30 minutes. This rest gives the flour some time to absorb the water and makes the dough easier to knead.
- After 20-30 minutes, uncover the dough and knead for 1-2 minutes directly in the bowl till mostly smooth, but before becomes too sticky too handle. Cover the bowl of dough and let rest at room temperature (about 70℉) for 45-minutes to 1-hour.
- After the rest, uncover the dough and knead briefly in the bowl or in your hands. Cover the dough in the bowl and let rest for about 10 minutes while you prepare the Detroit-Style pizza pan.
- Using your hands, rub the butter all over the inside of a 8×10-inch Detroit-Style pizza pan. You want to a thin layer covering the surface taking care to make sure the corners of the pan are well greased.
- Uncover the dough and shape into a ball using your hands folding the dough into itself a couple times. It’s helpful to do this while you still have butter on your hands from greasing the pan. Place the dough ball in the center of the pan and cover. Let the dough relax in the pan for about 10 minutes.
- Place the dough ball in the center of the pan and press the dough ball down into the pan. Using your fingers work the dough towards the edges of the pan, pushing it out and resisting the urge to pick the dough up from the pan too much as you may trap air underneath. If the dough is difficult to work, cover and let rest for about 5 minutes before working the dough again. Repeat the process. It takes about 2-3 rest cycles to fully stretch the dough.
- Once fully stretched, cover the pan and transfer to the refrigerator to cold-ferment for at least 12-hours and up to 72-hours.
6-8 hours before making the Ooni Detroit-Style Pizza Recipe
- Remove the pan from the refrigerator and let the dough rise, covered, at room temperature (about 70℉) for 6-8 hours before baking. Look for the dough to have expanded and risen with lots of small bubbles on the surface before topping and baking.
How do I know the Detroit-Style dough is ready to bake?
After removing the pan from the refrigerator and letting the dough rise covered for about 6-8 hours it should be ready to bake. How can you tell? The pizza dough should look “puffed up” after the rise with lots of small “micro-bubbles” all over the surface. The picture below shows the dough ready to be baked:
How do I make an authentic Detroit-Style pizza in my Ooni Pizza Oven?
Once the dough is ready, follow the recipe below:
Ooni Detroit-Style Pizza
Equipment
- 1 small Ooni Detroit-Style Pizza Pan or standard 8-inch x 10-inch Detroit Style Pizza Pan
Ingredients
- 1 dough ball Ooni Detroit-Style Pizza Dough Panned, proofed, and ready for baking
- 1/4 teaspoon Dried oregano
- 15 slices Pepperoni Traditional, flat lying pepperoni is what you want here, save the cupping pepperoni for other pizzas.
- 3 ounces Muenster Cheese or Wisconsin Brick Cheese, cubed Wisconsin Brick Cheese is traditional and the most authentic. However it can be hard to find or expensive to order. Munster cheese from the deli makes a good substitute.
- 3 ounces Low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella cheese, cubed
- 3.5 ounces Pizza sauce
Instructions
6-8 hours before baking the pizza:
- Remove the pan from the refrigerator and let the dough rise, covered, at room temperature (about 70℉) for 6-8 hours before baking. Look for the dough to have expanded and risen with lots of small bubbles visible on the surface before topping.
30-minutes before baking the pizza:
- Preheat your pizza oven with the temperature set to 450℉. When the pizza oven is fully heated, set the heat balance dial (if equipped) to Bottom 9/Top 1.
To make the pizza:
- Uncover the Detroit-Style pizza pan and sprinkle the dried oregano over the top of the dough. Gently lay the sliced pepperoni in 3 rows of 5 lengthwise over the top of the pizza. Scatter the cubed cheeses all over the top of the pizza making sure plenty ends up along the edges of the pan, this will create the signature crispy-cheese “frico” crust. Using a spoon dot the top of the pizza with the sauce in 2, mostly straight lines.
- Load the pizza into the pizza oven placing the pan in the center of the baking stone and bake for 15-18 minutes, rotating the pan about halfway through the bake. As the pizza bakes the crust will pull away from the sides of the pan and crisp. Carefully check the crust at the pizza finishes baking looking for a golden-brown crust that has mostly freed itself from the edges of the pan and fully melted, but not burned cheese.
- Remove the pan from the oven and let cool briefly, about 1 minute. Taking care to preserve the “frico” crust insert a metal spatula along the edge of the pan and fully free the pizza before removing. Transfer the pizza to a wire rack to the let the crust set briefly, about 1 minute before slicing on a cutting board.
- Transfer the sliced pizza to a wire rack nested in a 1/4-sheet pan to stay crisp while serving. Serve immediately.
Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward Santa Barbara Baker a small commission – at no extra cost for you. Clicking on these links helps keep the pizza content baking! Thanks for the support!
