Buddy's pizza at home

Traditional Detroit-style pizza at home —modeled after

Buddy's pizza, the original detroit pie.

You can get pretty close at home,

But as always you'll be limited by your oven, which probably doesn't get quite as hot as the ovens they use at buddy's and it makes a difference.

That's a darn good pizza, though — easily my favorite of the thicker crust styles. You'll want about a cup of water per 110 inches of pan area. I've got that in metric in the description. My pan area is 165 inches, so I need a cup and a half of water, 355mL, a teaspoon and a half of dry yeast, a teaspoon and a half of salt, and I'm not gonna bother measuring my bread flour. At Buddy's, their dough is about 65% hydration, which would be about 550g of flour here. That's about the hydration you're gonna get if you just stir in as much flour as you can stir in with a spoon. Cover and let the particles hydrate, let the gluten autolyse for about 20 minutes.

Come back, dump in a little more flour — that was probably too much — flour your hands and you can more easily get the dough off of the spoon, and then just knead the dough a little bit. It's wetter now after resting so it will absorb a little more flour, and after the autolyse you really only need to knead it for a minute to get it stretchy. 60-70% hydration is about that sticky. Sticky doughs are hard to work, yes, but it's really easy to push dough into a square pan, so don't worry about it. Lean on the side of it being too sticky. Now I'll cover and actually let that rise for a couple hours or so until doubled, during which time I can work on my cheese. The original, traditional Detroit-style pizza is made with. Wisconsin brick cheese, which can be hard to find and I had to order an absurdly large block on the internet.

In effect, it's kinda halfway between low-moisture mozzarella and cheddar cheese. This is a little more mature and funky and yellow than the brick cheese they use at Buddy's but man does melt really well and taste great. I'm cutting off about 200g, seven ounces for my pizza. Sure you could use a younger cheddar instead or low-moisture mozzarella or a mixture of the two instead, but you could also buy a big block of brick cheese like mine, cut it up into portions and then freeze those for later. Semi-firm cheeses usually freeze and thaw really well. At buddy's they grind their cheese rather than shredding it. They want bigger pieces to slow down the melting, since a thicker pizza needs more time in the oven and you don't want the cheese to cook too quickly. I can get a similar effect by just chopping this cheese into pretty coarse chunks.

And then once I've done that I'm actually gonna throw this in the freezer. In my home oven it's gonna take even longer to bake and brown a thick crust, so I want the cheese to melt slowly, otherwise it'll be a broken or even burned mess by the time the pizza itself is done. If you chill it, you slow it down. Oh hey, here's my sauce in the freezer. Buddy's, like many classic American pizza places uses canned tomato product from a company called Stanislaus that almost exclusively serves commercial operations, hence this absolutely gigantic can I had to order off the internet. I don't know if Buddy's uses this particular product from Stanislaus — 7/11 ground tomatoes — but it's a favorite among New York pizza places and it legit tastes amazing. I don't know what they do differently at Stanislaus, but it works. Not an ad.

I cracked open the can, I transferred its contents to ice cube trays and now I can thaw out exactly how much I need for a pizza any time. I'll need about a cup of sauce, 237mL for this pizza. Obviously you can just use the best canned smooth tomato product they have at your store.

Whatever herbs and spices you like 

I'm using oregano and thyme and a little garlic powder and some pepper.

Buddy's sauce tastes like they use those similar things, but they go easy on the spices. It's a very plain sauce. I don't know if they do any olive oil in there, but I really like that taste. I do know their sauce is a little looser than this, so I'm watering it down a little.

That looks about right. Dough has risen and now it's time to get my pan. What I've got is an 11x15 inch pre-seasoned blue steel Detroit-style pizza pan that I bought online. It's pretty similar to the ones they use at Buddy's. I seasoned it again when I got it home. You could absolutely just use a big aluminum cake pan, or a half-sheet pan. Your crust might not get quite as brown but it'll still be good.

We've gotta spread a film of olive oil all over the interior surface, and we especially cannot forget the sides and the corners. If the pizza sticks, it's gonna be up here, so get oil in there. Plus we want the oil to create that slightly fried edge that is characteristic of this style pizza. Not too fried, however. I'm using a paper towel to get out some excess oil.

If there's too much, you get a

Doughnut-like effect that is just not right.

While your hands are still oily, grab

Your risen dough, plop it in the pan and do an initial stretch.

Try to get it into as even of a rectangle as possible, but don't stress if it snaps back on you and you can't get it to stay tucked into the corners.

We will now let this rest covered, let it proof for about half an hour, and now it is puffy and the gluten is relaxed. I can stretch it out into the corners, which you want to do because the corners are the best part. Just be gentle and don't deflate the dough. You could always let it sit and poof again for a few more minutes if you deflate it. The basic Buddy's pie has a layer of small pepperoni slices under the cheese. I could only get big slices so I'm cutting them into quarters before I lay them on. Small pieces mean you won't have giant slices of pepperoni sliding out of the pie and onto your lower lip as you eat. Cheese layer goes on next — our cold, coarsely chopped brick cheese that will melt nice and slow in the oven.

At Buddy's they make an effort to let some cheese fall along the side where it can brown against the hot metal. Now the sauce goes on top, similar to Chicago-style pizza, but unlike Chicago they do not flood the top in Detroit. At Buddy's they do three narrow strips they call "racing stripes" in tribute to the Detroit automotive industry. As a result, most of the cheese will still be able to brown, and that is good. I've had my oven heating as hot as I can get it for about a half hour, and in we go. Highest possible setting, convection if you've got it. Mine took about 15 minutes, and basically you have to pull it when the cheese is starting to break really bad — when the casein proteins tighten up and start squeezing out orange grease. I wash my crust was a little darker by now, but that's just how it is baking at 550ºF in a domestic oven instead of the 700 to 750 oven they use at Buddy's.

Let the pie rest and solidify for a second, but you want to get it out of the pan pretty quick to avoid a soggy bottom. Use a metal spatula to go around the edge and scrape off any cheese or crust that is sticking. I imagine this pan will get less sticky the more I use it and the more that seasoning layer develops. Then I can use that spatula to get up under the pie and help me lever it out. At Buddy's they would cut this into eight rectangular pieces and so shall I. If New Yorkers are thinking, "Hey, that looks like Sicilian pizza," yeah, Detroit pizza is descended from Sicilian sfincione. Not as dark as I'd like it but that edge is still awfully crispy and we've got some decent golden brown on the bottom. The crust is nice and light and springy, and.

I love the heterogeneity of having sauce in narrow stripes on top, but the real secret to the flavor is the hidden layer of pepperoni on the dough. Really great. If you can, I think you should go to Detroit to taste the real thing for yourself at Buddy's, but if you can't go to Detroit, that is like 85% the authentic product, and a great way to make a lot off pizza for a large group at home. Much love to the Motor City...