Personal Deep Dish Pizza

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We received these little deep dish pans for a wedding gift and they are so fun to make.  We always forget we have them, but they're a huge hit when they come out of the oven.  We like them too because you can play with the amount of toppings and the crust is so tasty.

Dough

• 1 package of active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose-flour, plus more if needed
• 1 tspn. salt

-In a bowl with an electric mixer, combine the yeast, water and sugar and whisk by hand until dissolved.  Let stand for 5 minutes, then add the vegetable oil, flour and salt.  Place the bowl on the mixer, attach the dough hook and knead on low speed until smooth and pliable, about 5 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide into 4 equal pieces.  Knead each piece by hand for 30 seconds, shaping the dough into a ball and dusting with a little flour if needed.  Dust a baking sheet with flour and place the dough on the sheet.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temperature for 2 hours.

The pizza we made have sausage, red onion, mushrooms and black olives with both provolone and mozzarella cheese and sauce.  I recommend cooking the sausage on a fry pan before baking it, along with the vegetables as well.

-Cook sausage in fry pan over medium heat until cooked through.  Place on paper lined plate until assembly.  Take chopped red onion and mushrooms and cook in same pan.  Set aside.

-Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Divide the remaining oil among the 4 pans, about 2 tsp. per pan. Place a dough ball in each pan, and using your fingers, press the dough in an even layer across the bottom and up the sides of the pans.  

-Place 1 provolone slice of cheese on each dough round.  Top with mozzarella, vegetables, and sausage.  Using a back of a spoon, spread tomato pizza sauce on top of each pizza evenly.  We usually put a little more cheese on top of this.

-Bake for 30-35 minutes until they are golden brown on the outside.  Remove from oven when they are finished and let stand for 5 minutes before serving.  Using a knife around the outside edge, they should pop out of the pan easily.  Enjoy!