More recipe experiments--Deep Dish Pizza

So, I've been contemplating doing a deep-dish pizza recipe of my own, but I kept pushing it to the side because usually I'm only cooking for myself, and I wanted to make it with someone who could share it with me. But finally this week I've decided to just do it, so I got a few things from the store and played with some ideas last night.

I don't tend to make my own crust because I don't have enough work surface to do that right. So I decided to go with packaged crescent roll dough, which didn't quite work out for a few reasons. First of all, it's cut into triangles, and an incredibly loose dough, so every time you pick it up, it falls apart. I played with it for quite a while pressing it together, then putting it into the pan I'd chosen (a rectangular pyrex dish), then docked the base to try to keep it from puffing when I put it in the oven. I popped it into the oven at 350 for 10 minutes, but unfortunately the docking didn't help--it puffed up a great deal more than I expected, though I should have, given that that's what the dough was meant to do.

The sauce I made the night before with an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and a 14.5 ounce can of pre-chopped tomatoes, though once I used it, I ran short at the very end, so I could probably have made that 2 8-ounce cans of sauce. I put in some Italian seasoning, garlic, oregano, and dried onion flakes, mixed it all together, then covered it and put it in the fridge overnight. It gelled a bit, which actually made it easier for spreading.

The rest of the ingredients were all my favorite toppings--a small can of crushed olives (sliced would probably be okay, but I actually liked this, because I could spread it and mix it into the sauce a bit), the rest of my yellow pepper and tomato from the week before, pepperoni slices, and sliced and shredded mozzarella cheese.

Layering:
I put one layer of the sliced cheese on the bottom, then spread the sauce over that, then put the olives on top of that, a sprinkle of cheese, then my chopped vegetables, then another layer of cheese and sauce, then my pepperoni, and finally a last layer of sliced cheese.

I put it in a 400 degree oven for a half hour, which turned out to be too hot, because the top of the crust burned. I might stick with 350 for cooking next time, or possibly try to cook it for ten minutes, then put aluminum over for the rest of the time to keep it from burning.

It made enough for eight servings with my dish. Probably enough to serve four to eight people, depending on what else you serve it with. Not as deep as I thought it would be, and very fall-apart because of the crust, but quite filling. I'll have leftovers for a good while.


Overall, it tasted quite good, but the crust was definitely off, so I'll have to play with that a bit, but I think this would be a fun one to try again.

I was thinking as I was layering it that it might be fun to try it with barbecued chicken--maybe some peppers and olives and tomatoes...