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Detroit-Style Pizza in the Lloyd Pan
30 min active
15 min
16 to 24 hour cold ferment, plus about 4 hours the next day
One 10x14 pan, serves 4 to 6
Detroit pizza is a rectangle with ambitions. The magic is the edge: cheese laid all the way to the pan walls, where it fries into a lacy, caramelized crust called frico. Underneath, a wet bread-flour dough proofs right in the pan and bakes up airy and light with a fried, crackly bottom. The sauce goes on last, in three red stripes across the top, so it never softens the crust.
This is the overnight version. The dough cold-ferments for a day, which buys flavor you cannot get any other way, and it is the one I reach for when I have my act together the night before. If you didn't, go make the same-day Detroit instead. Same idea, different yeast and timing, and it is dialed in.
Steps
- Whisk the flour, 3g yeast, and salt in a bowl. Add the warm water and mix by hand to a shaggy dough with no dry bits, about 2 minutes. It will be wet and sticky. That is correct. Do not add flour.
- Cover and rest 15 minutes, then do one round of stretch-and-folds in the bowl: wet one hand, grab an edge, stretch it up and fold it over the center, turning the bowl, 8 to 10 times. Do a second round 15 minutes later if you like.
- Leave 20 to 30 minutes at room temperature, then cover tightly and refrigerate 16 to 24 hours. Use a lidded container or an oiled zip-top bag with room to expand. It will grow a fair bit even cold.
- Oil the Lloyd pan generously, 2 to 3 tablespoons, bottom and up all four walls. This fries the crust bottom and helps it release.
- Drop the dough in cold, straight from the fridge. Drizzle a little oil on top and press it outward with your fingertips. It will spring back and refuse the corners. That is fine. Cover, rest 20 minutes, press again. Repeat until it fills the pan wall to wall.
- Proof in the pan, covered, until genuinely puffy and jiggly, about 2 to 3 hours. Cold dough proofs slower, so give it real time and warmth. Pan-filling is not the same as proofed. Wait for airy.
- Meanwhile, heat the oven to 500°F, ideally with a steel or stone on the lower-middle rack. Give it a full 45 minutes to saturate with heat.
- When the dough is puffy, lay the cheese edge to edge and pack it hard against the pan walls. That wall contact is the whole point: it melts, spreads, and caramelizes into the frico crust. Scatter the pepperoni on top (see Notes).
- Bake 16 to 18 minutes, until the cheese is deeply browned and the edges are crisp and lacquered. Rotate once halfway. Do not pull it early. This is a longer bake than it looks like it needs.
- Finish with the sauce in three stripes down the length of the pizza. Rest 3 to 5 minutes, run a knife around the edge, and lift the whole thing onto a rack so the bottom stays crackly. Cut into squares.
- Warm the olive oil with the grated garlic over medium heat for about a minute, just to take the raw edge off. Don't brown it.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, paste, oregano, sugar, salt, and chili flake. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes until thick enough to hold a stripe. Taste and adjust. You only need about half a cup on top; the rest keeps for the next pie.
Notes
- The panThe signature crust really does come from a proper Detroit pan. I use the LloydPans 10x14 PSTK, the pre-seasoned hard-anodized one that never needs seasoning and releases clean. It matches the dimensions of the original blue-steel bakery pans. A 9x13 metal pan works in a pinch; scale the dough down to about 1 pound.
- The pepperoni cupsSkip the wide, deli-thin slices. They lie flat and never cup. You want small-diameter natural-casing pepperoni (Ezzo, Vermont Smoke & Cure, or Boar's Head natural casing all work) sliced about 1/8-inch thick. The casing tightens in the heat and pulls each slice into a little crispy cup that pools rendered fat. Put the pepperoni on top of the cheese, not buried under it, so the edges can curl and char.
- CheeseWisconsin brick is the authentic Detroit cheese and worth hunting for at a real cheese counter. The reliable stand-in is low-moisture mozzarella for melt plus Monterey Jack for that crispy, oily edge. Cube it rather than shredding; the ragged pieces brown better. Never pre-shredded, the anti-caking starch keeps it from melting cleanly.
- FlourA bread flour around 12.5% protein is what gives this its chew and structure. Bob's Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour is what I used; King Arthur bread flour is an easy substitute. All-purpose will work but the crumb won't be as open.
- YeastSAF Instant (the red label) is instant yeast, so it mixes straight into the flour with no blooming. It's potent, which is why the amounts here are small. Keep it in the freezer and it lasts for years.
- Don't skimp on two thingsthe pan oil and pushing the cheese hard against the walls. Everything else is forgiving.
