Classic Detroit
Cheese to the edges, sauce on top, crispy caramelized cheese crust. The pizza that put Detroit on the map.
Recipe by ThePizzaPlanet.com · Published
Essential tool for this bake
Detroit pizza is upside-down everything: cheese to the edges (not just the middle), sauce on top (not under), bake long and dark (not fast and pale). The signature is the frico — caramelized cheese fused to the pan walls that you have to peel away with a spoon. The first time you do this right you'll be tempted to under-bake out of fear. Don't. The pizza isn't done until the edges are dark mahogany and crackle when you tap them. Brick cheese is hard to find; a 50/50 mozz/Muenster mix is the closest substitute on the shelf — it melts and browns the same way. We build it on King Arthur Bread Flour; at 70% hydration anything weaker collapses under the weight of the cheese.
Flour: King Arthur Bread Flour (12.7% protein) — read the review
Dough Formula
| Ingredient | Grams | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour (12.7% protein) | 232 g | 100.0% |
| Water | 163 g | 70.3% |
| Salt | 5.8 g | 2.5% |
| Yeast | 1.6 g | 0.7% |
| Oil | 9 g | 3.9% |
| Sugar | 3 g | 1.3% |
Makes 1 ball of ≈415 g
Ingredients
Dough
- Pizza dough (see formula above)1 ball
Cheese
- Brick cheese or mozz/Muenster mix300g, cubed
Sauce
- Crushed tomatoes200g
- Garlic2 cloves
- Oregano1 g
- Sugar2 g
Toppings
- Pepperoni100g, optional
Instructions
- 1
Make the dough: mix per the formula above, then follow the calculator schedule for Detroit — 26 h bulk/cold ferment before shaping (hands-on 20 min).
- 2
Oil a 10×14 Detroit-style pan generously.
- 3
Press dough into pan, pushing to all corners. If it springs back, wait 10 min.
- 4
Cover and let rise 30-45 min until puffy.
- 5
Push cheese cubes into dough and all the way to the edges — this creates the frico crust.
- 6
Add pepperoni if using.
- 7
Bake at 260-290°C (500-550°F) for 12-15 minutes until edges are deeply caramelized.
💡 Don't pull early — the dark edges are the frico.
- 8
Add sauce in racing stripes on top after baking.
Tips
- →Hands-on time is about 30 minutes; allow the dough its full ferment — see the calculator schedule
- →Cheese pushed to the edges creates the signature frico crust
- →Sauce goes ON TOP after baking
- →50/50 low-moisture mozz and Muenster is a great brick cheese substitute
- →Don't fear the dark edges — that's the whole point
Video by America's Test Kitchen · 451K views · 10 min · on YouTube
Shop this bake
Flour
King Arthur Bread Flour
The first bag to buy if you bake in a domestic oven. At 12.7% protein with added amylase on the label it gives you chew and colour at 250 °C, which is exactly what an unmalted 00 will not.
$13.42· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the review →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Ingredient
Cento All Purpose Crushed Tomatoes
Crushed in the tin instead of by hand, and sold as one can rather than a case — the low-commitment way in when a six-tin case is what stops you buying at all.
Check price on Amazon →Read the buying guide →Ingredient
SAF Instant Yeast
Instant, so it goes in dry with the flour: no warm-water step means no step at which the yeast can be cooked, which is where an active-dry dough most often dies.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Equipment
Original Baking Steel
6.4 mm is the home compromise: enough stored heat to bake two pies back to back, in a slab that will never crack the way a cordierite stone eventually does.
$139.00· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the review →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Equipment
Greater Goods Single Sensor Baking Scale
One model behind one listing, on the maker's own page: 5 kg (11 lb) of capacity, reading down to 1 g. What the listing sends is what the maker documents — rarer here than it ought to be.
$19.99· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the buying guide →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
If this goes wrong
Pizza crust is dense and bready, not chewy
Dense crust means the gas never got in or never got out of the dough into the crumb. Proof to the peak, keep the rim untouched, stop adding bench flour, and bake on a surface hot enough to give you real oven spring.
Pizza dough didn't rise
Either the yeast is dead, it was killed by hot water or direct salt contact, or your kitchen is simply too cold for the amount of yeast you used. Proof the yeast to find out which, then match the dose to your temperature and timeline.
Pizza base is soggy in the middle
Not enough heat is reaching the centre of the base fast enough to drive the water out before the crust sets. Bake on a fully preheated steel or stone rather than a tray, give it 45–60 minutes at maximum, and cut the water you put on top.
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