Recipe: Appetizing Quad Cities style Pizza Dough

Quad Cities style Pizza Dough. If you've ever thought pizza crust was one-size-fits-all, this pizza will alter your view forever. A generous amount of malt syrup gives a rich flavor to the Quad Cities-style crust, along with. In Quad City-style pizza, the dough is sweetened by the addition of malt and, in some cases, molasses.

Chef Brian Hernandez tries out a recipe for Quad Cities-style pizza from Uncle Bill's Pizza in Davenport, Iowa. Originating in the Quad Cities region of Iowa and Illinois, this pie has a darker, sweeter and thinner crust, a thick, feisty sauce and a finished product that's cut into strips with scissors. The corn meal acts as marbles to transfer the completed pizza to the oven. You can have Quad Cities style Pizza Dough using 6 ingredients and 9 steps. Here is how you cook that.

Ingredients of Quad Cities style Pizza Dough

1. Prepare 4 cups of sifted bread flour or 00 pizza flour.
2. Prepare 1/2 cup of Anthony's Premium Dry Malt Flour (malted wheat flour).
3. You need 2 tbsp of sea salt.
4. You need 2 cups of warm water (120-140).
5. It's 1 tsp of dark brown sugar.
6. You need 1 tsp of dry yeast.

Add pizza sauce leaving the edges un covered. Add toppings then cover with mozzarella slices. Traditional toppings for Quad Cities style pizza are Italian sausage, sliced mushrooms, sliced black olives, diced onions, and chopped bell peppers. Traditional Quad City-style pizza doesn't use frozen dough.

Quad Cities style Pizza Dough step by step

1. Stir yeast and brown sugar into water and let sit for 10 minutes..
2. Mix flour, malt and salt in a large bowl. Anthony's is available from Amazon..
3. Pour water into flour mix and begin kneading until all flour is incorporated and forms a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes..
4. Turn out dough onto a flour dusted silicone baking sheet. Punch down and dust with more flour. Form into a loaf then divide into thirds. Roll each into its own ball. Dust the surface again and lightly cover with plastic wrap and let sit at least three hours, overnight is better..
5. Working with one crust at a time, uncover dough ball and cleave off one fourth of ball. Dusting with flour as needed, begin stretching and rolling the cut off portion to form a 1/4 inch x 40 inch rope. This will be the crust edge..
6. Using a floured rolling pin, flipping and dusting as needed, stretch out the dough to form a 14 inch circle. Wet your finger in water and go around the outer edge to begin attaching the dough rope. Fold in outer edge and pinch..
7. Dust a pizza peel with corn meal and transfer completed dough to peel. The corn meal acts as marbles to transfer the completed pizza to the oven. Add pizza sauce leaving the edges un covered. Add toppings then cover with mozzarella slices. Traditional toppings for Quad Cities style pizza are Italian sausage, sliced mushrooms, sliced black olives, diced onions, and chopped bell peppers. I like to add crushed pineapple to add some sweetness. Pepperoni should be placed on top of the cheese..
8. Transfer pizza to a preheated 500 oven and place on pizza stone. Cook time is 5 to 7 minutes..
9. For an added flavor twist, substitute 1 cup apple juice for 1 cup water..

Pizzerias should make the dough from scratch for every ordered pizza. It should never be frozen because that would change the flavor profile of the dish. Quad Cities-style pizza crust is usually hand-tossed and lands at about a quarter-inch thick. So, not what most would consider thin crust, but not a deep dish pizza either. Many say the crust has a "nutty kind of sweetness" or "malty" flavor and is a softer crust overall.

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