This is my mom’s recipe, but it can also be found in the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church’s cookbook. 

I made this last weekend for our freezer cooking session. I doubled the recipe and then divided into 3 8″ layer cake pans.  Perfect size for 2-3 people.  Although when doubling the recipe, you can’t use the bread machine for the crust, so you need to mix the ingredients and knead the dough for about 5-10 minutes (until elastic-y) and then let rise for about an hour and a half.

Here’s the recipe…

Deep Dish Pizza

1 cup beer or water
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp oil
3 cups white flour
1 1/4 tsp yeast
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 tsp Italian Seasoning, or to taste
1 lb. ground beef (I used turkey, as it was on sale)
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup grated parmesan

Add beer or water, salt, sugar, oil, flour, and yeast to bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.  Use the dough cycle to mix the dough. Preheat oven to 425. Grease a 14″ deep dish pizza pan and sprinkle with corn meal. When bread machine cycle is done, remove the dough and pat into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Prick the dough with a fork and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven. Crumble ground beef and cook with onion until meat is browned. Drain excess fat. Put mozzarella cheese and meat mixture on the crust. Combine tomato sauce, tomato paste, and Italian seasoning.  (If you’re freezing, cool the crust well, before filling) Spread over cheese and meat. (Putting the sauce on top of the meat and cheese keeps the cheese from browning too fast or burning.) Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until edges of crust are golden. Vary the seasoning and toppings to suit your taste. Dough may also be used to make two 12″ regular pizzas.