Detroit-Style Pizza
Rectangular pan pizza with a thick, crisp, chewy crust, topped with pepperoni
I'm Ella, a London-based food blogger who makes cooking simple and focuses on healthy recipes. I'm passionate about helping others enjoy nutritious meals that are easy and fun to make.
Santa Anna•
April 19, 2025
This Detroit-Style Pepperoni Pizza has a thick, delicious yeasted crust. It’s topped with the perfect amount of sauce, melty cheesy and a blanket of pepperoni cups. And while most recipes require a 24-hour ferment, this recipe takes a fraction of the time! (This recipe is from A Cozy Kitchen)
Each week I’ve been trying to incorporate a fun, new-to-us meal into our routine. Staying at home more means that often times meals can feel monotonous or a bit boring; that’s why pizza night can be a time to have fun and get a little wild!
Enter: this Detroit-Style Pizza recipe. I fell in love with this type of pizza a few years ago when I visited Detroit and New York. It’s so delicious. In New York, you might be familiar with Prince Street Pizza (truly fantastic). In Detroit, there is the famous and delicious Jet's Pizza. Here's what makes up Detroit Style Pizza:
- The iconic thick crust that is thick, chewy and very light. I love absolutely LOVE IT!
- Rectangular and/or square shape. This is usually made in a thin and dark square pan. This shape is very different to the very typical round-shaped pizza.
- I believe that Detroit Style Pizza is inspired by Sicilian pizza and Chicago pizza. It's a bit of a cross between the two, I would say.
Ingredients (10)
Ingredients (10)
Pizza dough
Toppings
Feel free to add any extra toppings (sliced mushrooms, peppers, onion, sausage, etc.)
Instructions
Make pizza dough
In a bowl mix together flour (1 ¼ cups), salt (1 ½ tsp) and instant yeast (1 tsp). 3 in
Pour in the warm water (¾ cup) and 1 tablespoon olive oil and mix again. The dough will be pretty wet and that’s ok!
Knead and mix dough until it becomes cohesive. This is a different type of pizza dough; it will be kinda wet so don't sweat that too much.
Spread the dough in pan
Coat your 9×13-inch baking pan with 1–2 Tbsp olive oil.
the darker the aluminum, the better. This will give you a better crust
While your hands are still oily, transfer the dough to baking pan.
Spread the dough out a little bit by dimpling it with your fingers, and pushing it gently towards the edges of the pan (see photos). Only spread it out ⅓ of the way, then cover the pan with a dish towel or plastic wrap, and let it sit for 15 minutes. Going slowly will ensure the dough doesn’t rip at all.
After 15 minutes, dip your fingers in olive oil and spread the dough another ⅓ of the way. Wait another 15 minutes then repeat once more, dimpling & spreading the dough until it reaches the edges and corners of the pan.
Cover the pan and let it rest for 1 hour (this final rise is required!)
Assemble & bake pizza
Preheat oven to 500 °F
Uncover the pan and spread the pizza sauce (½ cup) (on top, smoothing it out until it reaches the edges (you don't need to leave any bare crust area)
Sprinkle mozzarella (6–8 oz) and cubed provolone (3 oz) (if using) evenly over the top. You really want to put the cheese all the way to the edge of the pan so it gets baked onto the crust, resulting in the BEST tasting crispy, cheesy edges.
Add the pepperoni cups (3 oz) on top. They should be overlapping each other slightly, like a blanket of pepperoni.
Transfer to the oven and bake for 7 minutes.
Rotate the pan 180 degrees, and bake for an additional 7 minutes. Remove from oven when the edges are golden brown and the cheese is all melty and bubbling.
Notes
Notes
If dough is too sticky
If your fingers are sticking to the dough, you can just lightly grease them with some olive oil.
Special pan
A lot of Detroit-Style Pizzas are made in a special pan. I didn’t buy a special pan but I do think that a dark-colored 9x13-inch baking pan works better than a lighter colored. I linked to a dark 9x13-inch pan. Glass baking dishes *WILL NOT* work for this recipe. They don't conduct enough heat fast enough and hot enough to cook the crust properly.
Cheese
I used cubed aged provolone that I found at my local Italian market, but if you can’t find, no worries, just replace it with more mozzarella, or experiment with other kinds of cheeses.
Pepperoni
For pepperoni cups, you want pepperoni that's sliced on the thicker side. My friend Billy suggests the pepperoni from the 365 Whole Foods Brand. For this recipe, I used the Hormel Pepperoni Cups. I found them at my local grocery store. I thought they were wonderful.
Pizza Sauce
Any kind of pizza sauce, or even some tasty pasta sauce, should work fine.
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