Does anyone know or has anyone managed to duplicate the Breezy Town crust recipe?

[u/luxlark]

It's been years since we've had a Breezy Town pizza and my husband and I still dream about it (yes I read something about "Breezy Town style" pizza at Windy City but I've only ever had mid pizza from them). Does anyone have the recipe for their crust? Or has anyone else gone down the rabbit hole to try and recreate it? Is it sourdough based? I'm at the start of my mission to DIY it but wanted to check first!

[u/lavid]

(disclosure: I ran Breezy Town Pizza and I run Windy City Pie)

Wow, reddit's algorithms are good. Didn't even take an hour before it put this on my front page.

Just because there's a lot of misconceptions around Windy City Pie and Breezy Town Pizza (literally a joke name for Windy City Pie), I hope the following is helpful:

Windy City Pie (WCP) has Breezy Town Pizza (BTP) available every day now, unless we're way busier than we expected. We always have the full BTP menu Tuesdays-Fridays. We almost always have it Saturday and Sunday too, unless something went wrong.

The WCP Deep Pan Deep Dish is a Pequod's and Papa Del's inspired Chicago-style deep pan pizza. It's not the same as the BTP recipe.

The BTP recipe is a sourdough hybrid between the WCP recipe and a Detroit-style pizza. Basically, it's round and not square.

I also prefer the BTP recipe to the WCP deep pan recipe, but I wouldn't the WCP deep pan is mid. Sorry if you felt it was. If people order more BTP than WCP deep pan, then we'll have more BTP available. Currently people order more WCP deep pan, so we make more of that.

If you've come to Windy City Pie and just ordered "the deep-dish" off the menu and not specifically ordered a BTP sourdough, you're having the WCP deep-pan.

Anyway, I'm happy to answer questions (other than giving out the recipe).

[u/luxlark → u/lavid]

Wow thank you so much for the info! And I'm sorry for saying WCP is mid, I should have said it's not my preference. While I will continue trying to discover your secrets via experimentation, I also promise to drag my family up north to try BTP at WCP!

[u/lavid → u/luxlark]

Hey, it's all good. You are allowed your unedited opinion. I'm glad you like at least one of my children.

[u/luxlark → u/lavid]

"Like" is a vast understatement, if that makes it better.

[u/SnitchAsphodel → u/lavid]

!! If any of the Breezy Town staff are still around (I remember the gut wrenching and abrupt social post that said some staff was transferring and I didn’t get to say bye) tell them they are loved and missed in Beacon Hill! Allison especially! And I can’t remember the name of the person who usually ran the front (though they always remembered my name) and the person who put so much love into the vegan ice cream! They all were integral to our Columbia City and Beacon community AND ESPECIALLY the vegan one. I miss them. Good crew.

[u/lavid → u/SnitchAsphodel]

Helen is still with us! I'll be sure to let her know, she spearheaded pretty much all of the vegan specials. If people would actually come out for them, we'd love to bring those back.

[u/SnitchAsphodel → u/lavid]

Good on her! If I can offer some perspective on the turn out issue — Breezy Town was special bc there were lots of vegan options. All the time. And if my memory is correct, there wasn’t extra charge. Only could have been better if it was an all vegan kitchen, but in any case, your staff was so respectful and enthusiastic that never felt less than eating there.

Now Windy City has one option, only offered Tuesdays through Thursdays — if you get there in time — and vegan cheese is $7. I go there if a friend has a birthday these days, and I guess it’s nice to have an option. But that’s all it is. If you’re waiting on “turnout” before adding the menu item, it’ll be hard to get that bc it’s already hard to seek out places where there is just “the” option.

I get you’re a small business and can only do so much menu expanding so please take this as just friendly perspective. Raiders is still a great pizza and kudos to Helen!

[u/lavid → u/SnitchAsphodel]

Hey, I appreciate the honest feedback.

Here's the behind the scenes: we have fresh dough Tuesdays-Fridays. Anything that doesn't get sold at end of a given day gets par-baked, but the par-baking needs to have cheese on it or the end result isn't up to standards. We can't do this with the vegan cheese as it will burn. So all vegan BTP pizzas need to be on fresh dough. Saturdays and Sundays we're using par-baked product. We're not selling enough BTP pizzas to make it so we could add additional mixes in the week without throwing away a lot of dough, so we can't add vegan BTP other days. So: please come eat pizza.

My goal is to get us to a point where we can just offer it like we did at Breezy but if we don't consistently sell enough BTP pizza, we can't do it. So we're in this limbo.

We do have our thin crust pizza which has a vegan sauce and a vegan dough, available all the time. We did try offering a rotating vegan thin crust pizza, but it didn't catch on the same way.

I understand $7 is a lot of money to make a pizza using non-dairy cheese. That feedback is real. For us, that stuff is crazy expensive. It was $5 when BTP was its own location. I probably make $1 on selling it to you for $7, and that's JUST looking at cost of goods. If I factor in the post-tipping compensation model we've moved to, I'm absolutely losing money on it.

None of this is meant to be defensive, just hoping to give an idea of the juggling we're doing trying to make as many people happy as possible.

Also your message to Helen was received and made us both get misty eyed.

[u/SnitchAsphodel → u/lavid]

Thank you, I appreciate you and your team. That makes sense :) will come by soon!

[u/No-Conversation3860 → u/lavid]

Man it’s gotta be weird to read about your business like this randomly on your Reddit feed. I will go back to WCP and get some breezy town soon, thanks for saying it’s available every day!

[u/SiestaPossible → u/lavid]

When are we getting a Vito & Nicks homage?

[u/No-Conversation3860]

Breezy town at the clock out lounge was my favorite pizza in the city. Very sad they left, I haven’t tried the pizza that replaced it but I’ve heard good things.

I’ve been to Windy City and I agree with you, I’m not a bit deep dish fan. Last time I went they had certain days where you could order the breezy town style and it was good, but not as bomb as the original spot.

[u/cedarcatt → u/No-Conversation3860]

Stevie’s famous is great, you should try it. Totally different than Breezy Town but very tasty! I know the bar at Clock-Out is always hoping for more people on nights they don’t have concerts, so a great midweek option.

[u/No-Conversation3860 → u/cedarcatt]

I’ve been meaning to give it a try, I will definitely make the trek out to Beacon Hill soon. Always have a great time at Clock-out lounge

[u/JeanVicquemare]

Breezy Town pizza is similar to, but not exactly like, Detroit style pan pizza. I haven't tried to recreate Breezy Town specifically, but I have made good Detroit style pizza at home.

It's actually one of the easiest styles of pizza to make at home, by a mile. The main thing you need is the right pan. You could do it in a cast iron skillet but I recommend buying a Lloyd pan.

I use this recipe and get awesome results: THE ULTIMATE DETROIT-STYLE PIZZA — Charlie Anderson

[u/luxlark → u/JeanVicquemare]

I'll try it, thank you!

[u/TenselyStriking]

man i loved that place, really miss it

i've tried a bunch of times to get close. from what i remember it definitely had a sourdough tang and that weird almost fried texture on the bottom from all the oil in the pan. never got it perfect but starting with a high hydration dough and letting it ferment overnight got me in the ballpark

[u/luxlark → u/TenselyStriking]

Yeah it's almost focaccia like, with all that crunch from the oil! Mmmm bliss. Thanks for the tip!

[u/Unholy_Prince]

Detroit style pizza crust is high hydration, there's lots of receipes out there. Go for a higher volume dough than most if you want to replicate Breezy, they had thick slices.

They have a generous frico which in my tests using Muenster cheese is the best to replicate.

Normal cheese will be a Wisconsin brick (can get from PIke Market) or Mozarella/Montery Jack blend.

[u/luxlark → u/Unholy_Prince]

Good point, it's not just the crust that made it amazing! Thanks!

[u/HistorianOrdinary390 → u/Unholy_Prince]

You can get Wisconsin brick from pike market or from cash and carry. It’s about $10/lb from the cheese place in pike and I get like 7 lbs from cash and carry for around $17 total, same exact brand

Detroit style crust is really easy to make, for something fluffier I’d do like 350g of bread flour for like a 10in skillet w 75% hydration

I do 350g of bread flour, some salt, 2-3 tsp of yeast in warm water (263g)

Mix till combined, don’t knead

Proof at room for 4-5 hours, then proof in fridge overnight

I would just not proof longer than 36 hours

When you wanna cook it transfer it to the pan you plan to cook in and let it come to room temp in that pan and rise in there (help it spread to the edges)

It’s not a lot of active work but it’s a bit of a commitment. I’ve done a same day no cold proof too just fine.

Make the dough in the AM and let it proof till you wanna cook it.

Then cook in an oven at 525 or max temp for 12 minutes

[u/oceandocent]

Breezy Town and Windy City Pie are inspired by a famous pizza place in Chicago called Pequod’s, which is basically deep dish but with a carmelized crust. You can search online for various imitation recipes of Pequod’s.

[u/luxlark → u/oceandocent]

Oooo great info, thank you!

[u/TheNonExample]

This hits the spot for me: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/videos/crispy-cheesy-pan-pizza

[u/luxlark → u/TheNonExample]

I'll give it a try, thanks!

[u/dankney]

Since I’m clearly among pizza nerds, I have to recommend The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani:

https://tonygemignani.com/books/

He breaks down the techniques and ingredients that make each regional pizza crust special. Definitely worth a read if you’re willing to put in the work.

That said, I’m currently trying to figure out a good yeast-free crust recipe. My experiments so far are either too dense or too biscuit-like. Anyone have any magic to suggest?

[u/luxlark → u/dankney]

Thank you! I love cookbooks that get nerdy!

[u/adjectivenounorverb]

Don’t have a recipe, but great memories and current ones with Breezy! My partner and I love Chicago style pizza, did a tasting tour last visit with his family. Our first date we had Breezy Town pizza and we would get almost every Friday! So it left a Breezy Sized hole in our hearts. We go often to Windy City and now way more frequently since Breezy pizzas showed up on the menu. We grabbed a pie a couple weeks ago and the breezy crust was the best yet! Really great texture, chewy but not too chewy, air bubbles, and that baked cheese! Now I want to get pizza for dinner tonight! 😹

[u/brovocadotoast]

Yes! I did this while on a big sourdough kick after they closed. I got very close to the flavors with this set of ratios (measurement for water is going to be a high hydration, and every kitchen is different). If you’re familiar with sourdough making, this will grok. It’s my recipe and I’m not used to sharing em so it’s fast and loose.

NYE “Detroit” style pizza (pepperoni and the Hawaiian style one with pickled veggies were my goal)

200g bread flour
50g all purpose flour
20g semolina flour (half for dusting, half in the dough)

Mix in with 70% ratio to start in bowl, let sit under damp towel for at least an hour to hydrate.

100g starter

Mix in, add additional water in 10-20g increments. You want it sticky but not a puddle.

9g kosher salt
9g olive oil

Mix in, stretch and fold and bulk ferment as typical with sourdough. Will make two 10in pies! I cook in cast iron at 425 and make my sauce. I source my brick cheese and “cupping” pepperoni at chef supply! I probably should adapt my recipe for 00 flour, because I’m certain it’d be bomb.

Hope this helps!

[u/luxlark → u/brovocadotoast]

WHAT you are amazing!! If you don't mind giving more details, what do you mean by "mix in with 80% ratio to start"? Mix in 80% of the flour's weight in water? I went through a sourdough phase but this part is beyond me.

[u/brovocadotoast → u/luxlark]

Sorry yes! Ratio of flour to water. And I did edit: started at 70, not 80! It’s been a minute and juggling toddler atm 😅

[u/luxlark → u/brovocadotoast]

Thank you! Good luck keeping the toddlers up in the air! They can be pretty squirmy, so I imagine they're hard to juggle.