Copycat Garcia’s Gutbuster Pizza

This Chicago Stuffed-style pizza saw me through University in Champaign, Illinois back in the 1990s. This is my latest attempt to recreate its signature crust and sauce. From my memory, this is pretty close. If you know any step I’m missing, please comment below.

Special thanks to Gemini AI for helping me solve a few key areas that were giving me trouble.

Prep:
You’re going to be making the dough a day ahead of time. You’ll also need to pre-cook your Italian sausages before filling the pizza with them.

Dough (wet mix):
125g warm water (about 90-96F)
15g sugar
2.5g Instant Dry Yeast (about 2/3 tsp)
Whisk those together and let them sit for 5 min

Dough (dry mix):
215g flour
15g sugar
3g salt
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Whisk those together and drop them into a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment

Dough Prep:
Get 58 g of vegetable oil ready before starting to pour the wet mix into the stand mixer. Put the mixer on the lowest setting and then drizzle in the wet mix slowly until the dough starts to form and looks quite raggedy. Then drizzle in the oil. Set the machine up one level speed higher and mix about 60-90 seconds until the oil is incorporated and the dough looks uniform.

Take out the dough, put it into a bowl and cover with cling film and put it into the fridge for 24 hours.

Next Day:

Take out the dough 4 hours before you’re aiming to cook it. This lets it rise up a bit more.

Sauce:

400 g can of crushed tomatoes (drained of as much moisture as possible)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp chili flakes (optional)

Pizza Stuffings:
mozzarella slices (key for shoring up the crust)
shredded mozzarella and cheddar
any ingredients you want to put in. If you use pepperoni, you can layer it on top of the cheese layers to help keep the pizza shape later

Prep:
make a 2 inch wide tin foil halo that will rest around the outside of your dough midway through the cook (see video)
coat a 7-inch wide, 2.5/3 inch deep stuffed pizza pan with butter and then dust with corn meal or polenta
Preheat oven to 230C /445F with the lowest rack set up

Assemble:
Cut the dough into 2/3rd and 1/3rd balls
Drop 2/3rds of the dough into the pan directly and stretch it out with your hands pushing it into the corners and up the walls of the pan
Tear off parts of the mozzarella slices and use those to create an inner layer on top of the dough, which helps keeps the dough pressed up the sizes of the pan
layer in pepperoni and then the other stuffing ingredients
top with shredded cheese and then another layer of pepperoni
there should be a slight mound in the center as the cheese and stuffings will settle during cooking

coat a surface with flour and roll out thin the remaining 1/3rd dough until it forms a pizza crust that you and drape over your pan
crimp the edges together of the two crusts
use a sharp knife and cut an X in the center to let steam out
top with your sauce

Baking (230C /445F)
put the pan in the middle of the lowest rack and cook for 15 minutes
at 15 minutes, put the foil halo over the crust to protect it from burning
return to over for 12-15 minutes or until the center reads 165F in a temperature probe

Resting
let the pizza set a minimum of 15-20 minutes before cutting in or the cheese will just slide out.
run butter knife down the sides of pan to make sure the dough feels unstuck to the sides
remove from pan (either by flipping gently onto a plate or cutting board)
when cool to the touch, slice it and enjoy.