04/17/2026
I’ve been quiet this week regarding Redemption Deep Dish because I realized late last week that I needed a serious revision to my dough recipe and pizza process. There were always some inconsistencies in our pizzas that bothered me, but because we were always working around our barbecue operation in a small kitchen, we did the best we could. Honestly, I’m surprised we were able to produce as good a product as we did under the circumstances.
To make a long story short, I took the comparison between Chicago deep dish and biscuits a little too literally. It turns out that my initial formulation was way too wet and the excessive hydration was causing all sorts of problems. Chalk it up to my inexperience as a baker.
After a week of research and recipe testing—and “forcing” my family to eat pizza every night—I think I have it figured out to my liking. I’m still experimenting with two different fat profiles: 100% olive oil and a blend of olive oil and butter. (I don’t really like the taste of the corn oil that is popular in Chicago, and my intent is to avoid seed oils anyway.) Both are delicious, and I may end up offering both as options.
Due to all the testing, I won’t have as many pizzas available this week as I had hoped, but the shop will be open tomorrow between 9:00 AM and noon to pick up frozen pizzas. Because the inventory is limited, I strongly suggest placing your order online so you don’t show up only to discover we are sold out. I’m still working on a new website, so I’ll post the online ordering link in the comments.
I have had to make some price increases. Dairy prices are on the rise and I’m trying to better account for my meat and packaging costs. Our prices are still comparable to similar pizzas in Chicago, with much better ingredients, and significantly less expensive than having a frozen pizza shipped from Chicago.
Speaking of dairy, back when I switched to Grande cheese, several people asked if we could sell it. We weren’t set up to slice it to order then, and I’m still not able to do that. But I do now have a good supply of pre-sliced Grande mozzarella that I’d be happy to sell for use at home. This really is the best mozzarella I’ve ever had.