Iced Brown Sugar Vanilla Latte

1. Add 1.5 tablespoons of brown sugar
2. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla syrup
3. Add 1 shot of espresso
4. Froth it with a frothed for 30 seconds
5. Add five ice cubes
6. Add ½ cup milk
7. Enjoy the mix of coffee and brown sugar

• 2 20oz oven safe bowls
• 1 lb bag of premade pizza dough from the supermarket
• 10 slices of mozzarella cheese
• 24oz jar of bolognese style pasta meat sauce
• 8 white button mushrooms
• 10 pepperonis

1. Remove the pizza dough from the refrigerator and let it get up to room temperature and rise a little bit.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Split the dough into two sections.
4. Roll out the dough to the a size where it drapes over the side of the bowl and kind of wraps around (it will probably be a little thick).
5. Set the dough aside.
6. Grease the inside of a bowl using butter, olive oil or cooking spray so the cheese won’t stick to the bottom of the bowl.
7. Line the bowl with the slices of cheese. They should overlap to prevent gaps and should also cover the entire bottom of the bowl.
8. Add 4 of the mushrooms into the bowl on top of the cheese.
9. Place 5 pepperonis into the bowl in between and on top of the mushrooms.
10. Pour the meat sauce into the bowl (I used a little less than half of the container for each bowl).
11. Lay the pizza dough over the top of the bowl so it drapes over the edge almost to the counter.
12. Grease the outside of the bowl with butter, olive oil or cooking spray so the dough won’t stick to the bowl.
13. Press the dough against the sides of the bowl to form a nice sealed package.
14. Repeat for the second pie.
15. Place both bowls on a baking sheet in case there is spillage.
16. Put the baking sheet with the pies in the oven for 35 minutes.
17. Remove from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes.
18. Using pot holders or oven mitts place transfer the bowl to a plate.
19. Hold a large spoon between plate and the bowl and with an oven mitt on top flip the bowl over.
20. Use the spoon to separate the dough from the sides of the bowl and remove the bowl.
21. Scoop any extra cheese out of the bowl into the pie

I am a huge fan of pizza, while it may not be my all time favorite, deep dish pizza is definitely in my top 3. A few years ago I decided to take the plunge and attempted to make a deep dish pizza. I found this recipe, Giordano’s Famous Stuffed Deep Dish Pizza - The Food Hacker and bought all of the necessary ingredients. I really liked how the author made several attempts in order to get it as close to the original Giordano’s pizza as possible.

On my first attempt I really leaned into the recommendation to use fresh mozzarella and paid the price. Even though everything was going as planned from the outside, the inside was a mess because the fresh cheese was too wet. I took the pizza pan out of the oven and immediately spilled hot water onto the countertop. After slicing it up I found that the crust was soggy and while I was able to nibble on parts of it, most of it ended up in the garbage.

The second attempt went much better because I used shredded mozzarella cheese that was still fresh, but not quite as fresh. The crust stayed crispy and the middle of the pizza wasn’t water logged this time. The only downside of the recipe is you really have to plan ahead since it is recommended to let the dough rise in the refrigerator for one to two days. I think next time I will give the Official Giordano’s recipe a try because it doesn’t require the extra day.