Pepperoni Deep Dish Pizza Recipe with Mission Fig + Olive

Skip takeout—you can count on our fig deep dish pizza recipe to deliver! Using deep dish pizza pans gives the crunchiest crust and makes the pizza easy to shape and bake. Salty pepperoni is a perfect partner to naturally sweet figs and briny olives. This is a pizza the whole family will love.

The Figs Make this Fig Deep Dish Pizza

Our Orchard Choice or Sun-Maid California Dried Mission Figs are our pick for the topping. Their jammy deep flavor melds with black olives and holds its own along the bold flavor of pepperoni. We pulse the mission figs with the olives for maximum mixing that results in a relish to dollop on the mozzarella layer with pepperoni slices to cover the fig olive layer. Finally, a quick stir-and-use pizza sauce is spooned on top with a final flourish of Parmesan.

Tips on Working with Yeast

If you’re not sure about working with yeast and the idea of proofing dough makes you nervous, we’ve got your back and it’s why we use Red Star Yeast Platinum Instant Yeast, to ensure ease and success every time. There’s no need to kickstart the yeast on its own. Instead, the yeast gets mixed into the dough and you get started right away.

For this recipe, it involves a small step of mixing the dough the night before you want to eat it—this is an optional step that involves chilling the dough overnight to deepen the flavors of the dough and allow it to proof more slowly. The next day, you pull out the covered bowl and allow it to warm up on your counter and double in size. Then, punch it, cover it and let it proof once more until doubled in size.

A few things to note when working with yeasted dough: the times provided for proofing are more guidelines. Rely on your eyes—you will want the dough to double in size. A few factors can impact how quickly or slowly that happens, notably the temperature of your kitchen. In the summertime, proofing might be faster because your kitchen is hotter. During the winter when the kitchen is colder, the process will take longer. So, here are three hacks to try: place the covered proofing bowl into an oven that is not turned on and turn on the oven light. Another idea is to microwave a mug of water until steaming; turn off the microwave, and then place the covered proofing bowl in the turned off microwave with the steaming mug. Finally, if you have an Instant Pot, place the dough into the receptacle, seal and set on the Yogurt setting. For each of these hacks check the dough after 1 hour.

Deep Dish Pizza Pans and Tips for a Crunchy Crust

Making the crust for the pizza is a bit like a focaccia. Giving the dough plenty of time to rest means it will be pliable to work into the corners of the pizza pan. Melted butter is the first step here—it helps “fry” the bottom of the dough and yields the buttery crunchy crust that deep dish pizza is known for. Another addition here is working cornmeal into the dough that adds a bit of texture. But the key to pizza success is baking it in a dish that conducts high heat evenly, which is why we love these deep dish pizza pans from our friends at Emile Henry.