Chicago pizza puff — a deep-fried, sealed pizza turnover

Dough spec

Flour

All-purpose flour

Hydration

55%

Salt

1.8%

Scale this guide

Use the dough calculator with this hydration/salt and a 90g portion weight for any number of puffs — the calculator scales flour, water, and salt together; each portion becomes one filled, fried puff. Open the full dough calculator for more control, or the fermentation schedule builder to work backwards from a target bake time using this guide’s same day direct approach.

Related techniques

Steps

1. MixMachine-mix flour, water, and salt to a thin, workable wrapper dough, closer to a tortilla or fried-turnover dough than a leavened pizza dough — minimal gluten development is needed.
2. Divide and ballDivide into roughly 90g portions and rest briefly, covered, for 10-15 minutes to relax before rolling.
3. ShapeRoll each portion thin and even with a rolling pin into a round or oval wrapper, thinner than any hand-stretched dough in this catalogue.
4. TopSpoon tomato sauce, mozzarella, and cooked sausage or pepperoni onto one half of the wrapper, leaving a clear border for sealing.
5. TopFold the wrapper over the filling and crimp or press the edge firmly closed all the way around — a fully sealed edge is essential, since this is deep-fried whole rather than baked open-topped.
6. BakeDeep-fry at around 175-190C for 4-7 minutes, turning once, until deeply golden and crisp. This replaces baking entirely, the same as this catalogue's pizza fritta guide.
7. RestDrain briefly on a rack — the filling stays very hot for a few minutes after frying.
8. ServeServe whole, handheld, wrapped in paper — traditionally sold this way at Chicago hot-dog stands rather than pizzerias.

Bake notes

A poorly sealed edge is this guide's single most common failure point — press and crimp firmly, since a burst seam during frying both loses filling and can spatter hot oil.