September 21, 2026 · detroit

Detroit-Style Pizza (Crispy Frico Edge)

Name: Detroit-Style Pizza (Crispy Frico Edge)
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 4 h 40 min
Yield: 1 ten-by-fourteen pan (8 squares)
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 350 g bread flour; 260 g warm water (74% hydration — wet and sticky is correct); 7 g fine sea salt; 5 g instant yeast; Olive oil for the pan; 300 g brick cheese, cubed (or half low-moisture mozzarella, half Monterey Jack — the honest substitute); 1.5 cups crushed tomatoes simmered 10 minutes with 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt

Regional guide — we haven't cooked this one yet

The deep, airy, square pan pizza with caramelized cheese walls and sauce on top — the style that took over America, done in a home oven.

Prep: 25 min
Cook: 15 min
Total: 4 hr 40 min
Rest / Ferment: 4 hr
Servings: 1 ten-by-fourteen pan (8 squares)

Not a New England style — but it’s the pan pizza that conquered the country over the last decade, and once you’ve mastered the beach and bar pizzas, the Detroit pan is the natural next flex. Airy like focaccia inside, walled with caramelized cheese, sauce laid on top in stripes like it’s showing off. Because it is.

This is written for a kitchen oven — we haven’t tried it in the Ninja Woodfire.

Ingredients

350 g bread flour
260 g warm water (74% hydration — wet and sticky is correct)
7 g fine sea salt
5 g instant yeast
Olive oil for the pan
300 g brick cheese, cubed (or half low-moisture mozzarella, half Monterey Jack — the honest substitute)
1.5 cups crushed tomatoes simmered 10 minutes with 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Mix a wet dough

Stir everything together — too wet to knead traditionally, so do 3 rounds of folds in the bowl, 15 minutes apart. Rise 1 hour.
Proof in the pan

Oil the Detroit pan well, press the dough toward the corners (rest and re-press if it resists), and proof 2–3 hours until light and bubbly. The long pan proof is the airy crumb.
Cheese to the walls

Cubed cheese scattered edge to edge, deliberately touching the pan walls all the way around. That cheese-on-steel contact becomes the frico crown.
Sauce ON TOP, in stripes

Two or three ladled stripes of the cooked sauce over the cheese — 'racing stripes.' Sauce on top keeps the crumb light.
Bake hot and low

Bake in your kitchen oven at 500°F on the lowest rack, 13–15 minutes, until the edges are deep mahogany. Run a knife around the frico immediately and lift the whole pie out to a rack so the bottom stays crisp.

Ingredients

Instructions

Get the Ninja Woodfire Quick-Start Guide