I’m still out here, traveling around, trying to find the best food that I can reverse engineer and share with you. This recipe for Incredible Vegan Detroit Style Focaccia Pizza is inspired by a restaurant I tried in San Francisco called Joyride Pizza. They specialize in focaccia crust, Detroit-style pizza, and it’s to die for! 

I’ve come up with a really quick and easy focaccia dough that just takes about 2 hours to go from raw ingredients to a bubbly dough that’s ready to be buried by your favorite pizza toppings. 

The recipe below makes one, 9 inch round (or 8 inch square) pizza, but it can be doubled or tripled if you’re trying to feed a crowd, or if you’re just like me and like having cold pizza hanging out in the fridge.

Incredible Vegan Detroit Style Focaccia Pizza

Print

Vegan Detroit Style Focaccia Pizza (Joyride Pizza Inspired)

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Dough Rise Time

2 hrs

Total Time

2 hrs 30 mins

 

The best vegan pizza I've every had! If you like deep-dish, crispy-edged pizza, then this is the one for you. Homemade dough is ready to bake in around 2 hours!

Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: American, Italian, pizza

Servings: 4 servings

Author: Michael Monson

Ingredients

For the dough:

• ¾ cup lukewarm water
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons sugar or agave
• 1 ½ cups bread flour*

Toppings:

• 1 Beyond Hot Italian Sausage
• 2 to 3 mini orange, yellow, or red sweet peppers, thinly sliced
• 1 cup (or more) shredded vegan Colby or Mexican-style cheese blend
• ¼ cup sliced red onion
• 10 leaves fresh basil
• Vegan parmesan cheese (Violife block preferred)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons Hot Agave (recipe below)

Instructions

To prepare the dough:

1. In a medium-sized bowl that you can cover, combine water, 2 tablespoons olive oil, yeast, salt, and sugar. Stir in flour with a wooden spoon and mix for 1 minute until fully combined. Cover, and let rest for 1 to 2 hours at room temperature. If you are making this a day ahead, place it in the fridge.
2. Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the cake pan before transferring the dough. Flip the dough once so that it is covered in olive oil, and then use your fingertips to stretch the dough to the edge of the pan. If it just won’t go, then let the dough rest for about 10 minutes and try again.
3. Cover the pan with a plate or clean towel, and allow the dough to rise for 1to 1 ½ hours. When it’s inflated a bit and there are visible bubbles you’re ready to go.

To prepare the toppings:

1. Crumble and brown the Beyond sausage in a pan and set aside. Slice the onions into thin slivers, and thinly slice the peppers. Stack the basil leaves, roll them up together, and then thinly slice the roll to create julienned ribbons.

To make the pizza:

1. Preheat the oven to 500 F. (as hot as your oven will go, between 450 F. and 525 F.)
2. Cover the surface of the dough with vegan cheese, making sure to pile it on around the edges. Top with cooked sausage, sliced peppers, and red onion.
3. Bake at 500 F. for 10 to 15 minutes (higher or lower temperatures will affect the cooking time), until the center is cooked, and the edges are browned and have pulled away from the sides of the pan. Run a silicone spatula or knife around the pan to make sure the pizza can be removed easily – if the pizza will turn in the pan, it will come out. Transfer the pizza to a cutting board, top with fresh basil, vegan parm, and a drizzle of hot agave. Slice, and serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

*All purpose flour will work, but the texture and rise won’t quite be there. But it’ll still be delicious.