Cream of tartar is a dough conditioner. There is no real need to use it, if you follow a proper recipe.
Again, there is no cornmeal in Chicago deep dish pizza. There is no need to use anything but all-purpose flour.
If you want to duplicate the yellow color of the crust, use food coloring (as the restaurants do).
This is a good recipe (multiply as necessary):
1 cup all-purpose flour
7 Tablespoons water
3-4 Tablespoons oil (Giordano’s uses canola oil; Uno’s and Malnati’s use corn oil; Gino’s east throws some extra virgin olive oil in the mix—it’s probably a combination of this and canola)
1 teaspoon fast-rise yeast (I thuink it’s better to proof it beforehand, even though you don’t need to)
½ teaspoon sugar
¾ teaspoon Kosher salt
Mix for 1 minute; knead for two minutes. Then let rise at room temperature for at least 6 hours (the dough ball will not rise as much as normal dough, due to less yeast distribution and the heavy oil). You can do a longer refrigerator rise, if you like.
After the dough has risen, punch it down and let it rest for 10 minutes. Then you can either roll it out (like Giordano’s—they use a sheeter), or press it into the pan by hand. Then layer in the cheese, toppings, and cover with sauce. You can put on a thin top layer (to make a “stuffed” pizza, if you like—but the sauce goes on last).
Bake at 450 for around 30 minutes (your oven will vary). I like to start mine out on the bottom rack, then move it to the middle rack after half the time. You can par-bake the crust, too, before addign toppings.
For the sauce, use good quality crushed tomatoes (Giordano’s uses 6-in-1) or crush whole peeled canned tomatoes by hand and drain the juice (as Uno’s and Malnati’s does). Add salt, sugar, and spices to your taste.
