Grandma Pie, and eating in cars with Allee Richards

Talking regional Australian foods with Melbourne's most exciting author!!!!

This month in the The Interviews I speak to Australian author Allee Richards. Allee’s new book, A Light in the Dark, was published in Australia this week (out in the UK in February 2024!) and it is EXCELLENT. I spoke to Allee about pancakes, Aussie pies, and Matt Preston. Our recipe this week is a dish I will be calling Grandma Pie despite not being a grandma, and I’m offering two versions of the dough for both the speedy dinner and the sourdough heads…

It’s a truly criminal state of affairs that so few of the great Australian writers get a look in in the Northern Hemisphere. I think UK media have historically been extremely snobby towards Australian art, and I hope that changes, because we are all missing out big time. There is more to Aussie culture than Traitors and MAFS okay!! The good thing is you can buy Allee Richard’s phenomenal first book Small Joys of Real Life in UK bookshops, and I highly recommend that you do. I think it will blow your socks off.

This week’s recipe has its connections to Allee, because I first ate a square, Grandma Pie in her company at Capitano in Carlton, Melbourne, whose concoctions always make me go “wow”. I’ve been interested in Detroit Style pizza for a very long time, probably since the first slice was presented to me on a dreaded Instagram explore tab some years ago. And yet, it took until now for me to attempt something approaching one.

The thing I think is so successful about square pizza is the fact it doesn’t have the traditional crust. Instead, because you’re baking it in a roasting tin, you can spread your sauce and toppings right to the edge, making every bite count. Everyone knows the first, corner bite of a slice of pizza is the best bit, and with square pizza, you get four of those corners. It’s fantastic! In this country, our experience of square pizza is mainly at secondary school canteens (fab), or Gregg’s (ever popular), and in both of those settings, too, the right-angles are part of the charm.

I made this recipe with the sourdough base last weekend, and I kept calling it “Grandma Pie”. My boyfriend Charles told me to “stop trying to make Grandma Pie happen”, but I’m afraid I declare Grandma Pie well and truly coined. I present you with a recipe to prove it. The internet tells me that Grandma Pizza got its name in the States because it was the type of pizza that could be made in a home oven (rather than a big wood-fired pizza oven). I can believe it, and was happy to discover this shape bakes very well – it doesn’t dry out like a traditional flatter, round pizza does when baked in a conventional oven. This stays spongey inside and crisp at the edge, and really one large slice of it will do for a meal, which is why I think calling it a PIE is totally adequate. I like to try to emulate the Detroit Style pizza’s cheesy crust with little shavings of Cheddar cheese all around the edges.

This week I tested the recipe again with a speedy dough, made with dry instant yeast which can be ready in just over an hour.