Two distinct pepperoni styles – big flat disks and small cup-and-char circles – top this crispy-edged, Detroit-style pizza. Even better when dipped in ranch, each square of this pan pizza is fluffy, cheesy and topped with deliciously greasy pepperoni.

If you don’t think you know what a cup-and-char pepperoni is, you’ve probably seen them on your Instagram feed. Small – about the size of a quarter – and thick, they curl up when cooked and collect a small pool of glistening grease inside of them. As pizza blogger Adam Kuban says, when you see them on a slice, it’s like “pepperoni in 3-D.” 

These kinds of pepperoni have a natural casing and have been around for a long time – in fact, every pepperoni used to be cup-and-char. But in the middle of the 20th century, manufacturers looking for cheaper, faster ways to do things created casings removed before cooking and the pepperonis flattened out.

When we were creating our version of an overloaded pepperoni pizza, we knew we wanted contrast and texture, so we opted for a combination of both cup-and-char and flat pepperoni. Large slices of pepperoni from the deli lie under the racing stripes of sauce, while cup-and-char top the sauce so they can curl and shine. The sturdy Detroit-style dough underneath ensures that the pizza won’t collapse under the weight of all of those toppings, and mozzarella placed carefully around the edges creates a crown of caramelized cheese that holds in each of those luxurious pepperoni pools.