Thin Pizza Crust for the Masses

Tools:
mixing bowls
spoon
15″ wide parchment paper
plastic wrap
rolling pin or large smooth-sided glass/jar

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast (not RapidRise, just regular instant)
1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup hot water (about 110 degrees F, if you have a thermometer — just not burning hot)
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (olive oil works best)

Instructions:
Mix the first three ingredients in a bowl. Mix the next three ingredients in a large measuring cup or small bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until it pulls together into a ball of dough.

Flour your work surface lightly. Knead and fold the dough ball just a few times, adding light dusting of flour each time. The dough should still feel somewhat sticky to the hands, but not gooey. You do not want it to be dry. In other words, it should still stick to things a bit. I know, that’s not a terribly helpful description, but it’s the best I can come up with.

Form the dough into a small ball, set aside and let it rest for about five minutes. Turn your oven on to preheat to 480-500 degrees.

Cut off a square of parchment paper (at least 15″ wide on all sides) and place it on your large flat work surface. Take the ball of dough, place it in the middle of the square, and begin pressing it to flatten it into a circle. Cut strips of plastic wrap to cover the dough. Unless you have wide plastic wrap, it will take two strips.

Grab your rolling pin or glass/jar and roll the dough out as thin as it will go. Mine usually ends up being about 1/4 inch thick, give or take, and about 12″ in diameter, also give or take a bit. Pull off the plastic wrap. Pour a small amount of olive oil on the dough and spread to the edges. Your hand will work best for this. It shouldn’t look oily, so if you get a bit too much on, just lay a paper towel on it to pick up the excess.

All that’s left now is putting on the toppings!

I use about two tablespoons of canned tomato sauce, right out of the can. You could use a little more, but you don’t want to put on too much. The crust is really thin, and too much sauce can, and will, either make it soupy or run off the edges. Then just put on whatever you want! I like using large chunks of veggies rather than small slices or bits, because it seems to allow the crust to get more crispy, but you really can do it any way you like. On a crust like this though, fewer toppings are better. My favorite is black olives, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and grape tomatoes (both quartered and well-drained), pepperoni, and a load of different cheeses.

By the time you have gotten your ingredients on, the oven should have reached 480-500 degrees (if yours is slow to preheat, you may want to get it started earlier in the process). I bake all my pizzas directly on a 13″ pizza stone on the center shelf of my oven. If you don’t have an oven stone, this pizza can be just as easily slid onto a pizza pan or large flat cookie sheet that has been preheated in the oven. Whatever you are going to put it on, it needs to be as hot as the oven in order to achieve crisp perfection. It’s still a great pizza, even if it doesn’t get totally crispy, but I like my crust to be crisp!

Grabbing the edge of the parchment paper, slide the ready to bake pizza onto a large plate, cookie sheet, pizza peel, or whatever you happen to have that won’t melt if it touches a hot oven shelf. I use a large wooden cutting board. Open the oven, and wearing the best damn oven mitts you can afford, pull out the shelf upon which you have the hot “thing” you will be baking the pizza on and very carefully slide the pizza, on the paper, onto the “thing” for baking. Slide everything back into place, close the door, and set the timer for 10 minutes.

At this point, I would just like to stress to be very careful when working with that hot oven. It’s set at a temperature that most home cooks tend not to ever use, and any burn you get will be bad instantaneously. I have destroyed all my oven mitts making these pizzas. It will eat through just about anything and fast. Silicon mitts are the way to go, but since I don’t have any yet, I have been using the handle of my rolling pin to move the shelf in and out. Tongs would work as well. Just BE CAREFUL!

When the timer dings, check the pizza. If the edges of the dough are browned and the cheese has a good burn started, take it out. If not, hover and leave it in for another minute or two, checking often. Once it’s done, once again being very careful and using tongs or some other heat-proof instrument, slide the pizza off whatever you were baking it on and set it on a heat-proof counter or cooling rack. I put mine back on my wooden cutting board, and that works well for me.

Ignore it for 5-10 minutes. It’s far to hot to eat, and it will bake a bit more while sitting. Then … slice it and enjoy!

If I have my toppings pre-cut and pre-cooked (like hamburger or sausage — both of which should be well drained of grease first), the whole process start to finish takes me about 30 minutes. That’s faster than delivery! I’m pretty sure this is fool-proof. Several of my friends, mostly non-cooks, have tested it for me and walked away with perfectly edible pizzas. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I have tried to be thorough, but that doesn’t mean I was. ;)