Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Thin Pizza Crust Dough (makes 2 large pizzas)

This is a great pizza crust recipe from Pioneer Woman. I had been wanted to try this for a while, but I kept forgetting to make it early in the week, the dough ages for 2-4 days in the fridge. Finally, I just made it one Wednesday morning and on Friday night baked it into the most wonderful thin crust pizzas. The finished pizzas reminded me of Ledo's Pizza, one of our favorite pizza places when we lived in Maryland. Really, really yummy. I am a huge fan of thin crust pizza, but about half of the rest of my family likes thicker crusts, so I'll probably rotate this recipe with my ususal pizza recipe for future pizza nights.

As a Note: I've seen this dough listed with 1 teaspoon of yeast and with 2 teaspoons of yeast and I'm sure either would work, though this time I used 1 teaspoon of yeast and with the 2 1/2 days of proofing time in the fridge it worked great. I would probably use 2 teaspoons of yeast if I was making this dough for use on the same day.

Thin Pizza Crust Dough

1 teaspoon yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup olive oil

In a measuring cup, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, combine flour and salt. Add olive oil and mix until just combined. Add yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined and dough pulls cleanly away from the bowl. Spray the inside of a large ziplock bag with cooking spray. Place dough in bag and seal. Place in the fridge for 2-4 days. *Alternatively, if making pizza the same day you can place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for a couple of hours.

Making Pizzas:
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Take 1/2 of the dough and roll it out to the size of a cookie sheet. Spray cookie sheets with cooking spray and place rolled out dough on cookie sheet, stretching out dough to the edges. Repeat with other half of the dough. Top uncooked crusts with pizza sauce, then shredded mozzarella, and toppings of choice. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until crust is golden and cheese is bubbly - I found cooking pizzas on bottom racks helps them cook on top and bottom best. Remove from oven and cut into squares.


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