Thin Crust Pizza Without Pre-Cooking the Crust! (A simple recipe)
Ingredients
- warm water. about 100 degrees (38.00 C). try one cup per pizza. If the batter is thin and runny like pancake batter, that's too much water, so add a little flour to thicken it. If you can touch the batter with your finger and not stick to it, that's too dry, so add a little water
- flour about 2 cups per pizza. Note that it must be at least 60%-70% white flour. It would be heavy and wouldn't rise as much if you get too much whole wheat and cornmeal in the batter.
- yeast. a 1/4 oz package in the grocery store makes about 2 12" pizzas.
- sugar. you need very little for the yeast, but about 1 tablespoon per pizza tastes good,
- salt. very little; a few shakes from the saltshaker is enough for 1 pizza.
- vegetable, corn, or canola oil. about .1 to .2 cup per pizza.
A few more ingredients in the batter make it interesting:
- oregano and basil spices.
Procedure
1. Mix water, yeast, flour, and salt in a large mixing bowl. The dough rises to become about 50% larger, so use a big bowl. Set the mixing bowl so it is sitting in hot water, or place on top of a warm oven. Let rise for 20-30 minutes. Don't worry if it only rose 10% or 20%, it'll still work.
2. Put vegetable oil on the pans, then sprinkle cornmeal on the oil. Put a glop of the batter on each pan and spead it so it is about .25 inch thick, with the edge .5 inch. Sprinkle flour on top of the dough so it doesn't stick to your hands.
3. Add pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings (optional, see pizza article)
4. Bake at 425°F for about 15 to 20 minutes. Rotate every 5 minutes and move to upper or lower shelves as necessary: After 10 minutes slide a large knife under the crust. If it is dark brown, move it to a higher shelf so it doesn't burn while the top finishes coooking. If it is white or light tan, move to lower shelf so you get a crispy crust before the cheese starts turning brown on top.
On your first try, try just one or two pizzas. Then you can adjust it next time as necessary.
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Problem Solving:
- If vegetables are overdone: (e.g. dried up mushrooms, bitter peppers, soggy onion) Vegetables don't need 20 minutes. Put them on halfway through so they still have a little texture left. Some vegetables, especially broccoli, work better when protected by a coating of oil.
- pizza is too greasy: Reduce oil in batter. Oil on pan needs to be film covering the pan so it doesn't burn, but it doesn't need to pool on the surface. Some toppings (pepperoni, sausage, even cheese) will melt grease into the pizzas; try smaller pieces.
- If crust is not very light: Use less whole wheat flour or cornmeal in the batter. Use more yeast.
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Chicago style thin-crust pizza.
"There is also a thin-crust pizza unique to Chicago, generally described as such, but sometimes referred to as "flat" pizza. The crust is thin and firm enough to have a noticeable crunch, yet unlike a New York-style pizza, it is thick enough to be soft and doughy on the top."
"The crust is topped with a liberal quantity of Italian style tomato sauce, which is usually quite herbal or highly spiced, and typically contains no visible chunks of tomato. Next, a layer of toppings is added, and finally a layer of mozzarella cheese. This pizza is cut into squares, also known as party cut, as opposed to a pie cut into wedges. However, the consistency of the crust and the quantity and choice of the tomato sauce and cheese are what separate this style from East Coast- and Roman-style pizzas, and it makes the pizza from most neighborhood pizzerias immediately distinguishable from that offered by national chains such as Papa John's or Pizza Hut."
"Chicago style thin-crust pizza is common throughout the midwestern-USA as well as Winnipeg, Canada. Casa Bianca, located in the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles, is also well known for this style."
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