Thin Crispy Oven Baked Pizza Crust Recipes

THIN & CRISPY OVEN BAKED PIZZA CRUST

Steps:

• 1. Gather all your ingredients and have them at hand.
• 2. Warm the cup of water up to 100f (38c), and stir in the sugar, until completely dissolved, then stir in the yeast and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.
• 3. Chef's Note: As you probably know, this is called "proofing" the yeast. Within 10 minutes, the top of the water should start looking foamy, as the yeast proofs. If it doesn't get foamy, you need new yeast.
• 4. While the yeast is proofing, add the salt and the flour to a large bowl, and stir to combine. And then add the softened butter.
• 5. Chef's Note: It's not necessary to mix in the butter; just add it to the bowl.
• 6. Slowly add the yeast/sugar water to the bowl, and mix (I use a fork), until you have a nice mass of dough.
• 7. Remove the dough from the bowl, and turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
• 8. Knead the dough, adding a bit more flour as needed until you have a nice clean elastic ball of dough, about 6 to 8 minutes.
• 9. Put some olive oil into a large bowl and spread around the inside surface.
• 10. Add the dough ball to the bowl, and turn to coat with the oil.
• 11. Cover the bowl with a tea towel, or cling film, and place in a non-drafty part of your kitchen. Allow it to rise until double in size, about two hours... give or take.
• 12. At this point, you could make a pizza, but don't. Punch it down in the bowl, cover the bowl, and allow to rise a second time, until double in size, another two boring hours.
• 13. Punch down the dough (the punching part is fun), remove from bowl, and reshape into a ball.
• 14. Use a bench scraper, or knife, and cut into two pieces. Or three pieces, if you want a smaller pie.
• 15. Chef's Tip: If you really don't want to eat two pizzas, you can always freeze the unused portion. Simply rub it with some good olive oil, wrap it tightly with cling film, place in a freezer bag, squeeze out all of the air, and then pop it into the old freezer. If you wrapped it tightly, it should last for up to 3 months. Take it out of the freezer the day before you need it, and place it in the refrigerator to slowly defrost. Let it rest on your countertop for 30 minutes before stretching.
• 16. Place a rack in the lower position, and place a pizza stone on the rack. Preheat the oven to 475f (245c), and allow it to heat up for 1 hour before adding the pizza.
• 17. Chef's Tip: A pizza stone is an essential part of making good pies. You could use a baking sheet, but the structure and crispness of the crust would be different. If you like good pizza, invest in a pizza stone.
• 18. Lay down a sheet of parchment paper, and using your hands, press the dough ball into a 12-inch circle, for a thin crust, or 10-inches, if you want a slightly thicker crust. All good pizzas are made with your hands... don't use a roller.
• 19. Chef's Note: The use of parchment paper helps keep everything nice and proper. This way I don't have to use additional flour, or cornmeal to slide the pizza onto the stone. Once the pizza is stretched out, trim the excess paper with some kitchen shears. The paper will brown a bit, but it won't impact the taste of the pie.
• 20. Use a fork to poke holes in the center area of the dough; leaving about a 1-inch border around the pie, and then let rest for 30 minutes before putting in the oven.
• 21. Chef's Note: Poking a bunch of holes in the dough is a process called, "docking." It will prevent the dough from forming bubbles during the baking process. By docking the center of the dough, the outer edges will rise and form a nice area for holding in place our toppings.
• 22. Use a pizza peel to move the crust to the preheated oven... parchment paper and all.
• 23. Allow dough to bake for 5 to 7 minutes, and then remove from the oven. Notice how the outside edges puffed up, but the center didn't. Mine was in the oven for 6 minutes.
• 24. Brush the puffed edges of the crust with your favorite extra virgin olive oil. I have an olive oil that I infused with garlic that's excellent.
• 25. Chef's Note: This is where I back off... Add your favorite ingredients to the pie. Everyone has their own idea of what they want for toppings.
• 26. Pop your tricked out pizza back into the oven for 5 to 7 minutes. Mine was in the oven for 6 minutes
• 27. Pull back out, brush a bit more olive oil on the edges, cut into slices and enjoy.
• 28. Keep the faith, and keep cooking.

THIN-CRUST PIZZA DOUGH

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast and sugar in hot water in a bowl. Let stand until yeast forms a creamy foam, 5 to 8 minutes.
• Mix 1 3/4 cup flour and salt in a large bowl. Pour in yeast mixture; mix well until dough comes together.
• Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead until smooth, adding remaining 1/4 cup flour if dough is too sticky, about 2 minutes. Roll dough into a 12-inch circle. Transfer to a greased pizza pan.

SUPER CRISPY THIN PIZZA CRUST

Steps:

• Preheat pizza stone in oven at 500°F.
• Warm water for 20 seconds in microwave.
• Dissolve yeast and sugar in water; allow to rest for 8 minutes.
• In the meantime, combine flour, salt and Italian seasoning.
• Pour yeast over flour mixture and mix well with a heavy spoon.
• Add 1 tbsp flour if needed.
• Turn dough on to a floured surface and knead for 2 minutes.
• Dust more flour on surface if needed .
• Using a rolling pin, roll dough into a 12" circle of even thickness (about 1/4") flipping over to roll each side (don't press too hard when rolling or dough may stick to surface).
• Cut off any excess edges to make a neat circle.
• Palm down, slide your hands under dough and lifting carefully place on to a hot pizza stone.
• Bake at 500°F for 4 minutes.
• Remove from oven and top with your favorite toppings (don't go too crazy with the toppings, a little goes a long way).
• Return to oven for 6-8 minutes.
• Helpful hint: Top pizza in this order to prevent the crust from getting soggy:.
• chopped basil.
• minced garlic.
• pepperoni.
• cheese.
• (6-8) 2 tbs dollops of pizza sauce evenly spaced.

FAST, THIN, AND CRISPY CRUST PIZZA

Steps:

• In a small bowl or glass measuring cup dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water, stir and set aside for 10 minutes. Mixture should begin to bubble and foam at the end of the time (indicating that the yeast is activated & alive.).
• In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt, set aside.
• Add the liquid yeast mixture (and olive oil if using) to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.
• Flour a work surface and knead dough for a couple of minutes until smooth and elastic.
• Shape the dough into 1 large, 2 medium, or 4 small pizzas using whatever method you prefer; rolling pin, stretching or off the board between your two hands, in the air.
• If you have a pizza peel, sprinkle lightly with corn meal and build your pizza. If not, lightly grease a flat cookie sheet (or inverted jelly roll pan) and build your pizza.
• I brush the formed dough very lightly with olive oil (optional), then pizza sauce (not too generously), cheese then any other other ingredients. Keep toppings rather sparse if you want a really crispy crust.
• Bake in hot oven until as crispy as desired. Usually 8 to 12 minutes, but this will vary depending upon pizza stone vs. pan and the toppings you have chosen.
• You can also make this in a food processor ~ Mix the water, sugar and yeast as directed in a small container. Place flour and salt in bowl of processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add the liquid yeast mixture (and olive oil, if using) and pulse until blended; adding more flour until mixture just forms a ball and the dough follows the blade around the bowl. (Additional flour is needed when using food processor method, because you are not hand-kneading on a floured board). To remove from food processor bowl, flour your hands well, form dough into a ball (or balls) and shape as directed.