Thin Crust Pizza Dough

Authentic Southern Italian pizza is made with a crisp, thin, crust. In the United States it is associated with New York-style pizza. The original American pizza made by Italian immigrants in New York City.

As pizza traveled west, the crust became thicker and the pizza bigger and heavier culminating in high calorie, deep-dish Chicago-style pizza.

I prefer thin and medium crust pizzas. The Americans dietoprovides too many calories from breads including pizza crust. Homemade pizza dough and crust has a flavor and texture unlike pizzeria and frozen pizzas. It is focaccia with toppings which is the predecessor to Naples pizza. Yummy!

If you like thin crust pizza, this recipe for thin crust pizza dough produces a dough you can easily stretch by hand to about 1/8th inch (3 mm) without tearing. If desired, you can use a rolling pin for uniform thickness. The crust will rise during baking to about 1/4 inch (6 mm).

The secret to this recipe is using high protein unbleached bread flour to make a very stiff dough you can easily stretch by hand without flouring or oiling your hands. This is the opposite to the soft dough in my Basic Stand Mixer Dough recipe used for focaccia and medium crust pizza. Since flour protein content varies by region, some high protein all-purpose flours may also work in this recipe or you can use half all-purpose flour and half bread flour.

Thin crust pizzas take only 15 to 20 minutes at 425°F to producing a crisp, browned crust. Medium crust pizzas can take up to 30 minutes. The shorter baking time also reduces mozzarella browning.

Personal Pizzas

This recipe makes enough dough for 8 10-inch or 11 8-inch personal pizzas like the one pictured below.

Cook’s Tip:

• If you prefer using instant yeast, add it to the flour with the other ingredients.
• Thin crusts can become soggy is you cover it with a lot of tomato sauce. For crisp crusts, add tomato sauce after the mozzarella. This not only helps maintain a crisp crust, but also prevent the mozzarella from burning.

Ingredients

• 4 cups (520 g) unbleached bread flour
• 1 package active dry yeast (1/4 oz. , 7 g)
• About 2 cups warm water (105°F, 40°C)
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) sugar
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive or vegetable oil

Method of Preparation