Explorers Thin Crust Pizza Recipes

PERFECT THIN CRUST PIZZA DOUGH

Steps:

• In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt and yeast. Add the olive oil and cold water and knead with the dough hook for 5-7 minutes, or 8-10 if kneading by hand.
• The dough should be smooth and elastic, and clear the sides of the bowl (it will be fairly sticky, but as long as it clears the sides of the bowl that's okay - if if doesn't clear the sides, sprinkle in a little more flour).
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly spray it with cooking spray. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured countertop and cut it into 4 equal pieces (or 6 if you want smaller pizzas).
• Gently shape each piece into a ball with floured hands and place it on the prepared cookie sheet. Mist the dough balls with spray oil and lightly cover them with plastic wrap.
• Place the pan into the refrigerator overnight, or for up to 3 days.
• You can also freeze the dough balls at this point, by placing the oiled dough balls into individual freezer bags for up to 3 months, removing them to the fridge the day before using them.
• The day you want to make pizza, remove the dough to room temperature 2 hours before making pizza.
• On a floured counter, flatten the cold dough into 1/2 inch thick disks, spray lightly with oil and then cover them to rest for two hours.
• Preheat the oven 45 minutes before baking the pizza to 500 degrees F.
• With floured hands, stretch the dough out to 12 inch rounds, using the backs of your hands and your knuckles to do so. It will get quite thin without breaking. When it is stretched as large as you like, add the toppings you like (remembering it's a thin crust so it's best with fewer toppings!) and bake for 7-9 minutes or until lightly browned.
• I like to prepare my pizza on a sheet of parchment paper and then slide the paper with the pizza directly onto a hot pizza stone in the oven. If you don't have a pizza stone, a cookie sheet turned upside down and heated in the oven works well too. Just place your stone or cookie sheet into the oven to heat when you turn on the oven.
• Once cooked, slide the parchment with the pizza back out of the oven onto a cutting board.
• Wait 5 minutes before slicing for the cheese to set.

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.

THIN CRUST PIZZA DOUGH

Steps:

• Place flours, yeast and salt in a food processor; pulse until blended. Add honey. While processing, gradually add water until a ball forms. Continue processing 60 seconds to knead dough., Turn dough onto floured surface; shape into a ball. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. Divide dough into quarters. Use immediately or securely wrap and freeze for later use. Freeze option:Wrap each portion of dough in plastic wrap and place in resealable freezer bags; freeze up to 1 month. To use, thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Proceed as directed.

THIN CRUST PIZZA DOUGH

Steps:

• Mix warm water and sugar together in a bowl; add yeast. Set aside until yeast mixture becomes foamy, about 10 minutes.
• Pour yeast mixture into a large bowl; add flour, olive oil, and salt. Knead dough for 6 to 8 minutes, adding more flour to keep dough from sticking to your hands if needed. Cover bowl and let sit for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Grease 2 pizza pans or baking sheets.
• Divide dough in half. Make each half into a ball shape and roll each into a flat, circular crust using a rolling pin.
• Place 1 piece dough over your hands with your knuckles turned upward directly underneath the center of the dough. Using your knuckles and backs of your hands, toss the dough into the air in a circular motion, spinning the dough. This thins the center of the dough and forms the padded edge of the pizza. When the edge of the dough is about 1/4-inch thick, place the dough onto the pan. Pizza diameter will be about 10 inches. Repeat with other piece of dough.

GRILLED ULTRA THIN CRUST PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

Steps:

• Whisk by hand 2/3 cup flour, 1/2 cup water, and yeast in a mixer bowl until smooth.
• Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 1 hour.
• After the polish has rested for 1 hour, add 1 1/4 cups of flour, 1/3 cup water, and 3/4 teaspoon salt to the mixer bowl.
• Using a dough hook, knead on low speed (3 for a KitchenAid mixer) around 12-15 minutes. When the dough is ready, it should look smooth and while kneading it should not stick to the sides or bottom of the bowl for more than just a second.
• Slowly add the olive oil to the dough while it is still kneading. This will cause the dough to temporarily break down. Gradually increase the speed of the mixer to high, but stop kneading as soon as you see the dough come back together.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Pour the dough onto a smooth, floured surface, and divide the dough into 4 even pieces.
• Tuck the sticky, cut ends of the dough underneath to form balls, and then flatten the dough balls with your hands to form thick pancakes. Use flour as necessary to prevent sticking. This is a good time to freeze your dough for later if you wish to do so.
• Place the flattened dough pieces onto a cookie sheet and drizzle both sides with olive oil coating each side evenly.
• Cover the cookie sheet with plastic wrap and allow to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. Transfer the cookie sheet to a refrigerator for at least an hour, but the dough will keep for up to 3 days.
• Preheat a grill and pizza stone to 500 degrees F/260 degrees C for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• Coat both side of the dough in flour and use fingers to press the dough flat. Then, roll the dough with a rolling pin on a well floured surface until it's about 10 inches wide.
• Apply sauce and toppings and transfer to the pizza stone.
• Grill for about 5-6 minutes until the edges are browned.

ULTIMATE ITALIAN STYLE THIN CRUST PIZZA

Steps:

• Sift the 00 flour in to a large mixing bowl and add the yeast and salt, make a well in the centre. Next mix the cold water, milk, honey and olive oil together in a mixing jug. Pour this in to the well, little by little, stirring and gradually bringing more flour in to the centre with a fork. Do this until all the flour is mixed in to the dough.
• Next you want to knead the dough for 5-10 minutes so that it is of a smooth elastic consistency and does not stick. If you don't know how to knead dough check out www.youtube.com there are some great video's. Do this on a lightly floured surface with floured hands, applying a dusting of flour when needed. Hint: Use latex gloves to prevent dough from sticking to your hands.
• Put the dough back in a lightly oiled bowl with a damp cloth to cover it. Let this sit in a warm place ideally about 40C or 100F until it has doubled in size this should take about an hour to an hour and a half. Remove the dough from the bowl and 'knock it back' punch the air out of it, do this for 1-2 minutes. Set this aside for later.
• The secret of great dough is using ice cold ingredients (milk, and water). If you have time, let the dough sit in the refrigerator overnight when you reach this stage, you will need to knock it back once more before you roll it out. This will make approximately 2 largish pizzas.
• For the tomato sauce i find using fresh tomatoes gives a better taste, plum tomatoes give a nice sweet taste or you can use canned ones here. Take the plum tomatoes and pierce the skin with a fork then blanch in boiling water for a few seconds, you should be able to remove the skin now. Put these in a saucepan and mash them up. Add all the other ingredients, apart from the basil, you can garnish with that on the finished pizza. Gently warm the ingredients for 5-10 minutes, don't burn it. There should be enough here for 2 fairly large pizza's.
• Roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a well floured surface, apply the tomato sauce and then add your cheese. The amount of cheese in the recipe is per pizza, and should be enough for 1 fairly large pizza.
• Grate the Mozzarella and apply evenly over pizza, sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano and the grated provolone. The secret here is not to smother the pizza in cheese you want to be able to taste the full flavours in the pizza. A selection of Italian cheeses really makes a difference too.
• Add your favourite topping, My favourite topping is some portobello mushrooms sauteed in garlic butter and bell peppers, but you can add whatever you want. Again try not to smother it with toppings, the Italians tend to take the less is sometimes more approach here.
• Cook in a preheated oven on your maximum setting, probably about 250°C Watch it doesn't burn it will only need about 10 minutes. A great tip is use a pizza stone, if you cook a lot of pizza and don't have one then buy one. It transfers the heat very fast in to the dough and creates a great crispy base that is unmatched to any other methods of cooking it, apart from using an authentic pizza oven.

EXPLORERS THIN CRUST PIZZA

Steps:

• Layer pizza in this order:.
• Tomatoe sauce.
• Cheese.
• Pepperoni.
• Eggplant skinned, and grilled, cut into strips.
• Mushrooms.
• Onions.
• Optional jalapeno peppers chopped fine.
• Basil, salt and pepper.
• Olive oil (drizzled over pizza).
• Cook at 450 for 8 minutes.