P.J.'s Thin-Crust Pizza
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Italian flour pizza crust is wonderful when you want pizza RIGHT NOW! Just knead, shape, let the dough rise while you preheat your oven, and bake -- you can have pizza, with crisp-yet-tender thin crust, in just over an hour.
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon King Arthur Easy-Roll Dough Improver (first choice) OR Baker's Special Dry Milk OR nonfat dry milk
3 cups King Arthur Italian-Style Flour
1 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
In a medium-sized mixing bowl (or in a bread machine set on the dough/manual cycle), combine all of the ingredients to make a fairly firm yet supple dough. Knead for 5 minutes, then divide the dough in half. Cover each half with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rest and relax for 15 minutes.
Grease the BOTTOM (that's right the underside) of two 14-inch round pizza pans, or two half-sheet pans, on a combination of the two. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out, on the bottom of the pan, till it's about 3/16-inch thick; it'll just about cover the bottom of the round pizza pan, and will leave a several-inch border around the edge of the half-sheet pan. Cover the dough again, and let it rest while you preheat your oven to 450°F. Let the oven preheat for 30 minutes, so it's good and hot.
Uncover the dough, and place it in the oven. After 5 minutes, remove it from the oven, and top it with tomato sauce, sausage and cheese, or your choice of toppings. Return the pizza to the oven; bake for an additional 5 minutes, then rotate the pans from top to bottom and back to front. Bake 5 minutes more, or until the crust is brown and the toppings are bubbly. Yield: 2 pizzas.
