I have been reading around and decided to give the cracker style crust a try as my "first real pizza". I have been making pizza for years, but the dough has been from "Grandmam's Basic Bread Dough" which has been used in the family for years (like 80+) for everything that uses a dough (except biscuits). I used the following recipe with a few modifications based on what I had on hand (equipment wise) and what I've read here. I can;t find the original post for this recipe, so I can't credit the poster but here it is...
This is the recipe I use for a cracker crust--the crust it produces is crisp, yet tender, at the same time! It can be modified with varying amounts of oil--the more oil, the more mouth-filling it becomes (of course you lose a bit of the crackeriness!). I happen to use the bread machine, because it's easiest for me, but you can just as well use a mixer on low, or make it by hand.
1 cup AP
7 TBS water
1 tsp oil
1 tsp fast-rise yeast
3/4-1 tsp Kosher salt (25% less if using table salt)
1/2 tsp sugar
Put all in appliance except for 25% of the flour. Mix for two minutes, then let stand for 30 minutes (autolyse). Then, if you are using a bread machine, turn it on and let it cycle to "knead". Knead for 7 minutes. Halfway through the knead, add the remaining flour a little at a time. After the knead, let it stand for 15 minutes.
Take the dough ball out, knead it with some bench flour for 30 seconds or so (it will be a bit sticky), coat it with oil and let it rise for two hours (I put mine in a slightly warmed oven--I turn it on 200 for a minute, then turn it off). When it has risen, punch it down, and let it rest for 10-15 minutes. Then roll it out with a rolling pin (your home sheeter!) as thinly as you possibly can (I roll mine to fit a 12-inch cutter pan) and top the pizza. Some people like to dock their cracker crust, but I find that this destroys a lot of the crackeriness (my favorite thin crust pizza place doesn't dock).
Preheat the oven to 450. I don't like to use a stone (but if you enjoy the stone experience, then by all means do so!), so I cover the pizza with foil, and put it on the lowest rack until the bottom starts to take on color, then move it to the top, still covered, until the bottom finishes cooking. Then remove the foil and let the top cook (it goes fast!).
As I said, this will produce a crackery thin crust (the thinner you can roll it out, the better), yet still tender to the bite. And you can add varying amounts of oil to appeal to your individual taste (a ratio of 3 TBS oil: 1 cup flour will produce a Giordano's-style thin crust, for example). The more oil you put in the recipe, the longer it will take to rise. For example, when I make a Home Run Inn-stlye pizza, I use 4 TBS oil per cup of flour, and it takes four hours to rise!
Like I said, I can;t find the original post, just copied and pasted to print out. I made a few modifications to suit me... I had to hand mix and kneed and I did dock the dough and I rolled it out in a (roughly) 13x16 rectangle. I parbaked the crust on foil on a pampered chef rectangular stone in a 475 oven for 5 minutes then used the foil to lift it out and then dressed it w/sauce, kraft shredded moz, mushrooms, diced green peppers, and pepperoni. Put back into a 450 oven for 3 minutes on the stone and then cut and ate. Not bad for a first attempt, in my opinion...
