looking for a good same day cracker style recipe

[spacelooper]

hey guys... I'm really wanting to make some cracker style pies later and was wondering if anyone had a really good same day recipes for some thin crispy dough.

thanks,
Todd

[buceriasdon]

Hi Todd, This site has several excellent recipes. I posted mine, however on that thread you will find a link to Chicago thin crust also which is similar.
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,12809.0.html
Don

hey guys... I'm really wanting to make some cracker style pies later and was wondering if anyone had a really good same day recipes for some thin crispy dough.

thanks,
Todd

[Pete-zza]

Todd,

I'm not sure what you mean by "same day" in terms of hours, but when I was doing the legwork to create the collection of "emergency", or short-term, dough recipes at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8297.msg71576.html#msg71576, I did not find a lot of candidates. In my case, I was looking for dough recipes that could be executed in a few hours, and the only entry I found that met that requirement was Steve's Shakey's style dough recipe as given in the thread at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1311.msg11794.html#msg11794.

When I did all of my experiments with the cracker style, I found that there were different degrees of crispiness in the finished crusts. The most crispy crusts were those that were based on low hydration values, typically below 40%. A good example of a recipe that I have in mind is DKM's cracker style recipe as given at http://www.pizzamaking.com/pizzainnstyle.php. There is also a Chicago-style cracker crust, but usually such a crust has a higher hydration and will usually not be as crispy as one with a lower hydration. The DKM recipe produces a dough with a hydration of around 35%.

If you can clarify what you mean by "crispy" and the timeframe you have in mind to prepare the pizzas, perhaps someone can respond more directly and more fully to your request.

Peter

[spacelooper]

thanks for the replies. Pete, I am looking for something in the Village Inn, Pizza Inn range. I have some deep dish dough in the fridge but was really hankering for a thin & crispy today...time frame 3-4 hours. I will check out your links.. thanks again

[Pete-zza]

spacelooper,

If you are looking for a Pizza Inn style, then I believe that the DKM recipe should meet your needs. It was that recipe that I based my work in the thread at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5762.0.html. However, if you have deep-dish dough, it is unlikely that you will get the type of crispiness that you would get with the DKM recipe or some version of it. There are deep-dish places in the Chicago area that use the same dough both for deep-dish and Chicago cracker style, and I think you will be happy with your results if you do the same, but I think you are likely to get a more tender crust, or possibly a mix of tender and crispy parts.

If you would like to get a Pizza Inn type cracker dough but usable in a few hours rather than a day or more, I think you could dramatically increase the yeast in the DKM recipe and use very warm water to make the dough and use room temperature fermentation. That is very likely to speed up the fermentation process, but the main flavor in the finished crust is likely to be due to the yeast rather than the fermentation byproducts, which take longer to fully develop. You might also not get as much crust coloration. To offset that somewhat, you could use a high-gluten flour but you may have to adjust the hydration value if you go that route. You may also encounter problems in rolling out the dough. I devised a solution for that problem and discussed same in Reply 16 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5762.msg49138.html#msg49138.

Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

Peter

[DKM]

When we needed a "quick" batch of dough, we increased the water temp and put the dough by the oven.  It did effect the flavor some, but not the crispiness.

[android]

this is a bit of a hybrid between what I read from pete-zza's replies and the DKM recipe. i turned it around in about 2 hrs and thought it was really tasty. sadly, i didn't get any pictures of it, but I intend to make it again this week and will try to update this thread with pictures of the resulting pizza. i don't have a cutter pan, i just used a BBB pizza pan with many holes in it.

here is the recipe (for one 14" pizza pan)

Flour (100%):       195.87 g  |  6.91 oz | 0.43 lbs
Water (50%):       97.94 g  |  3.45 oz | 0.22 lbs
IDY (1%):               1.96 g | 0.07 oz | 0 lbs | 0.65 tsp | 0.22 tbsp
Salt (1.75%):       3.43 g | 0.12 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.71 tsp | 0.24 tbsp
Olive Oil (5%):       9.79 g | 0.35 oz | 0.02 lbs | 2.18 tsp | 0.73 tbsp
Sugar (1%):       1.95 g | 0.07 oz | 0 lbs | 0.49 tsp | 0.16 tbsp
Baking Soda (.35%):    0.69 g | 0.02 oz | 0 lbs | 0.17 tsp | 0.06 tbsp
Total (158.1%):      309.68 g | 10.92 oz | 0.68 lbs | TF = 0.0618135

i began by measuring out the water (hot water from the tap) and mixing that together with the flour. i let that autolyse for about 10 minutes, then added the oil, sugar, baking soda, and IDY. i let that mix (in the KA with dough hook) for a few minutes before sprinkling in the salt. i let the KA knead it for about 6 minutes and since it was only one dough i was making, the oil didn't seem evenly distributed by the dough hook, so i took it out and hand kneaded it for an additional 5 minutes or so, until it looked more uniform. i then oiled it and put it into an oiled container and put it in the oven with the light on (got it as close to the light as possible without it getting too hot).

it rose in the oven for 90 minutes, at which point i had to take it out to make room for making something else, and it sat for an additional 30 minutes on the bench while i waited to roll it out. it rolled out quite easily and i didn't have to use much flour at all on the bench. once i thought it was big enough, i put the pan over the dough and used a sharp knife to cut the shape out. i then lifted the dough and rearranged it on the pan. i docked it with a fork, then spread my sauce/cheese/toppings. into the oven at 475 (preheated for 15 mins or so, no stone) for about 10 minutes (i usually go by sight rather than time).

anyway, i was looking for a quick/easy cracker style and i'm sure this dough would benefit from a refrigerated fermentation, but it was quite surprising how tasty it was for a 2-3 hour total turnaround. thanks for the replies that inspired this.