I have been working on developing a new cracker-style recipe lately and I think I have reached an end point. My goal was to create a kind of generic dough that would be reminiscent of a Midwestern or Chicago thin-style crust.
Recently I made two pizzas using the same recipe, but with one pizza I used King Arthur all-purpose flour and the second pizza I used Gold Medal Better for Bread flour. Other than the flours, the only other difference was the toppings. For the first pizza (KAAP), I used local Italian sausage (Scimeca’s) and fresh mushrooms. For the second pizza, I made a Hawaiian with ham and pineapple chucks, but since I had plenty of mushrooms left over, I added the remainder to this pizza, as well.
The dough recipe for this pizza makes 1 – 14” pizza, 0.075” thickness, 4% bowel residue and is as follows:
Flour (100%): 218.77 g | 7.72 oz | 0.48 lbs
Water (44%): 96.26 g | 3.4 oz | 0.21 lbs
IDY (1.5%): 3.28 g | 0.12 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.09 tsp | 0.36 tbsp
Salt (1.5%): 3.28 g | 0.12 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.68 tsp | 0.23 tbsp
Vegetable (Soybean) Oil (1.8%): 3.94 g | 0.14 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.87 tsp | 0.29 tbsp
Sugar (1.4%): 3.06 g | 0.11 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.77 tsp | 0.26 tbsp
Baker's Non-Fat Dry Milk (2.5%): 5.47 g | 0.19 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.4 tsp | 0.47 tbsp
Dough Relaxer (1.8%): 3.94 g | 0.14 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.76 tsp | 0.25 tbsp
Dough Conditioner (1.1%): 2.41 g | 0.08 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.02 tsp | 0.34 tbsp
Total (155.6%): 340.4 g | 12.01 oz | 0.75 lbs | TF = 0.078
The dough ingredients were mixed in a Cuisinart food processor. The balls were then stored in former commericial bread loaf plastic bags in the fridge. Some folks may say that 44% hydration is border-line at best for a true cracker-style crust. I won’t argue the point, but given where I was headed with this pizza, I thought it belonged more to the cracker-style than the American style forum.
For the sauce, I mixed equal parts of Hunt’s tomato sauce (unsalted), Prego regular pasta sauce, and Bonta Pizza Sauce (with basil). I then added a couple teaspoons of Penzy’s pizza seasoning to the tomato mixture. Mixed and done.
For cheese, I use a blend of skim-milk mozzarella, sharp cheddar cheese, and provolone in a 80:10:10 mixture.
I allowed the dough balls to sit in the refrigerator for approximately 5 days before I took them out and allowed them to come to room temperature. I then rolled them out on a pastry board using a rolling pin, then cut them to the 14” size, placed them on a wooden peel, and docked them. Next came the sauce, cheese blend, and toppings.
