Having just made my first attempt at DKM's "Pizza Inn Thin & Krispy" style pizza crust, I thought I'd look & see where would be the best place to post my results. Seeing that I used our KitchenAid stand mixer (with the dough hook), I thought this would be appropriate. Sorry, no pics. Didn't think about that until I was reading this thread after-the-fact.
I was off work yesterday & today (a rarity to have 2 consecutive days off), so I figured I'd make the dough yesterday & then the pizzas for dinner tonight. I followed DKM's recipe but strayed a few times from the exact recipe - a couple of times on purpose and at least once unintentionally.
Yeast typically works ok with water between 90 & 110 degrees (Fahrenheit). Our water heater is set to 120, so I poured the water into a 32 ounce cup & let it sit (with a thermometer in it) & then used that to make three recipes after it cooled down. The first one was at 110 degrees & the third one was at 90 degrees. There was no discernable difference in the result, tho that may have been because of at least one of my other variations from the recipe.
I used 3/4 cup of water, as the recipe states. But, I used 1/2 cup in the mixer with the oil (canola because of it's cholesterol lowering properties - unlike olive oil which is still bad but not as bad as many other fats) and 1/4 cup with the yeast in it to dissolve (not proofing the yeast because we're not feeding it - sugar - simply dissolving it in the water). That was a 66%/33% split instead of the 75%/25%. I can't see how this variation would make a discernable difference in the finished product.
I put the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour because that's what the recipe called for & I used it for that reason - we don't keep high gluton bread flower on hand unless I'm working on a new bread recipe) - flour, sugar, & salt - into the mixer slowly with the water/oil mixture. When I had about 1/3 of the dry stuff mixed in, I added in the water/yeast mixture & then added the remaining dry ingredients. I cranked the hook up to 4 (a good speed, faster than the recommended "stir") and walked away from it for at least 10 minutes. In fact, I stepped into the back bedroom we call our "office" & clicked off a couple of emails. I don't know how long I was away, but when I returned, it was pretty much as well mixed as it was going to get and was in the powdery/crumby consistency that's been stated.
I put the "dough" (if you could call this semi-moist/semi-dry mixture a "dough") into a RubberMaid container & covered it with Press-&-Seal Glad Wrap. I repeated this process two more times, using a total of three containers. I had figured that each recipe was good for one single pizza, which I figured was about a 12" pizza. I was making one for my wife & one for myself and three tiny ones for our three children, so I figured I needed three recipes. I could have done it all with one.
Here's where the unintentional variation kicks in. I took all 3 containers & put them into the fridge, figuring I'd take them out after we took Emily to gymnastics, and that would give them about 2 hours to come to room temp before I'd roll them out. They were in almost the exact same condition (albeit colder) when I took the containers out of the fridge as when I put them in. So, I filled the sink with hot water & dropped the containers into it, figuring I'd warm up the dough & make it a bit more pliable (easier to roll out). This seemed to work a bit & it even rose a little bit, but the flavor was ... well, there just wasn't any flavor to the finished crust. I probably should have let the thing sit at room temp the whole time, and that's something that I'll be doing the next time I make the recipe.
So, I rolled out the three pizzas for the children & had used less than half of one recipe, with plenty of scraps left over. The remainder of that recipe was used on April's 12" 'za, and I opened the 2nd container to use half of it for my own 'za. Like I said, there were plenty of trimmings left over. Had I been a bit more conservative in pulling dough for each 'za, I could have made all 5 pizzas with just one recipe.
Rolling the dough out was a pleasure, if not a bit of exercise. But, a little flour on the countertop went a long way, & the dough never stuck to anything. Being that I've made a bunch of thicker crust pizzas at home (that always stuck to everything), this was a pleasure to roll out, even if it was more exercise. I got the thickness somewhere close to 1/8", so this was a LOT of dough. Had I gotten it to 1/16th", like the recipe states, I could have covered my entire kitchen in pizza crust!
The blank was set on parchment paper that was in a sheet pan (1/2" lip, like a jelly-roll pan). Our oven doesn't cook as evenly as we'd like, so we had to turn each pan about half-way thru the cooking time to prevent one side from burning.
The crust was not a cracker crumb, but it was (thankfully) very edible. Considering that I've made some recipes that turned out prompting us to eat left-overs instead, this one was very good. The bottom would have been crispier had we taken it off the parchment & onto a rack to cool for a few minutes before slicing it, but April doesn't like the really crispy bottoms because they tend to cut her mouth.
One problem that we encountered was using a fork to dock the blank instead of using a normal pizza docker. Our results lacked the patterned consistency of a docker, so the dough was a little thicker in some places & a little thinner.
Next time, I'll make just one recipe & let it sit for 24 hours on the counter top instead of inside one of the fridges. Hopefully, this will improve the flavor of the crust.
We also made the sauce (from the other Pizza Hut Thin & Crispy recipe) & I was less impressed with that. It wasn't thick enough, even tho I triple drained the tomatoes and then drained it again after I ran it all thru the blender. I didn't want to add tomato paste, so it had a bit too much loose liquid in it. And, the flavor was not as prominant as I wanted it. I like to be able to taste the crust and the sauce & the cheese under all the toppings. I've got some experimenting to do with the sauce.
But, I was not unhappy with the crust results, and have a pretty good idea about what to do differently next time. I just wish I could find a good sheeter for home use!
