Chicago Thin - a labor of love

[spacelooper]

Not sure why it flipped 2 photos upside down?? I tried it twice and it did it both times....weird.

[Garvey]

That's some fine looking pie! 

[tinroofrusted]

Hey Garvey,

I just wanted to let you know that I made your Pizza Factory thin crust pizza last night, complete with the sauce, and it was totally delicious. I just loved it.  The crust was flavorful, and the sauce!  I usually just use crushed tomatoes for sauce, so I wasn't quite ready for the full-fledged flavor assault that you get with this tomato paste based, herb infused sauce.  It was really great. So thanks for working so hard to make an authentic Chicago style recipe. It worked great!  

P.S. I did slice it "party-style".  

Regards,

TinRoof

[Garvey]

TinRoof,

That is a great looking pie!  I'm glad you found the recipe to your liking.  Chicago thin is a fairly sauce-heavy style, and even within the type, I go very heavy on the sauce.

I see you've got a nice two-stone setup, too.  A man after my own heart!  It's really the only way to go in the home pizza factory, er, kitchen.   

BTW, if you're not sausage averse, try making the sausage sometime and put that on there.  In Chicago, sausage is, by far, the most popular topping.  Pepperoni may be king everywhere else, but not in the Chicagoland area.

Cheers,
Garvey

[tinroofrusted]

I definitely want to try your sausage recipe.  Maybe next time I make it. I prefer fresh sausage over pepperoni. (I put a bit of salami on the pizza, which was very tasty; just what I had on hand). 

Here are a couple of questions for you:

1. Do you ever laminate the dough, i.e., fold it over a few times before rolling it out?  Would that be a good way to go on this dough? 
2. Would you bake with or without convection? I didn't use convection because I was worried about the top getting done too soon. But I could have gone with 450 and convection instead of 475 conventional.  The bake time was just about 9 minutes so it was about right without convection I guess. 

I have some friends visiting in a couple of weeks and I think I will try this recipe out on them. 

Regards,

TinRoof

[Garvey]

TinRoof:

1. No, I never have laminated the dough.  If that's your thing, I don't see how it could hurt and I'd be interested to hear how it went, but this style doesn't really call for that.
2. I have never used a convection oven, but I think that those on this forum say to keep it off.  My best advice is "know thine oven."  If you're normally a convection guy, go with that.  If not, don't.  For me and my oven, I use a two-stone setup and shuttle the pizza from bottom to top as needed.  I start low and finish high, but YMMV.  Every oven is different.

Cheers,
Garvey

[Garvey]

Given how many times I've made this recipe and how long it's been my only thin crust recipe I use (outside of the few experiments inspired by this forum), it sounds crazy to admit that I even tinkered with it at all.  But I think I have stumbled upon an innovation that improves upon this already great recipe:
NO KNEAD.

Here's the back story.  Every winter, the old neighborhood gang gets together for a guys weekend at a cabin in the woods.  Pizza Factory is the star of the show.  We all grew up eating it, and the pizzas we make that weekend are always the best.  Well, several months back, I was making 20-something dough balls for the long weekend, which is a taxing feat without a commercial sized mixer.  My little consumer grade KitchenAid would have to do, and it was going to be many batches at full capacity.  I also have a job and family and don't really have an extra day in the middle of the week to just sit around and make dough.  So I thought to myself, "Heck, I'll just not knead it at all and bang out these batches as quickly as possible."  I made five or six batches of four dough balls (300g each) per batch.  I bulk fermented each batch overnight in a ziploc bag and then balled and bagged up all 20-something. 

I really wasn't sure how they'd turn out.  I figured it would all be OK, and the good company and libations would smooth out any minor deficiencies.  Boy, was I wrong.  It was not OK--it was awesome! 

After the requisite 3-day cold ferment, the dough was workable as usual, but it baked up crispier and more wonderful than ever before.  I was hesitant to share these results here on the forum without further testing.  Yeah, 20+ pizzas might be too many for a fluke, but they were all made at the same time.  Since then, I have made it a couple more times, to great results.  I think this will be my new go-to method.  Would love to hear how it works for you.

NO KNEAD PIZZA FACTORY DOUGH

For each 14" pie, you'll need a 300 g dough ball.  Here is the recipe for two (because who in their right mind would make only one pizza? ;-))

AP Flour (100%): Cool Water (50%): IDY (.5%): Salt (1%): Oil (8%): Sugar (1%): Total (160.5%): Single Ball:

373.83 g  |  13.19 oz | 0.82 lbs 186.92 g  |  6.59 oz | 0.41 lbs 1.87 g | 0.07 oz | 0 lbs | 0.62 tsp | 0.21 tbsp 3.74 g | 0.13 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.67 tsp | 0.22 tbsp 29.91 g | 1.05 oz | 0.07 lbs | 6.65 tsp | 2.22 tbsp 3.74 g | 0.13 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.94 tsp | 0.31 tbsp 600 g | 21.16 oz | 1.32 lbs | TF = .06875 300 g | 10.58 oz | 0.66 lbs | TF = .06875

NOTE: As a no-knead dough, it requires a long, cold ferment. Make dough 72 hrs ahead (absolute minimum is 48 hrs.; still great after 96 hrs), kept in fridge until a couple hrs before baking.   Punch down if needed during the first 12 hrs.  I like to separate out the dough balls after the first 12 hrs. of rising as one mass.

MIXING: When making the dough, dump all the dry ingredients into the mixer bowl, stir to combine, and then add the liquids.  Be sure to use cool water (60^o-ish?). Mix it just until the dough comes together and is uniform throughout.  It's done.  That is, don't knead it.  Cover it and stick it in the fridge for 72 hrs, when it's pizza time.

[pythonic]

Given how many times I've made this recipe and how long it's been my only thin crust recipe I use (outside of the few experiments inspired by this forum), it sounds crazy to admit that I even tinkered with it at all.  But I think I have stumbled upon an innovation that improves upon this already great recipe:
NO KNEAD.

Here's the back story.  Every winter, the old neighborhood gang gets together for a guys weekend at a cabin in the woods.  Pizza Factory is the star of the show.  We all grew up eating it, and the pizzas we make that weekend are always the best.  Well, several months back, I was making 20-something dough balls for the long weekend, which is a taxing feat without a commercial sized mixer.  My little consumer grade KitchenAid would have to do, and it was going to be many batches at full capacity.  I also have a job and family and don't really have an extra day in the middle of the week to just sit around and make dough.  So I thought to myself, "Heck, I'll just not knead it at all and bang out these batches as quickly as possible."  I made five or six batches of four dough balls (300g each) per batch.  I bulk fermented each batch overnight in a ziploc bag and then balled and bagged up all 20-something. 

I really wasn't sure how they'd turn out.  I figured it would all be OK, and the good company and libations would smooth out any minor deficiencies.  Boy, was I wrong.  It was not OK--it was awesome! 

After the requisite 3-day cold ferment, the dough was workable as usual, but it baked up crispier and more wonderful than ever before.  I was hesitant to share these results here on the forum without further testing.  Yeah, 20+ pizzas might be too many for a fluke, but they were all made at the same time.  Since then, I have made it a couple more times, to great results.  I think this will be my new go-to method.  Would love to hear how it works for you.

NO KNEAD PIZZA FACTORY DOUGH

For each 14" pie, you'll need a 300 g dough ball.  Here is the recipe for two (because who in their right mind would make only one pizza? ;-))

AP Flour (100%): Cool Water (50%): IDY (.5%): Salt (1%): Oil (8%): Sugar (1%): Total (160.5%): Single Ball:

373.83 g  |  13.19 oz | 0.82 lbs 186.92 g  |  6.59 oz | 0.41 lbs 1.87 g | 0.07 oz | 0 lbs | 0.62 tsp | 0.21 tbsp 3.74 g | 0.13 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.67 tsp | 0.22 tbsp 29.91 g | 1.05 oz | 0.07 lbs | 6.65 tsp | 2.22 tbsp 3.74 g | 0.13 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.94 tsp | 0.31 tbsp 600 g | 21.16 oz | 1.32 lbs | TF = .06875 300 g | 10.58 oz | 0.66 lbs | TF = .06875

NOTE: As a no-knead dough, it requires a long, cold ferment. Make dough 72 hrs ahead (absolute minimum is 48 hrs.; still great after 96 hrs), kept in fridge until a couple hrs before baking.   Punch down if needed during the first 12 hrs.  I like to separate out the dough balls after the first 12 hrs. of rising as one mass.

MIXING: When making the dough, dump all the dry ingredients into the mixer bowl, stir to combine, and then add the liquids.  Be sure to use cool water (60^o-ish?). Mix it just until the dough comes together and is uniform throughout.  It's done.  That is, don't knead it.  Cover it and stick it in the fridge for 72 hrs, when it's pizza time.

Pics or it didnt happen

Nate