The Dough Doctor's cracker!!

[fazzari]

I have never been a fan of thin and crispy pizzas...and now I know why...I've never had a good one until tonight.  I gave Tom Lehmann's method a go, just to say I did and to see how the technique works.

The recipe:
flour   (used high gluten)     100%
water                                45
salt                                    2
yeast                                 .75
oil                                    4.00

As per the Dough Doctor's instructions:  put water in mixing bowl, added the yeast, then the salt, then the oil, and then the flour.  Mixed in my Kitchenaid on lowest speed for 90 seconds.  Scaled the dough pieces, formed them into a roundish shape, put them in plastic bags and refrigerated for 24 hours.  Took a dough bag out of the fridge 2 hours prior to bake to let dough warm up.  Lightly floured my dough board, and then I put my new one sixteenth inch silicon rolling pin rings on my rolling pin and sheeted the dough out to about one sixteenth inch.  Dressed the skin, and baked it in my oven at 500 degrees.  Took about 8 minutes to bake.  Some probably will say I should have baked it longer...i don't think so.  It was super crispy, but not at all tough, it was tender and delicious.  To date this is simply the easiest pizza I've ever made.  Also, I forgot to dock this, which was part of the instructions.

John

[BTB]

Looks good, John.  From the pictures it looks like some little flecks of corn meal or something on the bottom of the crust.  Is there any?  And no oil to give it another dimension or flavor.  Simple recipe and I'll have to try it sometime.  What kind of sausage did you use?

Tom Lehmann had always advised, tho, not to mix the salt with the yeast as it can adversely affect the yeast.   I think Tom has a preference for ADY like I do and you have to let it develop and foam up a while first before adding in the other ingredients, esp. salt. But we learn new things everyday.

                                                                                              --BTB

[fazzari]

Looks good, John.  From the pictures it looks like some little flecks of corn meal or something on the bottom of the crust.  Is there any?  And no oil to give it another dimension or flavor.  Simple recipe and I'll have to try it sometime.  What kind of sausage did you use?

Tom Lehmann had always advised, tho, not to mix the salt with the yeast as it can adversely affect the yeast.   I think Tom has a preference for ADY like I do and you have to let it develop and foam up a while first before adding in the other ingredients, esp. salt. But we learn new things everyday.

                                                                                              --BTB

There's oil in there...oil gives it some flavor.   This is a beef and mushroom pizza..simply used fresh ground beef.

Here are some directions from Tom himself:  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,17956.0.html

John

[Jackie Tran]

Looks good John.  Now here is a style I've yet to try and know nothing about.   Looks like I'll have to try soon just to say I did as well.

[fazzari]

Looks good John.  Now here is a style I've yet to try and know nothing about.   Looks like I'll have to try soon just to say I did as well.

After reading about many of your intricate maneuvers in the pizza dough world, it makes me chuckle to think of a setting where you will mix a dough for 90 seconds, and then pull all the little pieces together in clump and say to yourself...."perfect!".  The end result is amazingly tasty though!!
John

[Jackie Tran]

John, I think you would be surprise at how complicated I can make things.  I'm always trying to simplify the process.  To get there, I have to test as many methods as possible, but in the end I'm all for easy as long as it works. 

[BTB]

How did I miss the oil?  Need new glasses.                   BTB

[The Dough Doctor]

Because of the greatly abbreviated mixing process, this is one case where I have found it necessary to put the salt as well as the oil into the water, but I am always careful to begin my "dough mixing" process as quickly as possible.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[BTB]

John, how about the corn meal question.  The picture appears to show some flecks of cornmeal or something on the bottom of the crust.  What is it?

[fazzari]

Sorry about that...that is cornmeal.  That's what I use to slide pizzas without sticking

John

[nick57]

  I thought I would give this another go after reading your post. Not much success before this time. Never really crisp enough. This time was a vast improvement. I did tweak the recipe a little. I added garlic powder to the dough mix. The dough seemed really dry after mixing. I worked it into a ball as best I could. It wanted to fall apart. After awhile in the fridge the dough did hydrate. I did a par bake at 550 degrees on a stone and very lightly docked the crust. The par bake was for 5 minutes. I removed the skin and let it cool down for about 5 minutes on a wire rack. I added the toppings, minus the red sauce this time. I brushed on olive oil instead, and topped with mozz, Italian sausage, and mushrooms. I lowered the oven temp to 425, thinking the longer cook time would drive out more moisture from the dough and make it crisper. I cooked the pie until the cheese was nice a bubbly. It turned out almost like I wanted. Kinda like Shakey's/ thin crust Pizza Hut. I think only mixing for 90 seconds made the difference. I think another key is rolling the skin out very thin. A couple of pieces were a little thicker than the rest, and they were not as crispy. So I will try to be more uniform with the thickness on the dough, and try for almost paper thin, which gave the best texture and cracker thin results.

[Steve]

Very nice!

[BTB]

Nick, your pizza looked very good.  Question:  your cornicione  (lip or end crust) looks like it was baked in a cutter pan from the curl on the edge of the crust, so did you use a cutter pan or the like?   Not that that's bad, as I often do so.   

Thanks for the pictures especially as they help us better understand your process . . . . as well as make many of us drool for a bite of the pizza!

                                                                 --BTB

[Mad_Ernie]

Nick:

Looks very good!

Thanks for sharing your experience, and the pictures speak a thousand word on the results.  I think the final result looks very much like a Pizza Hut original thin 'n' crispy crust.  Like BTB, I was wondering if you used any form of pan or not.

Thanks again,

-ME

[nick57]

Thanks for the nice comments. I used a cheap 14" perforated cutter pan I purchased from WalMart a few years ago. I usually end up making my skin bigger that the pan size to get the thickness I want. So, I just plop the skin in the oiled pan and cut it. Just a habit I guess. Also, I par bake the skin until it sets, and then I removed it from the pan and placed it directly on the 550 degree stone for the remainder of the par bake, about 5 minutes total. I think the short mix time of the dough makes a big difference. I usually go for a couple of minutes or more. Next time I think I will mix the dough by hand, I think I can get it to form a ball with less working of the flour. The texture was like a saltine cracker, but more substantial. It did not shatter very much when bit, but it broke cleanly and with very little effort. It did not have a doughy, or bread like texture. I let the skin cool for a while after the par bake. I'm thinking of par baking a skin and letting it sit in the fridge to drive out even more moisture. I'll give an update on that. When the skin reached room temp, I topped it and put it back in the oven at 425 degrees. Since the skin was cooler it took longer to heat back up and the dark brown areas did not have that burnt flavor when it was finished. It browned nicely on the bottom also. One small area of the skin was a little thicker than the rest. Those two pieces were not as crisp, and were chewy. I did dock the skin, but not as much as I usually do. I poked it about a third as many times as I normally do. I got more big bubbles and lamination of the crust. This is the closet I have got to the thin crust Pizza Hut style from the 60's. It may not be great pizza, but I grew up on it, and we all know how that goes, fond memories of times past. If it was not for the Forum, I would have never got this close to heaven. Thanks to everyone here!!!!  

[Gags]

Thanks much for posting this recipe!

Growing up in NYC, I am a diehard fan of NY Style and never had a high opinion of cracker style.
However, living in Southern California, it's hard to avoid.  
And since my girlfriend is especially fond of cracker style, it was time to try one...

I didn't have time to ferment overnight.  The idea was hatched and I only had about 1.5 hours, so I tried to speed up the process by using warm water, some honey to feed the yeast, and by putting my dough bins near the oven until it was time to bake.  I wasn't sure what TF to use, so I went for 0.06.

Here's the recipe:
Flour (100%):       218.69 g  
Water (45%):       98.41 g  
IDY (.75%):       0.54 tsp
Salt (2%):       0.78 tsp
Olive Oil (4%):       8.75 g | 1.94 tsp  
Honey (2%):       4.37 g | 0.21 tbsp
Total (153.75%):   336.23 g | TF = 0.0624

The toppings were basically an Italian kitchen sink:  a light coating of alfredo sauce, a light drizzle of my red sauce, cherry tomato, basil, garlic, mozzarella, grilled chicken, a bit of pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, and goat cheese.

I used a stone at 500F for about 3 minutes and it browned the bottom nicely.  Then, to get a bit more char on top, I threw it into my brick-lined under-the-oven broiler for about 30 seconds.  That did the trick!
I was impressed with the flavor of the crust, despite such a short ferment period.  And the texture was awesome!  It had just the right amount of crunch, but had enough flexibility to not fall apart.  Not surprisingly, the charred portions were really flavorful.

I think I’m a fan and will try this style again.  I think it would be great at parties as you can really play with topping combinations without getting too full on crust.

Thanks again for posting up!