Really good cracker style crust? It's gotta be the hardest challenge in pizza making, I have no doubt. I make a great Neo style pizza with leopard char on a 850F stone; and my Chicago deep dish is usually buttery and biscuit like... But a really good cracker crust has been a challenge! You know, that crunches when you cut it, and leaves a messy shattering of flakes everywhere when you bite into it? And slices that are perfectly rigid when you hold them up, not sagging one iotta?
What has finally brought me stiff and CRUNCHY success is the pasta roller attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. I tried hand rolling out the various recipes—changing the hydration from 38%-55%—and they were edible, but usually flat and semi-crisp and too bread like (thin as they were), and not crackly crispy. They looked like many other's posting of their cracker crusts here—thin, but not layered and crackly. And they just wouldn't brown up—particularly on the bottom; it was like working with Caputo in a home oven all over again!
But after reading about those that have used the pasta rollers and then pieced the 5" wide stips together, I knew I had to try it. I used DKM's Pizza Inn recipe with KABF and with 5.6 ounces of water—35% hydration—mixed in a food processor—and let it cold rise in the fridge for 48 hours, and then a 5 hour counter rise before baking. Following tips from Steve, I used Crisco as the oil in the dough, and from Pete, I par-cooked in my Megascreen, then on a hot preheated stone, and finally on the top shelf of the oven to help the cheese and meat cook.
This pizza was damn good. I heartily thank eveyone for their footwork on this one. And if that CRACKLY crust with many tasty layers shattering to the ground as you devour it, is eluding you too—I highly recommend the pasta rollers. It's makes it easy with no rolling pin issues (I tried laminating the dough by hand, and for the 40% hydration range, SHEESH, what work!)
I tried to take photos with my only camera, my iPhone, but the pics are too bad to post....
