Pizza Hut Thick and Chewy crust?

[Pizza_dude]

Hello,  I am new here and wanted to say hello. I am looking for a recipe for the Thick and Chewy crust that Pizza Hut use to make. I have been into making homemade pizza for quite a few years now, but I only do it when I have the time to do so. Any help would be apreciated.

Thanks,
  Doug

[DKM]

Welcome aboard Doug  

Not one I remember at the moment, but we have an ex-pizza hutt manager that may be able to help.

DKM

[xPHmgr]

When I worked there we only made thin and pan pizzas.

[dannylee]

I am looking for the pizza flour suitable for making thick and chewy pizza crust, something like the one of pizzahut.

danny

[giotto]

Doug & Danny:

Here's the exact ingredients behind Pizza Hut's crusts, as well as other items.  I believe they posted All Purpose as their preference at one time.  Amazing, they used to deplete 1% of the total milk in the U.S., and sell more pizza than any other restaurant. 

http://www.pizzahut.com/menu/nutritioninfo/documents/ph_ingredients.pdf

[giotto]

Okay, so it's been awhile. But years seem like days, and some pizza recipes remain extant anyways. The timing of Roulland's request for this recipe via email is rather extraordinary because I was planning on making this Pizza Hut style today. 

Here's how I put this transparent, slightly crispy crust together.  I mix by hand, similar to when I make San Francisco style bread, to control the end result.  But if you wish to be boring, I provide a mixer step as well (makes two 6" minis, or 1 12" pizza pan crust):

Ingredients
a) Medium-level protein flour - 9 oz (e.g., Giusto's Bakers AP 12% protein, King Arthur Bread 12.7%, King Arthur's AP 11.7%, Gold Medal Better for Bread) 
b) Active yeast – 1/4 to 1/2 tsp (no need to proof)
c) Luke Warm Milk (approx. 90 F) – 6.5 oz (62%)
d) Salt – 7/8 tsp
e) 1/2 tsp sugar or 1/8 tsp barley malt syrup (such as EDEN Organic, available at Whole Foods, with enzymes to convert starches to sugar)
f) Vegetable Oil (or Canola Oil) – 1 ½ - 2 TBL 

Mix
1. Mix flour & dry yeast (no need to proof active yeast)
2. Mix all other ingredients separately
3) Combine all ingredients with spatula, adding flour/yeast mixture 1/3 at a time to wet mixture. Note: (if you wish to avoid some light exercise, just bring it together with a mixer, then mix for 2 minutes, form into ball, and skip next two steps, and go to refrigeration and setting aside).
4) Once together, squeeze a couple times, put on board, knead 3 or 4 times, and set aside as rough ball covered by towel or a large upside down bowl.
5) Every 15 - 20 minutes turn the dough (just push down with palm, fold over like a letter, push down, fold once more, form into ball and cover with towel or a bowl). Avoid excessive flour.  DO this 3 - 4 times over 1 hour. It will form a smooth texture, and moisture will reduce slightly.
6) Refrigerate overnight and bring to room temp for 30 minutes when ready to prepare, or if you need to make same day, let sit for 1 more hour.

Dough Proof Time
1) Turn your oven on for 45 or so seconds, letting it reach around 100F.
2) Split dough into 2 equal sizes for 6" minis, or keep as one 12".  Do NOT knead. 
3) Place dough in lightly greased pan, and just push out to edges.  NO need to bring up sides.
4) Set inside 100F oven 1 hour.  Cover with plastic wrap if you wish. 
5) Remove. Then increase oven to 455F. 
6) Push down with stamper (or use bottom of a smaller sprayed pan that fits inside dough to create 1/4" or so thickness on sides, or just use back of hands to lightly push down from center out leaving 1/4" around sides.
7) Put in ingredients, using light amount of your favorite sauce, shredded cheese, etc.
Place in 455F oven, about 11 minutes. 

[Pete-zza]

giotto,

Welcome back. That is a nice looking pizza.

When I clicked on the link you provided for the Pizza Hut ingredients list, I got an error message. The PH ingredients document that I usually use is this one: http://www.pizzahut.com/Files/PDF/ph_ingredients.pdf. I am pretty sure that the pan doughs and other doughs that PH now uses are delivered to their stores in frozen form. There are a few countries outside of the U.S., like Malaysia and The Philippines, where they still use fresh dough, however. Often the giveaway that a dough is frozen is that the yeast appears higher up in the list of ingredients, as is the case with the pan dough ingredients list in the abovereferenced pdf document.

I assume that the milk in the recipe you posted is by volume rather than weight. Is that correct? And is it nonfat or whole milk? I think it has been some time since PH has used real milk in their dough formulations. At one point, they used a dairy blend of whey, nonfat milk and buttermilk. I assume that the dairy blend was dried but the ingredients list I saw, as of July 29, 2004, did not specifically say. I know that Dutch Valley sells a dried dairy blend with the same three ingredients, in 50-lb. bags.

Peter

[giotto]

Yo Pete-zza:

Hello, good to see you around. Ooops, 5.6 Oz? I meant 6.5 oz. See what age does? I'll fix. The original formula actually used a buttermilk variation, which I always achieved by adding a dry buttermilk powder to water.  The proofing stage was always a critical stage and something that blew me away when I observed it first hand years ago. I could never find their hand stamper; but I was so surprised when I witnessed such a volume pizza chiain using overnight fermentation and a proofing process.  I think their pizza has gone down hill around where I live, and find their minis are the best thing they have going.  I can achieve their results for a mini with the formula above, using whole milk and even low fat or non-fat milk adjusting oil to 2 TBL. 

Here's an example of a a multi-grain version:

[Pete-zza]

Since the topic heading for this thread says "Pizza Hut Thick and Chewy", I wondered whether it is/was different than what we now know as the PH pan pizza. So, I did a Google search and learned that PH introduced a "Thick 'n Chewy" pizza in 1975. As best I can tell from the search, the name was later changed to "Pan" pizza after PH became a part of Pepsico.

Peter

[pizza4ever]

I used to manage a Pizza Hut in the late 70's, early 80's and the Thick & Chewy was entirely different from the Pan crust.  The Thick & Chewy was a 'bread' type crust, that I still make at home.  The Pan crust used a different amount of yeast, salt, and used powdered milk.  I have a recipe for the Pan, that is pretty close.  You need to put about 3 oz of veg. oil in a 16 in. pan.  At PH, we did 1 oz for the 9 in. pan, 2 oz for the 14 in. pan, 3 for the 16 in. pan., 1/2 oz for the personal pan.  We would run the dough ball through the top rollers of the dough sheeter and put it in the pan to proof at room temperature, or by the ovens, (warmer there).  The dough would fill out the pan and raise to the top, then we would refrigerate.

Pan Pizza
4-1/2 Cups Bread Flour (22.5 oz/637.9 grams)
1-1/2 Cups water (12.5 oz / 354.4 grams) 90 - 100 F
2 tsp. Active Dry Yeast (.27 oz. / 7.7 grams)
3 Tbl Powdered Milk (.5 oz / 14.2 grams)
1 tsp salt (.2 oz / 5.7 grams)
1 TBL Sugar (.42 oz / 11.9 grams)
2 TBL Oil (1 oz / 28.4)
I used my Kitchenaid dough mixer on 2 for 10 minutes.  This will make a 16 in pizza.

[loowaters]

Do we know for certain the dough weights for the different sizes of Pizza Hut's Pan pizza?  I ask because, with all respect to that formula "pizza4ever" posted, it's a massive dough.  That formulation for a 16" would have a TF=.1865.  That's thick...and heavy.  Pizza Hut's Pan isn't necessarily a heavy dough, it's actually kinda light, small crumb but airy and bready, just oily from being fried in all the pan oil.

Loo

[loowaters]

I see over in the PH Pan thread on the American Style page that Peter has 22 oz. for a 14". http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,213.msg85585.html#msg85585

Loo

[Pete-zza]

Loo,

Some time ago, Pizza Hut went to frozen dough for its pan pizzas in the U.S. To get fresh dough information, you would perhaps have to go to places like Indonesia and Malaysia where I believe PH is still using fresh dough. However, a while back, a PH manager who worked with fresh dough said that the weight of dough for a 14" pan pizza was 22 ounces. That is where I got the 22 ounce number you mentioned. For that dough ball weight, I recently calculated a thickness factor of 0.14291 (Reply 140 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,213.msg84184.html#msg84184). The same thickness factor can be used for any size PH clone pan pizza.

Maybe you didn't notice, but the recipe posted by pizza4ever in Reply 9 in this thread is the one posted on this forum at http://www.pizzamaking.com/panpizza.php. Maybe pizza4ever found it elsewhere on the Internet and didn't realize that it had its origins right here on our forum.

Peter

[loowaters]

As you probably know, I don't often stray from the Chicago Style page but I stumbled across this and posted that weight question and thought I'd go check the PH Pan thread as I hadn't done that in a while.  I go to the last page and there's a post with that 22 oz. doughball info.  I did notice pizza4ever's formula was the same as the one you referenced after a quick look over on the other page.

Loo

[Glutenboy]

I used to manage a Pizza Hut in the late 70's, early 80's and the Thick & Chewy was entirely different from the Pan crust.  The Thick & Chewy was a 'bread' type crust, that I still make at home.

Pizza4ever -

You never gave up the recipe for the Thick-n-Chewy crust from the 70's.  I used to live in Kansas City in 1975-8 and it was the closest thing to NY style you could get out there.  I ate it all the time.  Could you post the recipe so I can give it a try please?  Not the Pan Pizza (which I think is what you posted) but the original T&C.  If you could include any authentic handling and cooking instructions, I'd love it!

- Glutenboy

[Mad_Ernie]

The thick-n-chewy crust was the first alternative crust style that Pizza Hut offered, and it came out sometime in the mid-to-late 70's (1975 or '76 by my memory).  It was indeed something more like a NY style crust (although not nearly as good as a true NY style pizza).  I loved it when I was a kid.  I must have been one of the first kids to request it in West Allis, Wisconsin back at that time.  I guess the ads had me hooked.

History of Pizza Hut found here: http://www.scripophily.net/pizzahutinc.html

It was eventually replaced for a time in 1980 when the pan pizza debuted.  The pan pizza was probably PH's answer to the growing Godfather's chain and that style of pizza.  The pan is not quite a deep-dish, but certainly thicker than a typical American pizza, and not chewy.  It's also a heckuva a lot greasier, which is why I don't like it.

The hand-tossed style pizza that PH offers (if they still do) is basically the old thick-n-chewy (as opposed to thin-n-crispy).  My recollection of the thick-n-chewy, though, is that it was a little thicker than their current hand-tossed dough.  Probably cut back on some of the ingredient amounts to save money. 

-ME

[Glutenboy]

I still want that Thick-n-Chewy recipe!!! 

[pizza4ever]

Sorry, it's been a while since I was here.  My recipe is:
1 pkg Yeast (1/2 oz)
1-1/4 Cup Water (105F)
2 Tbl Sugar
1 Tsp Salt
2 Tbl Oil
4 Cups Flour
Dissolve yeast in the water. Mix in the sugar. Add the salt and oil to the flour in a bowl, I use a Kitchen-aid mixer, with a dough hook, mix for 8 to 10 minutes.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 2 hours.  This will make 2 14'' pizzas.

Pizza Huts' weights for the Thick and Chewy were:
7 oz for a 9" pan
14 oz for 12" pan
21 oz for 16" pan

[Glutenboy]

Thanks!  I'm going to try it soon.  It wasn't baked in a pan if I recall, was it?

[Pete-zza]

pizza4ever,

Is that the authentic PH recipe or your interpretation of it, and, if the latter, what led you to your version?

Peter