Another DKM thin.

[Musky]

My first few attempts at this style were pretty good, but all three prior crusts ended up denser than I wanted with few air pockets.  Today I was more successful.

I followed the recipe from the recipe page utilizing KAAP flour.  I forgot that higher gluten now seems to be the consensus and that I had used KABF in my earlier attempts.  I decided to up the hydration slightly to 6.125 ounces of water hoping that would provide some air pockets.  Dough rose in a sealed container at room temp for 24 hours.  I rolled it out to around 18" and trimmed it to fit a 16" screen.  I have not yet found or ordered a cutter pan.  I did buy a docker this week which was nice.  I pinched up the edge to keep the cheese/sauce from running off.  I brushed the edge with Olive Oil hoping for a little color.  I par-baked for 3 minutes at 500 with the screen on a stone.  Dressed the par-baked crust with sauce, 50/50 whole milk part and part skim mozzarella, and spicy sausage.  The dressed crust was then baked for another 7+- minutes.

This time the crust was crunchy and airy at the same time.  Very happy with the results.  My next try will be with BF and the same amount of water.

Here's a couple of pics.  Thanks to all the experts here.  I'm having a blast.

Kevin

[Randy]

Nice looking cracker crust!
When I first started making DKM's thin crust I failed time after time because I failed to follow his instructions.  I was using instant yeast and thought I didn't need to bloom the yeast first for the five minutes he did using ADY.  Once I realized that the water temperature and the five minute blooming time even though I still used IDY, was the only way to go my cracker crust really improved.
I use Harvest King flour now but AP, and BF both work fine for me.  I think DKM uses AP flour.

[Green Hornet]

Looks mighty tastey indeed!
That recipie is a "keeper" for sure

[DKM]

That bottom picture shows a very good crust.

Guess it is time to make one again.

DKM

[zymurgymaster]

Musky,

Great looking pie.  Just made one today and it did not look anything like yours or DKM's.  Still working on it.  What did you use for a sauce?

[Musky]

Zymurgymaster, it took me four tries to get that texture for the crust.  The first three were okay, but this is the first with the air pockets throughout.

I've been buying a pizza sauce made at the local Italian deli where I get my cheese, sausage, and pepperoni.  I've been concentrating on getting the crusts down first.  That's been going well.

I plan on making my own sauce for a family party I'm having in a couple of weeks where I'm going to make three kinds of pizza.  I want to try microwaving the herbs and spices to extract flavor like I read about in a post by November.

You have to love this place.

Kevin

Don't overcook your steaks.  Why kill them twice.

[zymurgymaster]

Made my second one today.  Made the dough in the am and cooked it ~ 13 hours later.  Fantastic dough.  What did I do different from my first?  I actually followed the original recipe followed the prebake method.

I moved to the East Coast from the Western End of the UP several years ago.  Growing up was cracker style in my home town and they still serve it that way.  This recipe is very, very close if not better than my home town pie.  I look forward to fine tuning the toppings and such.  My favorite pie at my birthplace is one of onion, anchovie, and sausage.  I crave it just typing about it!

[BTB]

Question for DKM and Musky:  When making a sausage pizza with the cracker crust, do you put your sausage on raw or pre-cooked?     Your pizza looked great.

[Musky]

I haven't made that many of them, but for most of my pizzas I put a piece of foil on a cookie sheet, wet my fingers and put small chunks on the foil.  I put it in the preheated oven for two to three minutes.  This makes my wife happy.  She's thinks it makes the pizza less greasy.  I would put it on raw, but by pleasing the wife I get more sausage pizzas.   

Kevin

Dry rubbed and slow smoked.

[Randy]

I always precook the sausage.

[BTB]

For the 4 deep dish pans pizzas that I did so far, I used raw sausage on it like the famous deep dish pizzerias all do and they've all turned out very well, but it's a 25 to 30 minute cooking time.  And the pizzas were never greasy.  Most all of the Chicago thin crust pizzerias that I know of only use raw sausage on their thin crust pizzas, but their pizzas usually take a longer time than what this cracker crust seems to call for.   I guess I'll have to experiment, but Kevin's idea of a short oven warm up before "the main event" sounds fine.  I liked the brushing of olive oil idea on the edges to get them nicely browned.  I'm still impressed with the pictures of his pizza.  After I get a little more experience under my belt, I plan to try a cracker crust like this, too, and use the screens that I've long had but not used for this purpose.

[Musky]

BTB,

When you make your first cracker crust, disregard what I said in this thread about using 6.125 ounces of water when making the dough.  Stick to the tried and true recipe DKM developed that is on the main page.  Note the thread by Randy (5.6, 5.7,5.8) now in this forum about how a tiny change in the hydration can affect this crust.  You liked the looks of my pizza above, but the next one I made doing the exact same thing was no where near as good.

Since I started frequenting this site several months ago, I have made Loowaters deep dish, Randy's American, and the DKM cracker style pizzas.  I think I have had great success with the former two, but far greater inconsistency when making the cracker style.  I don't know if the guys with much more experience here would agree with me, but I have found the cracker style much harder to reproduce on a consistent basis.  I feel the pizza pictured above is about the only one of the five cracker style I've made I was really happy with.

Follow DKM's recipe and go from there.

Kevin

Five weeks 'til musky time.

[Pete-zza]

Kevin,

I noticed the "cool" icon in your last post when you meant to post the number 8. It took me the longest while before I learned how to avoid the "cool" icon in that situation. The answer came when Steve enlightened me and the membership in general by telling us to click on the box "Don't use smileys" that appears just below the space where messages are composed. If you'd like, you can modify your message to get rid of the "cool" icon.

Peter

[Musky]

Thanks, Pete.  That's cool.  HeHeHe.

Kevin

Musky time draws nigh.

[trohrs123]

Kevin
What is "Musky time" btw? 
Tim

[Musky]

Kevin
What is "Musky time" btw? 
Tim

Opening of fishing season.  A musky is a freshwater fish.  Here's one I caught last fall.

[trohrs123]

Opening of fishing season.  A musky is a freshwater fish.  Here's one I caught last fall.

NICE!
Maybe that baby should go on a pizza! After seeing your thin crust I decided to make one last night. Have been experimenting wiht toppings. I used "Iron Chef" brand General Tso's Sauce some stir fried chicken, yellow, red orange and green peppers, onions and soem fresh mozz adn shredded montery jack and topped wiht fresh scallions after baking. It was goen so quick there was no time to take pics How are those fish for eating?
Tim,

[Musky]

They aren't eaters.  Musky fisheries are very sensitive, and the fish are generally slow growing and hard to catch. Very few serious musky anglers keep them anymore, preferring to practice C,P, & R.  Catch, Photo, and Release.  After unhooking the above fish in the net while still in the water, we lifted it, took its picture, and had it back in the water in less than minute.  Due to this practice, it has become more common to catch true trophies. Though a nice fish and my personal best, they do get much larger than the one I posted. 

Perch and walleye taste much better.  Oh yeah, and anchovies.  I love anchovies.

Kevin

Muskies anyone?