Generic Chicago Thin Crust

[loowaters]

I've been working on this for a few weeks in hopes of creating a thin crust pizza reminiscent of your average, run of the mill, mom and pop, neighborhood thin crust pizza.  Every 'burb has at least one and while it's not the greatest pizza, it's the one you'll pick up the phone to order from when you want some pizza to nibble on while watching a Blackhawks game on TV (and next year, we'll even get to see the home games!  ) or you get home from work late.  Great?  No.  Good?  Yes.  Will you defend your neighborhood pizza if anyone tries to criticize it?  You bet.

This was born when I was going to try the Monical's formula that Peter and a couple others were working on over on the American Style page.  I kinda thought that I'd just tinker with it a little because I'd never had Monical's and had no clue what I was looking for.  I wanted something bready and chewy without puffyness and that I can crisp up on the bottom but not exactly crackery.

Here's what I came up with:

AP Flour (I used Gold Medal Unbleached)  100%
Water 50
Corn oil 3
Salt 1
ADY 1
TF = .09

Stand mixer instructions: In the mixer bowl, add water and salt to dissolve.  Addanyeast and allow to bloom for 5 minutes.  Add half of the flour and combine fully on mix setting then knead for 8 minutes on 4 setting.   Add remaining flour and attempt to fully combine.  Note: Because the dough is very dry, it will not form into a cohesive ball; rather it will be loose and scrappy with some raw flour left unincorporated.

Rising: After proper mixing, the dough will be very stiff. Place dough in oiled bowl and allow to rise for a minimum 1 1/2 in oven with light on and hot water along with for humidity.  Divide and let rise on counter for another hour or two or move to fridge for later use.

Sheeting:  Pat out dough the best you can using more bench flour to in the process. The dough will be pretty stiff but shouldn't be too difficult to get to finished size by rolling by hand. Roll dough to approximately 1/8" - 3/16" thickness.

Baking Instructions: Bake in a preheated for one hour 500° F oven directly on stone for approximately 10 minutes until crust is crisp and golden brown.

Good stuff.

The pics show a half cheese/half pepperoni with a couple pieces missing.  Tiny fingers wouldn't stay away long enough for the pics to be taken

Loo

Edit:  I made a mistake on the thickness factor in the original post and made the correction from .095 to .09.

[goosen1]

Loo,

That sure brings back the memories enjoying pizza from Joliet IL. That looks like a Aurelio's, Louie's or even Linda's pizza!! Where I have moved, I have not found a good pizza joint... yet... I think it's time for a road trip!!! Anyways, Good job on the pizza!!!

Goose

[loowaters]

Thanks Goose.

A couple things.  I docked the skin before topping and next time I'm going to brush the outside ring with olive oil to crisp up the ring a bit and give it some better color.  When I get more time I'll give the sauce recipe.

Loo

[loowaters]

Here's the sauce recipe that I tried out that turned out pretty good.  It's not the most complex of sauces but very nice and quite complimentary to the crust that I came up with for this.  What that last little bit of mumbo jumbo means, I don't know, but it sounds nice.

16 oz. by weight tomato puree
1/2 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1/4 t garlic powder
1 t dried basil
1 t dried tarragon
the tiniest dash of cinnamon

combine and let sit in the fridge overnight.

Loo

[goosen1]

That sounds good.. What size pizza did that come out to? 14"?

Goose

[loowaters]

Ehhhhh, I eyeballed the amount of sauce.  I made that 16 oz. in hopes of that being just right for two 14" pies.  I ended up using probably 6-7 oz. per pie based on what was left.

Loo

[Eddy]

Looks like Martino's on Devon (North Side). Who doesn't love thin crust chi-town pie cut into squares!!!

[joe]

Looks like Martino's on Devon (North Side). Who doesn't love thin crust chi-town pie cut into squares!!!

That's the pizza i always have when i visit my brother. Will be having one this weekend .

[loowaters]

Another sauce effort that's pretty similar to what I did last week and because there's more puree than what I went with above, it's a little milder. 

1 28 oz. can Wal Mart Great Value Crushed Tomatoes (puree'd with an immersion blender)
1 t dried basil
1/2 t dried tarragon
1/2 t course sea salt
1/2 t crushed black pepper
1/2 t sugar
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes (that I further crushed with a pestle and mortar)
1 dash cinnamon

Pretty good stuff.

Loo

[mrmojo1]

thank you soooo much!!!   your pictures look perfect!!!  i miss that pizza so much!  thank you!!  go sox!  go cubs!!!

-=terry

[zspec1]

Hello Loowaters.  First and foremost thank you very much for sharing your recipe with us.  I have been searching for a Chicago thin crust pizza and have never been able to find one anywhere.  I have a very newbish question about your dough recipe; Are the number amounts in your recipe % or actual tsp/tbsp measurements?

[loowaters]

Welcome to the board, zspec1, you'll learn a lot here.  Those are baker's percentages in the dough formulation.  Good luck.

Loo

[zspec1]

Excellent, thank you very much for the quick reply.

[Deacon Volker]

Good post Lou.  I've been playing with this one a bit too and like what you're doing with it.  I think the brushing of OO on at least the rim is important in helping to give the edge a bit more color than I've gotten without it.  I also took to adding in 1Tbsp. of sugar to the dough, it might be all subconscience stuff but it seems to bring up a bit of flavor underneath it. I've been baking my on a cutter pan, then with about 3 minutes remaining, slide it out onto the stone directly to help crisp up the center sections a bit more. 

[mrmojo1]

I'm a total newbie.  but loos crust has just made it for me.  havnt had to order crappy pizza in boise, ID for 4-5 mos now.  one thing, after i made 1 batch of dough one time was it ended up resting in the fridge for a few days.  the crust had  a great beer flavor...anyway to expedite this process? 

and loo your home run inn is unreal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! man! impressive! 

-=ter

[MarleyEds]

Looks good Loo - I might have to try this one this weekend!  Did you use shredded or sliced cheese?

[loowaters]

...after i made 1 batch of dough one time was it ended up resting in the fridge for a few days.  the crust had  a great beer flavor...anyway to expedite this process? 

and loo your home run inn is unreal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! man! impressive! 

-=ter

Maybe more yeast but at the expense of other characteristics of the crust.   

Looks good Loo - I might have to try this one this weekend!  Did you use shredded or sliced cheese?

I use shredded but you can probably get away with slices. 

My Dad lives in La Quinta, CA, not exactly a hot bed for pizza (hot bed for hot...anything else, yes), but he found a place called Jake's where they do a really good thin crust and they use slices of whole milk mozz.  It does make for less mess when jerking it off the peel.  Jake's is related to the chain of Jake's pizza places in Minnesota, not Chicago.

Loo

[mrmojo1]

Its actually tough out here(IDAHO).  only a couple places selling while milk mozz.  8.99!!!  ONE PIZZA!!! its worth it though.  whole milk is sooo much better than part skim.  am now tryin half part skim half whole milk...seems ok.   wish i could find some pastenes!!!  i dont even want to talk about italian sausage.  growing up in chicago..i cant understand out here  how they can make so many variations of bad Italian sausage. no one hits it....johnsonville...please...

[mrmojo1]

Loo!!  I have a general question for you! is there something i can do to better clean or condition my stones.   i have 3 stones now.  a cheap round...terracotta reminds me of sandstone, a round marble all clad, and now a big square terracotta or sandstone from williams sonoma the bigges i could find and man it makes for bigger pizzas!.  the best crust i have made have been heating these suckers to 550 for an hour...the 1st time. subsequent crusts arent as crisp just a fine small layer of crisp/dryness that supports the slice is what im looking for, the subsequent pizzas have tasted good but are floppy quick!...thanks!

[loowaters]

Loo!!  I have a general question for you! is there something i can do to better clean or condition my stones.   i have 3 stones now.  a cheap round...terracotta reminds me of sandstone, a round marble all clad, and now a big square terracotta or sandstone from williams sonoma the bigges i could find and man it makes for bigger pizzas!.  the best crust i have made have been heating these suckers to 550 for an hour...the 1st time. subsequent crusts arent as crisp just a fine small layer of crisp/dryness that supports the slice is what im looking for, the subsequent pizzas have tasted good but are floppy quick!...thanks!

Before answering this, I'd say this is a question that would probably get plenty of responses if you asked it on the "General" board.

My stone is 15 years old.  It's a big ol' rectangular one, about 2/3" thick, and has turned a nice dark brown, not far from black.  When something gets spilled on it I'll scrape it after it cools down.  I'll also wipe it off with a dry cloth when necessary if there's burnt flour or cornmeal on it, but that's really it.  This stone has cooked so many pies and a lot of the color came in the early days (before I became hard core in making homemade pizza) from cooking frozen Home Run Inn pies on it.  I'd let the pies thaw and place them on the hot stone.  As we've learned, there's a lot of oil in those pies and cooking that into the stone has had a huge impact.  I really don't have anything else to give you.

Loo