Pizza Hut 70s era Thin 'n Crispy pizza, a 10 incher, made today.

[Papa T]

I made a 1970s style Pizza Hut Thin ‘n Crispy pizza earlier today. Spot on, original style PH T&C cracker style crust from back in the day. To find my original post on making this dough and pizza based on the old world Pizza Hut recipe, follow this link:

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=64537.0

I made this pizza in a 10 inch aluminum cutter pan. It was topped with the Thin ‘n Crispy style pizza sauce, typical low moisture, part skim mozzarella cheese, a bit of provolone cheese too, because I had a two deli slices that needed to be used, freshly prepared seasoned ground beef, and diced onions. When assembled, I topped it with traditional Pizza Hut Fairy Dust as the last step before placing in the oven.

Baking time for this one was a bit over 10 minutes, in a 525F oven, which was preheated with a stone for about an hour before baking, and the pan placed directly on the hot stone. Typical baking time will be in the 8-12 minute range depending on the size of the pizza and toppings used. Start checking yours around the 8 minute mark and proceed accordingly. I rotate my pizzas 180 degrees at about the 5 minute mark to even out the baking a bit.

A 10 inch old style Pizza Hut style T&C needs 6.25 ounces of dough, so I made a batch for 9 ounces, since the dough needs to be rolled out very thin, and placed like a pie crust in the pan, then trimmed. Flour is cheap, so always make more than what’s needed. Back in the day at The Hut, we’d toss the cutting scrap back in the dough bucket towards the side, to rise and use again.

I used my small dough batch method (read about it at the link above), which increases the hydration to 37.5% from 36%, and oil to 4% from 3%, when making a very small batch of this dough. The fermentation and rising physics are a bit different when making a really small batch like this, instead of the full commercial 35 pound batch that was made on site at The Hut of old.

When making this dough, it’s going to look like very coarse corn meal when mixing is finish. You need to gather that up, and make a tightly compacted snowball type dough ball with it, and put in a tightly covered container to rise 6-8 hours at room temperature. You may have to go longer or shorter depending on how cool or warm your room is.

You don’t need to oil the bowl or container to rise. Do not refrigerate. It rises at room temperature. I let this one rise 8 hours. It can go for longer if needed, even up to 24 hours. If it smells like thin and crispy wine, then perhaps it’s been too long and you may want to toss it. I've often let it go 12 hours and never had an issue. The key here is not to use it too early so it doesn't get crumbly when rolling. If you do go early, it's no biggie. Just put it back in the bowl tightly covered, and let it rise more.

At a small size like this, it really needs a good number of hours to do it's thing. The dough will start to look a bit more "moist" and like it wants to get puffy when it's getting happy, but don't let that fool you. It's not getting anything close to moist or puffy. It's just looks that way. But after several hours, it will be homogenous instead of crumbly, which is what you need to roll it out thin.

I use a glass bowl with plastic wrap tightly sealed. This is a low hydration dough and you don’t want to lose any moisture to evaporation. When ready to use, use your open hands and full body weight to make a flat disk of dough. I shoot for about ½ to 1 inch thick. Then you take a roller to it and start rolling north-south, east-west, putting all your weight into it. I flip the dough when rolling every few rolls, to ensure it's not sticking and also to give each side a more polished look, as it would when using a dough sheeter. You want this dough to end up being 1/8 to 3/16 inch thick. You don’t need to oil or flour the surface. Use a solid, non porous surface and you should not have any sticking issues. I never have using a laminated top kitchen table, which can be seen in the photos.

If you make a 1970s style Pizza Hut Thin ‘n Crispy pizza using the recipe in my original post, upload some photos and let us know how it landed for you.

[Stavs]

I love this recipe and have made it a handful of times. I made some this weekend and it brings back memories. The only thing I question is the addition of celery salt. I used your original sauce recipe, and with the suggested amount of celery salt it was extremely salty so I pitched it before cooking. Maybe I messed up on my measurement. Regardless, I really appreciate you sharing this recipe. For my bakes at 550 on a steel, I had to go 11 minutes to get the best results.

[Papa T]

I love this recipe and have made it a handful of times. I made some this weekend and it brings back memories. The only thing I question is the addition of celery salt. I used your original sauce recipe, and with the suggested amount of celery salt it was extremely salty so I pitched it before cooking. Maybe I messed up on my measurement. Regardless, I really appreciate you sharing this recipe. For my bakes at 550 on a steel, I had to go 11 minutes to get the best results.

Happy to hear that it worked out well for you. For sure, make the sauce the way you like it. With seasonings, especially things like celery salt, garlic salt, or anything that has salt in the title, we don't know what ratio the manufacturers use of salt to seasoning, or the ratio that Pizza Hut's celery salt used, so it is a guessing game to hit the right taste balance.

Better quality brands may be 65-70% ground celery seed with 30-35% salt, and others may be just the opposite. If the ingredient list says salt, celery seed/powder, then the proportions are either 50/50 or could be 80% salt, 20% celery. When buying it, perhaps get one that lists celery first then salt so you'd know it's at least 50% celery. Also, the lighter the container, the more celery and less salt it has, so if choosing between two or more, buy the lighter weight one for the same volume.

Maybe a better way to go is to just get celery seed, and grind it into a powder using a mortar and pestle, or coffee/spice grinder. Then you can add just the ground powder and salt the sauce to taste preference, and it also allows you to control the coarseness of the celery grind.

Regarding rolling out the dough, I've since started using a rolling pin that has swappable rings so you can roll out a perfectly flat dough. When we calibrated the dough sheeter at The Hut, we did that by using the machine to roll out the dough, cut it on a 16-inch pan, then weighed the cit dough. A 16-in pan was supposed to have 16 ounces of dough, which works out to a thickness factor of 0.08, which is 2 millimeters.

One of the adjustment rings supplied for the roller I bought is 2 mm, so it works out great. The roller has 13.8 inches of roller space between the rings, which works out great for making 12 inch and smaller cutter pan thin & crispy pizza shells. The roller makes the dough sheeting much less arduous and repeatably consistent. Here is link to the roller I bought on Amazon for $12: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08294K4YR/?tag=pmak-20.

[Stavs]

Happy to hear that it worked out well for you. For sure, make the sauce the way you like it. With seasonings, especially things like celery salt, garlic salt, or anything that has salt in the title, we don't know what ratio the manufacturers use of salt to seasoning, or the ratio that Pizza Hut's celery salt used, so it is a guessing game to hit the right taste balance.

Better quality brands may be 65-70% ground celery seed with 30-35% salt, and others may be just the opposite. If the ingredient list says salt, celery seed/powder, then the proportions are either 50/50 or could be 80% salt, 20% celery. When buying it, perhaps get one that lists celery first then salt so you'd know it's at least 50% celery. Also, the lighter the container, the more celery and less salt it has, so if choosing between two or more, buy the lighter weight one for the same volume.

Maybe a better way to go is to just get celery seed, and grind it into a powder using a mortar and pestle, or coffee/spice grinder. Then you can add just the ground powder and salt the sauce to taste preference, and it also allows you to control the coarseness of the celery grind.

Regarding rolling out the dough, I've since started using a rolling pin that has swappable rings so you can roll out a perfectly flat dough. When we calibrated the dough sheeter at The Hut, we did that by using the machine to roll out the dough, cut it on a 16-inch pan, then weighed the cit dough. A 16-in pan was supposed to have 16 ounces of dough, which works out to a thickness factor of 0.08, which is 2 millimeters.

One of the adjustment rings supplied for the roller I bought is 2 mm, so it works out great. The roller has 13.8 inches of roller space between the rings, which works out great for making 12 inch and smaller cutter pan thin & crispy pizza shells. The roller makes the dough sheeting much less arduous and repeatably consistent. Here is link to the roller I bought on Amazon for $12: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08294K4YR/?tag=pmak-20.

Thank you for the tips on the celery salt. I will keep trying with it   I'm going to be making a batch of dough tomorrow and another Friday.

[Stavs]

Also, let me ask you this, my oven will go to 585 degrees...is there any benefit to going that high with this pizza?

[Papa T]

Also, let me ask you this, my oven will go to 585 degrees...is there any benefit to going that high with this pizza?

I would think not other than perhaps cooking a minute or two faster. If you are happy with what you're producing now I'd stick with it, but nothing says you can't give it a try.

When I was as The Hut in the 70's, my store used two Blodgett gas deck ovens stacked, and we set them to 550F, but they were also opened and closed a lot. The internal temp was a bit lower when we were busy so at times it's likely the oven temp hovered closer to 500F. We also knew that if nothing had baked in a good bit, to not let a pizza we just put in bake as long as it would cook faster at a full blast 550F.

[Stavs]

I would think not other than perhaps cooking a minute or two faster. If you are happy with what you're producing now I'd stick with it, but nothing says you can't give it a try.

When I was as The Hut in the 70's, my store used two Blodgett gas deck ovens stacked, and we set them to 550F, but they were also opened and closed a lot. The internal temp was a bit lower when we were busy so at times it's likely the oven temp hovered closer to 500F. We also knew that if nothing had baked in a good bit, to not let a pizza we just put in bake as long as it would cook faster at a full blast 550F.

Thank you sir!

[Stavs]

So this week I made 3 pies using this recipe. Two were made with a 10" non cutter pan, and three were made with the proper cutter pan. The pan I was using was a Lloyd's 10" pan which was a bit thicker than the cutter pan. The last three pictures are the final pie I made using the cutter pan as recommended. All were cooked on 1/4" steel preheated to 550 for an hour. The first two pies I used my mixer to make the dough, and the last one I used my food processor which yielded the best results. As far as cheese, I used Grande whole milk mozzarella as I've found it to be better than East Coast Blend. When using the cutter pan, bake time was reduced to 9 minutes vs 10 1/2 minutes for the thicker pan, and resulted in a crispier crust.

[Stavs]

Took another stab at it tonight, but this time I went 12”.  Overall excellent pie, but I think it was a tad too thick. I got tired of rolling. 😂

My girlfriend gave it an 8.8 out of 10.

[Chicago Bob]

Really good looking pizza..... And a good score, Your girlfriend knows her stuff!   

    Let's see some sausage crumbles on one........

[Papa T]

Took another stab at it tonight, but this time I went 12”.  Overall excellent pie, but I think it was a tad too thick. I got tired of rolling. 😂

My girlfriend gave it an 8.8 out of 10.

When rolled out, the dough should be around .08 inches, or 2 mm thick. The adjustable hand roller I linked before makes it as effortless as you can get. You don't need to worry about how hard you are rolling as it won't let you roll thinner than the adjustable guides.

When I was working at The Hut, the pizza sizes in my area were small=10 inches, medium=13 inches, and large=16 inches. For a thin & crispy pizza shell, the final rolled weight for each should be: 10 inch should be 6 ounces or 170 grams of dough; 13 inch should be 10 ounces or 283 grams; large would be 16 ounces or 454 grams. Since you make a 12 inch pizza, you would need 9 ounces or 255 grams.

When ready to make the pizza shell make a dough puck that is 2-3 ounces more than the final weight you need to roll out. Rolling out too much dough can make it harder to do. Using an adjustable hand roller will ensure that the dough won't be too thin, too thick, and that it is an even thickness throughout. If you make these thin pies enough, an adjustable hand roller will make it easier and more consistent, and is pretty cheap. Just roll it out until you can't any more, lay it in the pan, trim away the excess, and you're ready to top and bake.

Some dock the shell before topping, and it can't hurt, but we never did. Just an extra step in the kitchen, and we were in and out of the oven so much, that if we saw a bubble forming, it was popped. Even when docked, bubbles still happen, so nothing beats checking the oven to avoid a remake.

The graphic I've attached is screen grab of dough weights from an early Pizza Hut training film when pies were still 10, 13, or 16 inches.

[Stavs]

When rolled out, the dough should be around .08 inches, or 2 mm thick. The adjustable hand roller I linked before makes it as effortless as you can get. You don't need to worry about how hard you are rolling as it won't let you roll thinner than the adjustable guides.

When I was working at The Hut, the pizza sizes in my area were small=10 inches, medium=13 inches, and large=16 inches. For a thin & crispy pizza shell, the final rolled weight for each should be: 10 inch should be 6 ounces or 170 grams of dough; 13 inch should be 10 ounces or 283 grams; large would be 16 ounces or 454 grams. Since you make a 12 inch pizza, you would need 9 ounces or 255 grams.

When ready to make the pizza shell make a dough puck that is 2-3 ounces more than the final weight you need to roll out. Rolling out too much dough can make it harder to do. Using an adjustable hand roller will ensure that the dough won't be too thin, too thick, and that it is an even thickness throughout. If you make these thin pies enough, an adjustable hand roller will make it easier and more consistent, and is pretty cheap. Just roll it out until you can't any more, lay it in the pan, trim away the excess, and you're ready to top and bake.

Some dock the shell before topping, and it can't hurt, but we never did. Just an extra step in the kitchen, and we were in and out of the oven so much, that if we saw a bubble forming, it was popped. Even when docked, bubbles still happen, so nothing beats checking the oven to avoid a remake.

The graphic I've attached is screen grab of dough weights from an early Pizza Hut training film when pies were still 10, 13, or 16 inches.

I'm definitely going to invest in those rollers as I will be making this style often. I'd much rather have a sheeter though. LOL

[Stavs]

I finally got an authentic Pizza Hit 13” cutter pan (still don’t have the roller guides). This pizza keeps getting better and better.