Thanks Nick, and apologies for the delay on my part getting back!
To summarize, I had an outstanding result with a fantastic thin, cracker crust pizza that I could not stop eating. It was absolutely excellent and a hit – light, crunchy, and perfect texture all around. I experienced some trial and error with partial fail, so if folks are interested in the gritty details, read on, otherwise, this is definitely my go-to recipe and technique for thin crust pizza for all-time going forward! So many thanks for sharing this!
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Before I set out to make the dough, I read through this thread and summarized all the various tricks and tips in a note to myself. I weighed out the 13.4 Ounces KABF with 1 teaspoon Kosher salt. Dissolved .75 teaspoon of active dry yeast in 6 Ounces of 110 degree water, then combined with 2.26 Tablespoons of oil into the dry. The batch came together in a large bowl easily by hand using a spatula. There was only a little dry flour in the bowl remaining, but I managed to squeeze and press into a somewhat dry ball that held together well on the counter. I placed the ball in a sealed Tupperware container in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, I missed the step to spritz the dough ball and the container with oil.
I checked on the dough about an hour later and naturally there was condensation on the inside of the lid. There was already some rise which surprised me given the low yeast to flour ratio. Where the dough was exposed to air inside the container, I noticed a hardened, calloused effect. I wrapped the entire ball in plastic wrap, returned to the Tupperware container, sealed and back in the refrigerator overnight.
After 19 hours chilled, I removed the dough from the frig, unwrapped, and set directly on the counter for 2.5 hours loosely covered. Meanwhile, I preheated the oven to 550 degrees with the pizza stone on the second rack position from the bottom.
The dough rolled out easily to the thickness of a dime, but where the callouses in chilling had occurred, there was obvious scarring and texture difference. The skin was really easy to handle in transfer from the counter to the pan which I was grateful for. Looking at the situation, you think this could be a problem given the size and extreme thinness of the skin, but it was not. I transferred the skin to a perforated 16 inch pizza pan, trimmed and docked.
Placed pan on pizza stone and baked for 3 minutes. Removed pan from oven and skin from pan. Returned parbaked skin to pizza stone directly and baked for 2 minutes more. This is where real disaster hit. It had overbaked and half of the skin stuck to the pizza stone tearing away when I attempted to remove it from the oven. In my panic, I instinctively turned off the oven.
Working rapidly, I set out to use the leftover dough and trimmings that still remained. I gathered into a ball and worked, worked, worked to roll it out to the thickness of a dime and it actually worked. Transferred skin to the pan and tried again. After 3 minutes it was dramatically puffy, but not nearly golden. In my haste, I had forgotten to dock lightly and then noticed the oven was only at 380 degrees – I had forgotten to turn the oven back on to 550! I ripped the oven to correct temp and pressed on ;-) Because of the reduced temp, it took longer to parbake, but I removed from the pan and placed skin directly on the stone until it started to show spots of golden color. This is a very forgiving recipe folks.
Removed skin from the stone without issue. Pierced bubbles on the crust lightly. Let cool to room temperature. Brushed lightly with olive oil, a little sprinkle of salt, fresh grated parmesan, fresh mozz (drained and dried well with paper towels), paper thin slices of parma ham, dry kalamata olives chopped, and fresh basil leaves.
Back into the oven this time at 425 degrees until toppings were hot and cheese was melted. Absolutely fantastic folks. I can hardly wait to make this again. Tried only at home for starters, but this is definitely ready for prime time.
I had a challenge attaching iPhone photos to the forum directly, so I posted to Flickr instead. Here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=one_set72157630269314182