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I grew up in McCook & we always went to a pizza joint in Brookfield near the train station called 'Ralph's'

They had a thin crust pizza to die for!

The crust was extremely crisp, dry, not oily, thin as a tortilla with a great brittle crunch to it.

I would love to learn how to re-create a crust like that and/or find a place that has that kind of crust.

And speaking of crust...can anybody explain what makes a crust chewy vs doughy vs crusty vs crispy/crunchy? (Foldable crust is of no interest.)

I'm not real good at eyeballing recipes & envisioning the end product.

Thanks.

I'm not an expert on this by any stretch, but until somebody more knowledgeable chimes in, you can check out the great pizza making resources at, what else, http://www.pizzamaking.com

That will answer all your pizza making questions, and more.

I assume the style of pizza you're looking for is cracker-crust pizza. There's plenty of places in the Chicago area that make it that way, with the mainstays (IMHO) being Vito & Nick's, Maries, and Candlelite.

Here ya go...

CRACKER-THIN WHOLE WHEAT PIZZA CRUST

recipe from Tony Mantuano, the Chef at Spiaggia on Michigan Avenue

1/2 cup water at 110 deg. F
1 TBSP dried yeast
3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup plus 1 tsp water
2 TBSP plus 1 tsp olive oil

Dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes
Put all dry ingredients in bowl of mixer or Cuisinart, run to mix well
Add yeast/water mixture, then balance of water, running until dough forms a ball

Roll out into an oiled bowl (that other tsp. of oilve oil) and let rise, covered, until doubled in size
Punch down and let rise again in refrigerator, cover as before.
Roll out into 8 10-inch VERY THIN crusts

can be kept several days in refrigerator and freezes very well.

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Suburban gourmand

D'Andreas in Berwyn makes a nice frozen thin crust. Top it however you like and the crust comes out thin and crackery. It's about a dollar a pizza, sold in packs of two.

D'Andreas is located at the east end of the Cermak Plaza mall (SE corner of Harlem and Cermak). Worth of stop and stock up if you're in the neighborhood.

7055 W Cermak Rd
Berwyn, IL 60402
(708) 484-8121

hey im looking for a pizza crust recipe...its from viccinos...or any recipe close to them..thanks

Here is a recipe:

This simple crust is really easy to throw together and the homemade taste makes all the difference.

Ingredients

2 C. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 C. prepared mustard
1/2 C. milk
1/4 C. cooking oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix all ingredients. Knead a few minutes. Roll into shape. Bake 5-7 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees. Add toppings. Cook 7-9 minutes.

I got it from Recipe4Living.com: http://www.recipe4living.com/Recipe/315 ... Crust.aspx

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Hillary
http://chewonthatblog.com <--A Chicago Food Blog!

Most pizza crust recipes I've seen use yeast rather than baking powder as the leavening agent. I'd be curious to hear how the board's cognosceti weigh in on the difference between the two in a pizza crust.

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Chicago Craft Beer Week!

If it uses baking powder, it's a cake, not a pizza.

Tell that to Tony Mantuano. He thinks it's pizza crust.

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Suburban gourmand

I'm a big proponent of natural yeast cultures, but sodium carbonate-based leavening systems are used in some types of commercial pizzas. See http://www.thewrightgroup.net/site.php?pageID=32. Not my cup of tea, though I've never tried it.

To learn more than you would want to know about pizza dough visit

pizzamaking.com


they have some handy dough calculators as well.

http://pizzamaking.com/dough_calculator.html (use .115 for medium thickness)

I HATE thin crust pizza. We tend to refer to it as "Matzo pizza"

I haven't tried it yet, and can't vouch for it's authenticity, but a while back found the following recipe for Gino's pizza crust:

http://meemoskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/ ... pizza.html

Gino's recipe is the subject of quite a bit of internet chatter if you look, but it seems that the general opinion is that Gino's does not use cornmeal in their crust.

You are correct! They use semolina flour, not cornmeal... (at least according to that pizzabaking forum)


re: cracker crust, I was under the impression that yeast was not used, since it's so, uh, cracker-y http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index. ... 173.0.html I looked at the pictures here and am surprised they used the cracker crust in a circular pie - I've only ever seen it used in a rectangle...

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"Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you want and let the food fight it out inside."
-Mark Twain

I don't have any whole wheat flour on hand, so I'm wondering, what do you think would happen if white bread flour were substituted for that? Or would it be better to go with all all-purpose flour?

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"I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

Anyone have a good recipe that could yield a crust like this:



Without the aid of a 700 degree oven or so?

It seems like a mock NKB could conceivably work. That is, use the long fermenting time to create the open crumb, but adjust the flour:water such that it's possible to work it into a flat pizza. I have done something like that for a stuffed pizza and the crust was fantastic. OF course that's a different ballgame. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I once threw together a BBQ chicken and cilantro pizza and after marinating the chicken I realized I didn't have yeast. I used baking powder instead. It came out rather tough. Edible, and the excellent toppings plus the fact that I was just experimenting, but I wouldn't ever recommend it.

That reddish-brown crust is likely from long and slow fermentation. Search for Reinhart's pizza dough recipe. It starts off with ice cold water, chilled flour, and a tiny bit of yeast. The dough is then refrigerated overnight to retard fermentation. It's my default pizza dough recipe.

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Apple Pie, Patis, & Pâté
@judecee on Twitter

Another site you may want to check out is : http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

this guy is insane about his pies.

I agree completely-- in addition to making the crust browner, long and slow fermentation will give better flavor. Reinhart did an article on pizza dough for Fine Cooking some time back. The recipe is here:
http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/reci ... dough.aspx
but you may need a subscription to view it.

Also for crust, do you have a pizza stone? It is essential.

Cheers, Jen

There are other ways to produce browning in the crust: a little sugar or milk or powdered milk are common cheats.

Bill/SFNM

I have never been able to get a good char on a pizza stone no matter how high I crank up the heat, so lately I've been making pan-style in cast iron pans with a buttered or oiled bottom, and that makes a decent pizza. Usually I just bake it at 400 for 25-30 minutes, but I've been thinking about doing this as a test: cooking it on stovetop first to get the bottom cooked, then putting in the broiler to cook the top of the pizza. This test will probably fail; I'll take one for the team, try it out, and post results later.

That crust in the picture is a beautiful, if odd, red.

I bought a can of San Marzano tomatoes at Costco last week and now I see what all the fuss is about! I will never ever ever ever ever buy any other kind of tomato! The pizzas I've made with those tomatoes stand head and shoulders above the rest.

What are your favorite cheeses to add on to pizza? I put whole-milk mozz on a TJ crust once and was happy with it - then I tried it again later and was unhappy with it and haven't tried it since. Now I think I will try a combination of whole and skim and see how that works.

Here's my favorite pizza dough recipe - compliments of momadvice.com blog:
Pizza Hut Style Pizza Dough

1 1/3 cups water
2 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp cornmeal (my note: I don't like cornmeal in my crust so I leave this out, but I do put semolina in the bottom of the pan after greasing it)
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Add ingredients to bread machine, according to manufacturer's settings, and run dough setting. After the machine beeps, roll out the dough. You can roll the dough into two 9x13" pizzas (great for kid's lunches!) or into two medium pizzas or a large pizza and an order of breadsticks (as instructed above). Parbake the crust with a drizzle of olive oil on it at 450 degrees for ten minutes. Remove the crust and add sauce and toppings. If making breadsticks, add your breadsticks at this time. Place into the oven for another ten to fifteen minutes or until golden and bubbly. Enjoy!

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"Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you want and let the food fight it out inside."
-Mark Twain

Hey, I'm sure everyone here is already smart enough to know this. It's not a good idea to heat up your pizza stone quickly by placing it on the floor of the oven. It'll break! Lesson learned.

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"Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you want and let the food fight it out inside."
-Mark Twain

Years ago, we had a deep dish pizza brick. It broke long ago and I've never seen one to replace it with. Do these still exist? Any one know where I can find one either in the far NW suburbs, or online?

Hi there, this is my first post here and I'm wondering if anyone can help me out. I'm originally from the south suburbs and I currently am living in Tsada, Cyprus. I have been out of Chicago for 17 years and I have been trying to perfect a Chicago thin crust. I have mastered the stuffed pizza, but the thin crust I am having problems with. I have found a recipe for sauce but I would like to find a crust recipe that doesn't rise too much. Anyone out there have any suggestions or recipes that will cut it? I thank you in advance.

Janet

There are (at least) two good threads on this topic. Your post may be merged into one of them. In the meantime, check out the recipes and links in these:

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=24848

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=13788

I find Peter Reinhard's recipes very good. See http://www.fornobravo.com/pizzaquest/in ... style.html

A couple more helpful treads

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f= ... &sk=t&sd=a

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=22056

Given the OP's request and south side origin, I think she might be looking for something like Aurelio's or Vito & Nick tavern-style thin and crispy crust. Most of the content linked above deals with the more classic Neopolitan type crusts. Not sure if replicating Chicago tavern crust has ever been discussed in any detail on LTH despite much love for and documentation of the style. I'd expect a tavern crust recipe to involve some shortening and sending the finished dough through a ringer, roller, or press to flatten and deflate as is done at many tavern style joints here (quite opposed what you are looking for in a Neapolitan crust where bubbles are desired and manipulation of the finished dough is minimized).

I think Jeff may be correct and I would love to add an extra request for such recipes if they're out there. In particularly, I have always wanted to try to replicate Barnaby's style of pizza crust with the cornmeal and crimped edges. So if anyone out there can assist, I would much appreciate it.

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“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.” Elizabeth Taylor

Pizzamaking.com forums has a section on cracker style crusts

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=9b1971e84dd57daf21e7b58baec91f6d&board=28.0