Easy Thin Crust Pizza

When my brother and I were in public school we always came home to eat lunch.  Once in awhile my mom would make pizza.  When we were walking in the hallway to our apartment we could smell the pizza…hmmmm…that was my favorite lunch.  I’ve always heard that pizza is so easy to make and I’ve been wanting to give it a try.  This was not my first try.  I tried a recipe with proofing the yeast..my dough didn’t rise and it turned out very dense.  This was not my first bad experience with yeast.  I thought maybe I should just give up on yeast and search for a yeastless recipe.  I found one and that turned out very dense and was not good.  After searching the web I decided I should check out Smitten Kitchen.  She always has great recipes.  I found this recipe and it turned out great.  There is no proofing of the yeast.  Just mix it all together!!!!  This makes a thin crust pizza.  I love thin crust but the problem is I end up eating way to much.  You can double the recipe (I haven’t had the chance to try that).  (UPDATE: I tried to double this recipe and it didn’t turn out well)  I’ve made this twice.  Once with all all-purpose flour and the next time I replaced 1/2 cup with whole wheat flour.  I preferred the one with whole wheat.  I didn’t really make any changes to this recipe.  The original uses all-purpose but says you can replace up to half with whole wheat.

When I made this my dough didn’t double in size and I was getting all upset with myself knowing I screwed up somewhere.  But I continued on and made the pizza.  I was so surprised how good it turned out!  I put olives on half the pizza because my son loves olives…I don’t.  He cannot understand why I don’t like olives.

Easy Thin Crust Pizza
Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Printer Friendly

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water (up to an additional 1 to 2 tbsp more)
1 tbsp olive oil

Stir together flours, salt and yeast in a large bowl.  Add the water and olive oil and mix until it closely resembles a ball (it won’t all come together).  Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Dump all the bits that didn’t come together in the center of the dough.  Knead into a ball.  If it is not coming together, turn the bowl over to cover the dough and leave for a about 5 minutes.  It should now be easier to work with.

Knead the dough for a couple of minutes.  Lightly oil the bowl you had just used.  Put the dough in the bowl and turn around to coat with the oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and leave for 1 to 2 hours, or until it has doubled in size (mine didn’t double 🙁 ).

Turn the dough back onto your lightly floured surface and gently press the air out of the dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for about 20 minutes.

Preheat your oven to the highest temperature it will go to.  Sprinkle your pizza pan with some cornmeal.  Roll out the dough and transfer to your pizza pan.  Top as desired (go easy on the toppings as this is a thin crust).  Bake for about 10 minutes.