Pizza Today - February 2025 - 38

Tackling the new craze of thin crusted pizzas
T
he new trend of thin and cracker
crusted pizzas has arrived and the
options to integrate thin crusts into
your menu-mix are everywhere.
When you do a deep dive into thin
crust pizzas in the country, you find
that these pies were initially ordained
to accommodate both the pizza customers
and the pizza makers alike. Like
all craftsmen, these pizza pioneers of
the 40s, 50s and 60s used their pragmatism
to achieve a thin crust goal while
also thinking about their own history,
the limits of their physical plant, and
what pizza items were available. Many
of the " Tavern Style " or " Bar Pizzas "
were designed to keep customers in
their seats, ordering another drink.
Other thin-crust pizzas originated in
working class neighborhoods to give
workers a quick, hot slice and enable
them to get back to work quickly. Thin
crusts are not all cracker-thin with that
audible crunch. This is because some
of the makers wanted their customers
to be able to fold the small slices with
toppings into this mini pizza taco.
There are now many " Experts " online
to tell you how to make the " Perfect "
thin-crust pizza. Here are some things
for a professional pizza maker to think
about when designing your own thin
crust pizzas. Warning: this is going to
get geekza fast. Let's just start with a
formula you can remember.
FOHLPB (FLOP):
F (FLOUR) + O (OIL) + H (HYDRATION)
+/- L (LEAVEN) + P (PROOFING)
+ B (BAKING) = THIN FOR THE WIN!
Flour: The base of any thin-crust
pizza starts with the grind and gluten
contained in your flour. If you are
sheeting your thin crusts to an ultra38
/ PIZZATODAY.COM / FEBRUARY 2025
38 / PIZZATODAY.COM / FEBRUARY 2025
thin skin, you may need a higher protein
level of between 12-14% and high
W rating. (Note: A " W " index rating
is a measurement of a flour's strengthhigh
W between 220-330 is used for
breads and pizzas, low W is for cakes
and pastries.) Italian 00 flour is
between 250-280 with a few exceptions.
Higher protein or W gluten
strands will absorb more water,
negating the dry effects that produce
crispness. This will produce a stronger
dough which, if baked at a lower oven
temperature, may produce a taffy-like
and chewy crust. Commercial cracker
protein content is usually a low 8%
to 11.7%, or a W content of as low as
180, just strong enough to keep the
dough manageable but low enough to
reach the desired texture and crispness.
Whatever flour you think may
work best, there are other items, like
cornmeal, you can add for crispness.
As with all pizza, other variables can
change any hard-line flour decision in
your thin-crust pizza plan, including
the following.
HYDRATION: This is the doubleedged
sword of thin-crust pizza dough.
To roll out dough into a thin and manageable
crust, you'll need the hydrated
effects of water, but water produces
swelling in any gluten scaffolding and
if you are using higher protein flours,
warm water soaks gluten strands
quicker and more fully than lower
protein flours. Some pizzerias use a
super low hydration level of 40% which
makes for a tough time in the dough
room and becomes a training issue.
I've had a wonderfully crisp Kernza
crust at 20% hydration, but my dough
staff slowly bumped the hydration up
behind my back because it was easier
to handle. There are some pizzerias that
circumvent worrying about hydration
by par-baking pizza crusts or use a
simple little trick with oil below.
OIL: It can be used with higher
gluten flours in thin-crust pizzas to
produce a nice crispy pie. Oil can also
be used to coat the gluten strands to
counteract the gluten being soaked
with water. Some pizzerias use 10-15%
oil in their mix, pouring it in before any
hydration is added. (See recipe).
Leaven: The separation of yeasted
dough and leavening agents, like baking
powder, can set the pace of how
your thin crust reacts to being fired up
in your ovens. In a strange paradox,
yeasted doughs, when made, fermented,
proofed and baked like thicker pizzas,
are not good for a thin crunchy crust
as they will be too airy. Even when
less dough is used and you've rolled or
sheeted it enough to read the newspaper
through it, parts of the dough will
give off carbon dioxide and separate
like a thin pita bread. I've tested many
thin-style doughs and added a small
amount of yeast, aging it for up to 6
days and then curing it and docking
it to produce a great, crispy thin crust.
You may also opt to not use any yeast
in your mix. This makes for a chewier
crust, but it holds heavy toppings better.
PROOFING:
I am finding a new
method that works great in my pizzeria.
I age my 50% hydrated, thincrust
dough ball for 3-5 days in cold
fermentation, (something like a drier
Pain l' Ancienne method,) this cold
entices the yeasties to take a little nap
and thus allows the enzymes in the
dough to break down the complex
carbohydrates into simple sugars which
evolve into a rich flavor with optimum
caramelization. I take this further by
rolling or sheeting the skin out and
placing them on uncovered sheet pans
in the walk in for another four to five
days to dry off more hydration. We add
plenty of residual flour to the skins and
separate them with pizza liners. The
whole process (which sounds crazy,
unhealthy, and downright criminal)
creates a leathery dough skin leading
to a delicious and magical crunchy thin
crust when baked. Some people call
this curing, I just call it aging. As it
ages the yeasties slowly die off and this
overfermentation weakens the gluten
scaffolding, leading to the perfect " anticrust " ,
thin, crispy and flavorful.
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