If you're a fan of, or prefer, a thin-and-crispy light-and-airy crust as the foil for your pizza or pizza creations, this is the recipe you've been searching for. Thanks to a pizza-pro friend who schooled me on the virtues of beer in his pizza dough (by emptying almost an entire bottle of beer into his flour mixture in place of water), all it took was one taste when his pizza was done for me to try it in my own home kitchen. It changed one of my pizza dough recipes forever -- my thin crust recipe.
One ingredient, one substitution, one change-of-heart.
It's worth mention, nine-out-of-every-ten-times, I mix and first-proof my pizza dough in my bread machine. The bread machine, in 55 minutes from beginning to end, does a superb job with pizza dough, and frees up my hands to prep ingredients for the toppings. Feel free to proof your yeast, mix, knead and proof your dough in the traditional manner, but, don't tell me it's better. It's simply a different method producing the same result.
Beer in place of water. Why didn't I think of that?
For the dough for two 12-round thin-and-crispy light-and-airy pizzas:
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons beer
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon dried oregano (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 packet granulated yeast
~Step 1. Place the beer and olive oil in the the bread pan of the bread machine. Add the all-purpose flour, followed by the sugar, salt and optional oregano. Note: When making any type of bread machine bread or bread machine dough, it's very important to always add the wet ingredients (anything liquid or pourable) first and the dry ingredients last.
~Step 2. Insert the bread pan into the machine. Close lid and push the "select" button. Using your index finger, make a shallow well in the center of the flour and add the granulated yeast to the well Choose the "pizza dough" cycle. Push "start". When the machine signals the dough is done (it will have risen once too), remove pan of dough from the machine. In my machine this takes 55 minutes. Note: You will have a total of 1-pound 2-ounces pizza dough.
~ Step 3. Place 1 1/2-2 tablespoons of olive on each of two 12"-round pizza pans and use a paper towel to oil the inside surface of the pans. Use a few drops of olive oil to lightly oil your fingertips and use your fingertips to turn the ball of dough out of the bread pan and into your hand. Divide the dough in half, then place each half onto a prepared pan. Rest dough on the pans about 10-15 minutes. Note: This 10-15 minute rest will make dough easy to pat onto the pizza pans. Using your fingertips and a light touch, pat and press dough across bottom of pan. I do this in 3 parts taking 5-10 minutes, allowing dough to rest 3-4 minutes each time before patting and pressing again.
~ Step 4. Top your pizza in your favorite way, and, while today's subject is not toppings, FYI, each pizza is topped w/6 slices provolone cheese, 3/4 cup pizza sauce, 1 1/4 cups shredded mozzarella and a sprinkling of dried oregano. Baking one-at-a-time, place a pan of pizza on pizza stone on center rack of preheated 350° oven for 10 minutes. Using a spatula, lift a corner of the pie up and using your other hand (via a pot holder or mitt), tilt pan and slide pie off the pan onto the stone. Continue to bake for 3-4 more minutes. Crust will be nicely-brown and crispy on the bottom and cheese will be molten on the top. Using a pizza peel, transfer pizza to cutting board. Slice and serve immediately.
Transfer to a wooden or high-heat-safe board & slice:
Thin crust pizza waits for no one -- slice & serve ASAP:
Put the Beer in the Pizza Dough Thin-Crust Pizza: Recipe yields dough for 2, 12"-round pizzas/6-8 servings each pizza.
Special Equipment List: 1-cup measuring container; bread machine; paper towel; 1, 12"-round pizza pan; paper towel; pizza stone; large metal spatula; pizza peel; high-heat-safe board
Cook's Note: Experimenting with pizza dough is not something I do often. Why? Because one has to be willing to run the risk of sacrificing a pizza in the event it doesn't work. Let's put it another way, one has to be of the mindset to experiment with a new dough or a variation on an existing one, and (chuckle if you want to but it's really not a laughing matter if you're wed to eating pizza), for a few short hours, one must throw caution to the wind and live dangerously. I did this today. Ya gotta try my recipe for ~ Beer in the Pizza Dough & a Semolina Pizza Crust ~.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2020)
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