Chicago Style Thin Crust Pizza
An amazingly crispy, and delicious pizza that is based off of Chicago style tavern pizzas (the true Chicago pizza, not deep dish!)
Equipment
- 1 pizza stone/steel
- 1 Food processor
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
- 360 g bread flour
- 3 Tbsp cold butter cut into ½" cubes
- ¾ cup cold water divided
- 1½ tsp yeast
- 1½ tsp salt
- olive oil for resting
- cornmeal for dusting
Toppings
- pizza sauce*
- ⅓ lb mild italian sausage
- 8 oz full fat mozzarella cheese shredded or crumbled
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
Pizza Dough
- In a food processor, combine the bread flour and cold butter. Pulse until the butter is broken down into pea-sized bits.
- Dissolve the yeast in half of the cold water, and the salt in the other half. Add the yeast, salt, and water to the food processor. Pulse until loosely combined, be careful not to over-mix.
- Transfer dough to a work surface (may be slightly crumbly), gently knead together until it forms a ball. Knead for 1-2 minutes until a consistent hydration throughout. Cover and ferment for 2 hours.
- After two hours, press the dough ball flat and roll into a 15" round*
- Use a fork or pizza docking tool to lightly pierce the dough. (This will prevent large bubbles from forming while baking)
- Lightly oil a piece of parchment paper with olive oil, and dust with cornmeal. Place the rolled out dough on top. Place on a sheet tray and store in the refrigerator uncovered for 12-24 hours. This will allow the dough to dry out slightly and have a crispier crust.
Assembly and Baking
- Preheat oven to 550℉ with a pizza stone inside.
- Spread pizza sauce evenly over the rolled dough.
- Distribute Italian sausage evenly over the pizza in roughly quarter sized balls.
- Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella over the pizza.
- Sprinkle with oregano, basil, and salt.
- Slide pizza onto pizza stone and bake for about 10-12 minutes, until the crust is deeply baked and the cheese is bubbly and golden brown.
Notes
- *if desired, you can split the dough into two pizzas. (Allow 20 minutes of resting after splitting the dough) Will make two slightly thinner 12" pizzas.
- ** highly recommend Homemade Pizza Sauce