THIN CRUST PIZZA DOUGH RECIPES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. If you have one, place a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven.
• Divide the dough in half and roll into a 12-inch circle, about 1/2-inch thick.
• Dust pizza peel or baking sheet with cornmeal. Place rolled out dough on peel. Brush pizza dough with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Spread 1 cup tomato sauce evenly over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border along the edges. Sprinkle 1/4 cup basil leaves on top of sauce and then top with 1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano. Finally, top with 1/2-pound mozzarella slices. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is bubbling and the edges are golden brown. Repeat with remaining ingredients to make 2 pizzas.
• In an electric mixing bowl, whisk the yeast, sugar, water and lard together to make a paste. Add the flour and salt and mix, using a dough hook, until the dough comes away from the sides and crawls up the dough hook. Remove the dough from the bowl. Grease the bowl with olive oil and place the dough back in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide dough in half. Roll the dough into balls, cover, and let the dough rest for 15 to 20 minutes. The dough is ready to be shaped.

Steps:

• To start with you need put the flour, salt, yeast, and the Italian seasoning into a mixing bowl and mix it up.
• Then stir your sourdough starter and measure out 1 cup into the bowl and add the 1/2 cup warm water. Mix well until combined. You can mix it either by hand or with a stand mixer.
• If you are making it by hand, turn the pizza dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until the dough is smooth and slightly sticky. About 10 to 12 minutes.
• If using a stand mixer, attach your dough hook and knead for about 7 minutes until smooth and just a tad bit sticky.
• After kneading, you need to put the dough back into a greased bowl and turn it to grease the top. It needs to rise until it has doubled in volume.
• Depending on how strong your starter is and how warm your kitchen is, the rise time can be anywhere from 1 to 3 hours.
• Divide your dough into your chosen number of crusts.
• Drizzle olive oil into your chosen number of regular sized pizza pans and tilt the pans (or spread the oil with your hands) until the bottoms are evenly coated with oil.
• Shape each piece of the dough into a disc and then put each disc into a pizza pan. Gently press the dough out until it covers the bottom. It will start to shrink up a bit. That's ok.
• Let it rest for a few minutes and press it out again. Do that for all of the pizzas.
• Once you have the crusts in the pans, take a fork and poke holes all over them. These holes keep the crusts from bubbling up as they bake.
• Cover the crusts and let them rest while the oven preheats.
• Preheat your oven to 450°F. If you are going to be baking your pizzas to eat right away, put your baking stone in the oven to heat up.
• Once your oven is hot, pre-bake the thicker crusts for 8 - 10 minutes and the thin crusts for 4 to 6 minutes.
• Remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack for later, or top immediately with all your favorite fixins.
• When you are ready to bake your pizzas, slide them into the oven and onto the preheated baking stone.
• Bake until the toppings are hot and the cheese is melted and browned to your liking. Approximately 10 minutes for the thicker crust pizza, and 8 minutes for the thin crust pizza.