Cookbook:Pizza Dough

A simple pizza recipe; works well for thin crusts.

Ingredients

Mix water, yeast, flour, and salt in a large mixing bowl. If the batter is thin and runny like pancake batter, knead in a little more flour to get a sticky dough. If you can touch the batter with your finger and not stick to it, that's too dry, so knead in a little water.
Set the mixing bowl so it is sitting in warm water, or place on top of a warm oven. Let rise for 20–30 minutes. Don't worry if it only rises 10% or 20%—it'll still work.
Grease a baking sheet with some oil, then sprinkle cornmeal on the oil. Use you fingers to press the dough out until it is about ¼ inch thick all over, with the edges ½ inch thick. Sprinkle flour on top of the dough so it doesn't stick to your hands.
Top dough with pizza toppings as desired—see pizza article.
Bake at 425°F for about 15–20 minutes. Rotate every 5 minutes and move to upper or lower shelves as necessary. After 10 minutes slide a large knife under the crust. If it is dark brown, move it to a higher shelf so it doesn't burn while the top finishes cooking. If it is white or light tan, move to lower shelf so you get a crispy crust before the cheese starts turning brown on top.

On your first try, try just one or two pizzas. Then you can adjust it next time as necessary.
The dough rises to become about 50% larger, so use a big bowl.
Note that the flour used must be at least 60–70% all-purpose white flour. The dough will be heavy and won't rise as much if the proportion of other flours is too large.
Try adding sesame seeds, oregano, or basil to the dough.

If the crust isn't done in the middle, you may have the dough too thick.
If the crust burned on the bottom, you either had it too close to the bottom of the oven or didn't move it to a higher shelf in time. Some stoves are hotter than the thermostat, so try a lower temperature next time.
Water from fresh tomatoes, pineapples, and onions, can seep into the crust, so take it easy on those.
If the pizza is too greasy, reduce the amount of oil in the pan. It should be a thin film, but it doesn't need to pool on the surface. Some toppings (pepperoni, sausage, even cheese) will release grease into the pizzas; try smaller pieces.
If the vegetables are overdone (e.g., dried up mushrooms, bitter peppers, soggy onion), try topping the pizza halfway through the baking time so they still have a little texture left. Some vegetables, especially broccoli, work better when protected by a coating of oil.
If the cheese is brown and dried out on top, the pizza was cooked too close to top element in oven; never use top shelf.
If the crust is not very light, use less whole wheat flour or cornmeal in the batter.