basic pizza dough

Recently I had an email from Lu Anne requesting a pizza dough that she could make at home resulting in a thin crispy crust, unlike the thick bases in those large chain pizzas.

The key to crispy base is replacing some of the flour with fine semolina, and also to cook the pizza on a stone. The stone helps to draw out the moisture resulting in a crispier base.
If you aren't lucky enough to have a wood fired oven with a stone base, you can purchase pizza stones from most kitchenware stores, that you can heat up in your kitchen oven. The secret is to cook your pizzas directly on the stone and not on a metal tray.

what you need
1 kg (2.2lbls) strong bakers flour
10 grams salt (0.35oz)
10 grams sugar (0.35oz)
20 grams dry yeast (0.70 oz)
20mls good olive oil (0.70oz)
660mls water (22fl oz)

what to do
mix flour with salt, sugar and dry yeast.
place water and olive oil in an electric mixing bowl add all dry ingrediedients mix on low with a dough hook for 5 minutes. turn out and need for one minute.
place dough in a oiled bowl covered with cling film for approx 1.5 hours to double in size.
knock back and shape into pizza balls, let rest for 15 minutes, then roll out and top as desired.

crispy tip
If you want a crispier crust replace 200grams of flour with 200grams fine semolina