Takes awhile to prepare so start early in the day.
A closer photo:
For starters, I had lunch out with a girlfriend last week and had the best pizza crust I've ever had.
That's saying something. I have made a LOT of home made pizza over the years plus dined out on pizza. I rarely meet a pizza I don't like.
I set out to create a pizza crust like that one. Not too thick or dark or heavy. It was thin and slightly chewy.
Thin Chewy Pizza Crust
Started with a pizza crust recipe from "Gourmet" and adapted to my taste.
Makes two 12 inch pizzas.
2+1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 + 1/2 cups 115 degree water
2 + 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 + 1/2 cups + 2 Tablespoons all purpose white flour (Wheat Montana)
3 teaspoons avocado oil (olive oil would work too)
Combine, yeast, 2 tablespoons flour, 1/2 cup warm water and let stand for 5 minutes to proof yeast.
Combine 2 1/2 cups flour, salt, oil, proofed yeast. Mix together. It will be soft and sticky.
Knead by hand, adding flour to my fingers as needed to keep it from sticking. About 7 to 9 minutes of kneading should do it.
Let it raise for an hour or more, covered.
Roll out into two 12 inch rounds and let raise about a half hour to an hour.
I put them on a clay pizza stone.
Bake at 425 degrees for 8 minutes. Oven was preheated.
Pull out of oven and add toppings. See below.
Bake another 6 to 8 minutes with toppings. Serve hot.
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A few weeks ago, I stumbled across an idea for an unusual pizza. I liked it and wanted to try it with this new crust idea.
Toppings for Fig Pizza
Started with a Taste of Home recipe and adapted it to my own taste.
Do ahead all these steps so ingredients are ready to quickly add to precooked crust:
Mix first 3 ingredients together and spread over crust
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon oil
Saute one Walla Walla Sweet Onion in one tablespoon oil
add 2 cloves, minced garlic at end of cooking and cook another 2 minutes
Chop 9 ounces dried figs in small pieces
Thin slice and chop 2 cups of cooked ham
2/3 cup pine nuts
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese
Add the ingredients to the pizza in the order given.
