Roman Pizza Crust

[Mike Nolan]

This is my version of the classic thin-crust Roman pizza crust:

9 ounces AP flour
3 ounces semolina
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 ounce oil
1 cup (8 ounces) cool water

Mix the ingredients until they're combined and then let it sit for 10-15 minutes to hydrate. After hydration, mix until gluten is well-developed, 4-5 minutes. The dough should be soft and sticky, as it is 67% hydration.

Oil the surface of the dough, cover and let it rise for 90 minutes at room temperature, then stir it down, oil the top again if needed and refrigerate overnight.

Take out of the refrigerator 3 hours before you want to use it. It will stretch out easily to about a 15x20 rectangle or two 13 inch circles . (I put it on the underside of a 3/4 sheet pan that has been dusted with corn meal.) I find it helps to sprinkle a little flour on the dough as I'm stretching it out to keep it from sticking to my fingers.

Top as desired. (We like a little sauce, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, tomato chunks, havarti cheese, mozzarella cheese and a little 4 or 5 cheese blend.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. I bake it on the bottom rack for about 25 minutes, turning the temperature up to 400 when the dough goes in and up to 425 after 15 minutes when the dough is turned, so that the bottom element of my electric oven is on most of the time.

The pizza should be brown and firm on the underside. We tend to cut it into small rectangles with scissors, getting about 20 pieces.

I started with Peter Reinhart's Roman crust recipe in 'American Pie', but have tweaked the ingredients.

The latest tweak (4/23/21) was:
8 ounces bread flour
2 ounces semolina
1 ounce whole wheat flour
1 ounce corn meal

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