Pizza from Scratch: Cracker Crust

Cracker Crust Pizza

Pizza has returned.

I took a break from it this summer. A 500-degree oven seemed a bit excessive considering outside temperatures were in the high 90s or low 100s for weeks.

Since taking Chad Clark’s pizza class at New Pi this spring, I’ve wanted to create a thin cracker crust like the one we sampled. All styles of pizza crusts are good and my goal is to master several varieties. My first few attempts with cracker crust were not at all crispy. This time I am getting closer.

What I’ve learned about making a cracker crust from scratch:

• Flour.

Use bread flour or — better yet — a even higher gluten flour such as Sir Lancelot from King Arthur, which is what Chad recommends. Higher gluten means more chew, crisp and crunch. Sir Lancelot was not in my pantry, so I used Italian Antimo Caputo 00 flour, a type designed for Neapolitan pizza making. This flour can be purchased online or at Italian markets. New Pioneer now sells it, though my first batch came from Gateway Market in Des Moines (a very cool place by the way). If you live in Youngstown, or Pittsburgh, or Chicago, or anywhere that has good Italian grocery stores, you should be able to find this. Read what Chad Clark has to say about pizza flours.

Pizza from Scratch: Cornmeal Crust

Cornmeal Crust Pizza

For more than a decade, on most Friday evenings, we ordered pizza from a restaurant down the street. Nearly always the same thing: Mushrooms, garlic and a lighter serving of cheese. There was only one crust — thin and chewy — and it was made on site.

The pizza joint was in a building about the size of a postage stamp with an even smaller parking lot. By the time we moved this past winter, it had risen to a grand, two-story affair with a bar, a more extensive menu and an upstairs section where musicians sometimes played.

At some point during those years, the owner recognized us by the order. “Is this for M—?,” he’d ask after I made my request. “OK, 25 minutes.”

Making Pizza From Scratch

Pizza from Scratch at New Pioneer Food Coop

I recently spent two delicious hours watching Chad Clark of blinddogpizza.com prepare five pizzas. The class was held at New Pioneer Food Co-op in Coralville. Chad is one of the good folks who turns out a host of fine breads and pastries sold at the Co-op. (It is well that we don’t live so near the Co-op.)

Chad mixed dough for five pizzas and then baked pies using dough prepared the day before. Small pieces were passed around to the class. We sampled thin crust, herbed crust, cornmeal crust and cracker-style crust, all made with cheeses sold at New Pi (including an imported Provolone that many folks ran to purchase as soon as class was over).

Chad Clark making pizza dough

Chad’s been making pizza since he was young. Starting with a recipe from his mother, he went on from there, learning the techniques and peculiarities of pizza in its many forms—everything from thin, cracker-like crusts to double-crust stuffed pizza. He very generously offers free recipes for all kinds of pizza crusts on his website and you can occasionally catch him in a class as I did.