Crispy, Thin Crust Pizza

I have finally found a homemade pizza crust recipe that my husband and I agree on!  I have been experimenting for a couple of years now, and he has been a good-natured tester.  He likes thin, crispy crusts, which are hard to perfect when you are going for homemade.  For awhile, I had given up, and was complacent with a doughy base to our pizza.  However, he wasn't, and fortunately kept egging me on to find something better.

Now, that is all behind me.

Here's what I do.  Feel free to experiment and alter as desired.

I preheat the oven to 500 F.

I make the Pioneer Woman's Pizza Dough.  (Scroll past her pictures for the short, printable version if you like.  That's what I usually do.  This recipe is also in her cookbook.)  I like this recipe for 4 reasons: 1. It uses just a few ordinary, wholesome ingredients.  2. It is not sweet.  3. No kneading.  4. No rising.  (It says to let it rise in the cookbook, but I don't when making my crispy crust version.)

So, like I just said, I don't bother letting it rise.  If I am only making one pizza, after the ball of dough has been coated lightly with olive oil, I take half of it and stick it in a ziplock in the freezer in a covered bowl in the fridge or whatever.

Then, I smear olive oil on my pizza stone and sprinkle with cornmeal.  With my fingertips, I smoosh and spread the dough out as thin as possible on top of the oil and cornmeal.  It pretty much goes to the edges of the stone.  Next, I lightly sprinkle Italian seasoning and garlic powder on top.  Then, I bake it for 12 minutes at 500.

After removing it from the oven, I top with sauce, cheese, a teeny bit of minced garlic (from the jar in the fridge that I got at Aldi for $1 something), and whatever else we have to throw on top.  I try to do this pretty quickly because it is HOT and the toppings start to melt and cook :)  Then, I pop it back in the oven for another 7-8 minutes at 500 F.

There you go.

Let me know if you have any additions you suggest we try!

6/13/10  Edited:  I tried this at my parents' house with a cookie sheet and it did not get very crispy at all in this amount of time.  So maybe with a regular cookie (rather than a stone like I use at home) it needs to prebake even longer???