It's Go Time!
Many years ago I was in the Air Force stationed at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio. A few miles up the road at 1449 SW Military Highway Drive was an establishment named Colonna's Pizza owned by a man named Frank Colonna. Frank was the nephew of Frank Pepe, the owner of the famous Pepe's Pizza in New Haven, CT. Like myself, Frank was in the Air Force but about 15 years before me. He married a local girl, moved to New Haven, and then moved back to San Antonio (she didn't like being away from her family) and stayed in San Antonio. That's when he opened his own pizza restaurant.
I would frequent that restaurant with some guys from the base. It was a matter of time before Frank learned that, like himself, I was also from Connecticut. I made him nostalgic and he offered me a part time job.
Frank taught me that the dough is the secret to a great pizza. And his dough was awesome! Unfortunately I was too stupid to steal his dough recipe. And as great as his pizza was I was also nostalgic for the Pizza Hut Thin 'n Crispy that I discovered in my teens. And as years turned into decades I would strive to make a pizza that would make Frank Colonna proud of me. But a couple of years ago I decided that I wanted to make a pizza that replicated the taste of a Pizza Hut Thin 'n Crispy. So here we go...
Originally Pizza Hut only made the Thin 'n Crispy. While working at Colonna's Frank told me that Pizza Hut used baking powder instead of yeast. In the last few years I tried to verify this and could not. I even went so far as to email one of the founders of Pizza Hut. He never replied. Now there are some suggestions that pizza made with baking powder may exist in the central part of the US (Pizza Hut started in Wichita). On Cook's Country they featured a St. Louis style pizza made with baking powder. I followed the recipe, twice. It had some elements of Pizza Hut but I am all but convinced that Pizza Hut used yeast, not baking powder. This article, written by a guy who worked at Pizza Hut in 1980, is definitely worth reading.
 |
| These are the ingredients for the dough. A pizza dough can be made with as few as four ingredients (water, flour, salt, yeast) but I think that the original Pizza Hut Thin 'n Crispy also used an oil, perhaps shortening, |
In this recipe I will use a food processor to mix the dough. You can also use a stand mixer (KitchenAid) or mix the dough by hand. For a batch this size a food processor works best. If using a stand mixer or mixing by hand I will leave it to you to adjust the technique, it's not hard.
The Dough: In the food processor bowl mix:
8.5 ounces flour
1 tablespoon butter, chopped
1 tablespoon oil (olive oil, grapeseed oil or a neutral oil such as sunflower or soybean)
Mix in the food processor until fully combined. Note that I use 2T of fat, one of oil and one of butter.
This is to give it a slightly pastry-like texture. Also there is something about the dairy in the butter that softens the dough and makes it easier to roll.
Then add:
5 ounces water
1/2 teaspoon table salt, or 3/4 teaspoon sea salt (sea salt is less dense, so you need more)
A "heavy" 1/2 teaspoon of yeast. That's what I use. Or, what the heck, just make it 3/4t. Or even 1 teaspoon. I don't care, the recipe doesn't much care either.
Mix all of the ingredients in the food processor for 20-30 seconds. It should all "pretty much" come together into a ball. If it's a little sloppy add a bit more flour, a little at a time.
This recipe provides dough for two 12" - 14" pizzas, each dough ball just under 7.5 ounces. The larger that you can roll the dough, the thinner and crispier the pizza will be.
The Sauce:
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw) or honey or even (ech) white sugar
2 tablespoons oil. You can use any vegetable oil. I use olive oil though I doubt that Pizza Hut's high-margin budget would have permitted that.
15 ounce can of Kirkland Organic Tomato Sauce or nearest substitute
I mix the sauce as soon as I am finished forming the dough balls. That gives the ingredients more time to meld.
The Cheese:
To be authentic it would need to be mozzarella. Not fresh mozzarella - that was way too upscale for Pizza Hut. But as you start personalizing your own recipe you will probably start experimenting. Or using whatever cheese you have on hand. Two things about fresh mozzarella I should mention: (1) It makes for a delicious pizza. (2) It makes for a messy pizza. The extra moisture may leak from the pizza onto the stone which may make removing the pizza challenging.
Building the Pizza:
Sprinkle a small amount of corn meal onto a pizza peel. After forming your dough ball into a 12" to 14" shell place it onto the peel. Add sauce, cheese and toppings. Slide the peel back and forth to make sure that the pizza slides. If the pizza is stuck lift the part of the pizza that is stuck and place corn meal beneath.
Then using a motion that will only get better with practice, slide your pizza off of the peel and onto the stone.
So How Did My Thin 'n Crispy Replica Turn Out?
Well the good news is that it was thin and crispy. The bad news is that it wasn't as authentic as I had hoped for. It was actually too good. That special and loveable "Thin 'n Crispy and a little bit o' Crappy" 🌝 of the original formula hasn't been mastered yet. But this is definitely close.
Misc Notes:
Generally the stones are placed on the rack at its lowest position in the oven. You can experiment with that. Ultimately the goal is to balance "top heat" and "bottom heat" so that both sides of the pizza are done at the same time.
An extremely common mistake is to preheat the oven (say to 525) and as soon as the oven clicks off - thus indicating the temperature has been reached - the pizza is placed in the oven. What then follows is a horrible pizza. When the oven indicates that it is "at temperature" it means that the air in the oven it at temperature. The surface of the stone will be about 300 degrees. How to know when the stone is heated? Best is to use an IR temperature gun (this is what I use). Next best is to preheat the oven for an hour which all but guarantees the stone is at temp.
When mixing the dough for the first time you will probably have trouble telling when the flour-water ratio is correct. This comes with practice. A few options that I can provide - (1) take my pizza making class or (2) buy a pizza dough from the store and copy the texture or (3) err on the side of "too wet" rather than "too dry" and go from there.
One way to increase the flavor of the dough is slow fermentation. So if you want to throw your pizza in the oven at 6pm on Saturday you will want to make your dough on Friday and immediately throw it in the fridge. Then on Saturday at about 3pm move the dough to the warmest place in the house.
In my dough recipes I always use weight for the flour and water. Flour can have different moisture content and "puffiness" factors that makes measuring in cups unreliable. All bakers measure by weight. A digital scale is inexpensive and highly recommended. If you insisted on using measuring cups look up the conversion factors - you're on your own at that point.
I didn't mention how to get the pizza out of the oven. Most people use their peel. If you employ my cardboard peel technology that isn't advised. I actually - with my bare hands - pull the pizza off of the stone and onto a cool oven rack. If you don't have "hot hands" as I do you may want to consider a "real" purchased peel.
Many people forget to add salt. Don't know why, they just do. Even I have. That's why I taste my raw dough when I'm done mixing it.
The pictures below show the steps involved in making your first Thin 'n Crispy clone:
 |
| Roll each dough ball out on a counter. I do it in such a way that the dough ball has a belly button. |
 |
| Place the dough balls into two containers, "belly button" side down to allow them to rise. Either cover the container with a sheet of plastic or place a locking cover on it. Be aware that the gases from the rising dough may blow the cover off and the cover will need to be reseated. |
 |
| The sauce could not be easier. Olive oil, oregano, sugar (shown above) + a 15oz can of tomato sauce. I use Costco's brand with great results! Sugar shown is turbinado. Not from Pizza Hut's original recipe but I have had no white sugar in the house for 10 years. Mix ingredients until sugar is dissolved. Sauce does not need to be cooked. |
 |
| When the dough has doubled (+/-) in volume plop it onto the counter with flour. Work it into as large and thin a shell as you can create that will fit on your stone or steel. |
 |
| I have tried all sorts of rollers. Tapered roller, roller with offset to emulate a dough sheeter and a flat roller. The flat roller works the best for me. The offset doesn't get the pizza thin enough and the tapered makes the center too thin and susceptible to rupture. |
 |
| You will need a way to get your pizza into the oven. Many people buy a wooden or metal peel. Actually I use a sheet of cardboard that has moved close to 1,000 pizza over its 24 year life. 3-4 pizzas per month adds up! Also pictured is the tomato sauce that I use for my Thin 'n Crispy replica. |
 |
| Top with mozzarella and your favorite ingredients. Here is pepperoni and sauteed portabella. |
 |
| Place in oven using a pizza peel of your choosing. These stones were purchased from the garden department of Home Depot in the 1980's. About 35 years of continuous use. I also have a "pizza steel" not shown. You can Google "pizza steel" to learn more. I've gone back and forth, they work about the same for me. |
 |
| After 4 to 7 minutes on a 525 degree pre-heated stone and this is what comes out! It is done when the edges begin to crisp. |
