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Remember when you were a kid, and there was always that girl at school who was allowed to have a pizza party at her house? And you could go and design your own pizza, and then her mother would bake it for you? Oh, and she probably rented a VCR too. Because no one owned a VCR then, you rented them along with a movie, and then distracted the kids with pizza making while you tried to figure out how to hook the damn thing up to the television. Good times. Now, as an adult, the thought of people dragging their disgusting hands through my carefully selected and prepared pizza toppings kind of makes me want to gag, but when I was a kid? Money.

I’ve been all about the thin crust pizza lately. 2.0 is kind of into thicker crusts, so I guess I’ll have to find a good recipe to keep him quiet. But in the meantime, this little ditty is serving our needs just fine. Let’s face it, if I’m happy, we’re all happy.

This dough recipe doesn’t require you to proof the yeast. It just assumes that your yeast is awesome, and leaves it at that. Just dump the yeast in there with the other dry ingredients and have a little faith. If you can’t believe in yeast, what can you believe in? Unicorns? Come on. They went extinct like, seven years ago. My dough doesn’t double in size (as the original recipe suggests), but I haven’t had any trouble with it. It rolls out just fine, and comes out of the oven thin, crisp and tasty like.

You could top your pizza with some tomato sauce (maybe this one, or one from a jar, or some leftover pasta sauce of another sort) and then layer on some paper-thin sliced zucchini, diced red pepper, mushrooms, purple basil and mozzarella cheese. Or you could put whatever the hell you want on there. Why don’t you just ask your stupid unicorn? I bet he’d suggest fairy dust, that’s why. And everyone knows that fairy dust doesn’t belong on a pizza.

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Thin Crust Pizza Dough – adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen - download and make this suckah

Makes enough for one small, thin crust pizza – about 10-12 inches in diameter.

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 3/4 cup whole wheat flour)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Stir the dry ingredients together, including the yeast, in a large bowl. Add the water and olive oil, stirring mixture until it comes as close to a ball as possible. Dump the mixture (don’t worry if it hasn’t come entirely together yet) onto a lightly floured surface and knead everything for just a minute or two, and then form into a homogeneous ball.

Lightly oil the bowl you used to make the dough (a spritz of cooking spray is an easy way to do this), dump the dough in, turn it over so all sides are coated, and cover it in plastic wrap and leave it undisturbed for an hour or two, until it has doubled in size. Mine doesn’t always double in size – I don’t worry about it. It still tastes awesome, and I’ve had no trouble rolling it out or baking it.

Dump the ball back on a lightly floured work area and gently press the air out of the dough with the palms of your hands. Fold the dough into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under that plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.

Lightly grease a baking sheet (or use parchment paper – check to see the max temp. you can bake it at) and preheat your oven to 400°F. Roll and press out the pizza, put whatever topping and seasonings you like all over that beautiful crust, and bake it for about 10-15 minutes until it’s golden and crusty.