Best Thin Crust Pizza

There’s a tough on-going competition about whether thick crush pizza is the best or thin crust pizza is the best. Taste is, of course, subjective so everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But at Gilan Pizza & Grill, we believe in Best thin crust pizza supremacy!

When you are arguing about choosing your crust, you are faced with the decision of whether to go thick or thin! When you choose a thick crust pizza, you may feel full easily due to the thick doughy breading, but remember that you are also consuming a large amount of carbohydrates and calories, which is not healthy. Eating too much dough can also increase your cravings by raising your body’s insulin levels. However, when you choose a thin crust, you’re consuming less dough and, as a result, fewer carbohydrates and calories. Additionally, by adding plenty of delicious and healthy toppings, your thin crust pizza becomes more nutritious.

At Gilan Pizza & Grill, we only use the best and finest topping available. Our fiber and protein-rich toppings will lower the overall Glycemic Index of your pizza. This will help reduce your body’s cravings for those extra few slices as your blood sugar levels should remain lower.

Pizza Thin Crust

Pizza Thin Crust originally comes from Italy. This makes a lot of sense when you consider the fact that Italy was the first country to adopt the red brick oven from Rome. If anyone wants really thin crust pizza, then they should go to Sicily, which has really thin crust. In general, thin crust pizza is made by simply rolling the pizza dough into a thin sheet, rather than a thick or deep one. Italy shapes their pizzas into rectangular shapes, so America wasn’t the one to come up with the idea of rectangular pizza. Naturally, thin crust pizza takes a bit less time to cook. Even Chicago, a city known for thick crust, makes thin crust pizzas. The best thin crust pizza starts with a superior sauce.

Unlike thin crust pizza, thick crust pizza doesn’t really have an origin, or a known one at least.

Once you have prepared the sauces, the next few steps for a Pizza thin crust include:

Make your cheese blend

Pre-grated bagged cheese you buy at the supermarket sometimes doesn’t melt as well as cheese you grate yourself.

Finely chop or slice the toppings

If you are putting vegetables or meat on your pizza, make sure you slice them very thin.

For the best thin-crust pizza, skip the dough’s first rise

For a thin crust, you have to dial down yeast’s activity. If you simply use your regular pizza dough, with its full complement of yeast, there’s no way you’re going to prevent your crust from rising vigorously once it hits the oven.

Add flavors

Add your preferred flavors to the pizza.

Bake in a dark pan or in steel

The best thin-crust pizza will be baked either in a dark pan, which transfers heat most efficiently; or on a hot baking steel. Either of these will yield crust and make it brown and crispy.

In order to take advantage of a stone or steel’s heat-holding qualities, be sure to preheat your oven thoroughly. I heat mine to 450°F for at least 30 minutes, and 45 to 60 minutes is even better.

Placing your stone or steel on a center oven rack yields the best of both worlds: a perfectly browned crust, both top and bottom.

Roll the crust ultra-thin

Take your kneaded dough and pat it into an irregular oval or circle. Place it on a piece of well-greased parchment; the parchment needs to be greased since you’re going to roll the dough about 1/8” and you cannot risk sticking it to the paper.

Wait about 10 minutes for the gluten in the dough to relax, then roll it into a 1/8”-thick circle or oval. Note: If you’re using dough that’s been refrigerated you can skip this 10-minute rest.

Add Toppings

Carefully peel off the top layer of parchment and add your toppings. Use a minimum of sauce on your thin-crust pizza. A ¼ cup sauce might be perfect for a 12” round pie. Just the right amount of every topping shall be added, nothing too much and nothing too less.

Transfer pizza to the oven

Place your pizza on a half-sheet pan and place it in the oven. Bake it until its brown and bubbled. It gives your pizza a crispy crust.

Must haves to make the ‘perfect’ thin crust pizza:

• Pizza Stone – you must have this for making pizzas…it really does make the difference between a good pizza and the perfect pizza! The key to using your stone is to always leave it in your oven as this will help to season it. When you are ready to make your pizza, you just uncover it and turn the oven on to preheat with it inside.
• Pizza Peel – Another mandatory thing for making your pizza. Use the perfect size wooden pizza peel that fits into the same cupboard as our cutting boards.
• Corn Meal – If you love the crunchy texture that the restaurants pizzas have, this shall be your secret ingredient and honestly, it makes a major difference! When stretching out your dough you combine corn meal with a little bit of flour and work right on top. You also sprinkle a light amount on your pizza stone right before plopping your pizza on.