If you like thin pizza crust, you will love this recipe. This recipe makes two 9-inch crusts. If you only need one, you can refrigerate the leftover dough for a few days or freeze it for up to a month.
For this recipe, you will need active dry yeast, olive oil, unbleached all purpose flour, and salt.
Mix 1 1/2 teaspoons of the active dry yeast in a large bowl along with 1/4 cup of lukewarm water. Let that stand for 10 minutes. Once it looks creamy, stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1/2 cup of cold water. Place 1 2/3 cups of unbleached all purpose flour in a small bowl. Whisk 1/2 cup of unbleached all purpose flour and 3/4 teaspoon of salt into the yeast mixture. Once that is smooth, slowly add the rest of the flour from the bowl until the dough comes together.
Sprinkle a small bit of flour on your working surface then knead the dough for about 8 – 10 minutes. It will feel soft, smooth, and velvety. Leave the dough on the surface, but cover it with a kitchen towel and let it rest for 15 minutes.
Divide the dough into two portions. Knead each section of dough for a minute then roll it into a ball. Sprinkle more flour on your work surface, place the balls on the floured surface and cover with the towel again. Let those rise for one hour. At this point, you can roll either both balls of dough for crust or refrigerating or freezing one-half if it is not needed.
Before rolling out the dough, sprinkle a little more flour on top of the ball. Using your fingers, press the ball into a flat, round circle, about 1 1/2 inches thick. Roll that out until the dough is about 1/4 inch thick. It should be about 9 inches in diameter. If you like cracker-thin pizza crust, roll the dough to 11 inches rather than 9 inches.