I'm doing a deep dive into how to make a Chicago Style Thin Crust Pizza, AKA Tavern Style. With the help of Chef Tuan and Brian Cooke's Chicago Style Pizza videos, I try to learn more and attempt to recreate my favorite style of pizza. #chicagostylepizza #pizzadough #pizza

Special Mention, Thanks @vincenzosplate

Bill Cooke
@howtocooke
Chicago Cracker Crust Pizza Recipe Tavern Style
   • Chicago Cracker Crust Pizza Recipe | ...  

Chef Tuan Tran
@cheftuan
Chicago Tavern Style Thin Crust | Fennel Sausage
   • Chicago Tavern Style Thin Crust | Fen...  

BILL COOKE'S THIN CRUST DOUGH:
AP FLOUR 660 GRAMS
WATER 330 GRAMS
SALT 2 TSP
DRY ACTIVE YEAST 7.7 GRAMS
SUGAR 1 TSP
CORN OIL 1.5 TBSP

CHEF TUAN'S THIN CRUST DOUGH:
BREAD FLOUR 600 GRAMS
SEMOLINA FLOUR 60 GRAMS
WATER 340 GRAMS
KOSHER SALT 14 GRAMS
INSTANT YEAST 5 GRAMS
HONEY 1 GRAMS
UNSALTED BUTTER 60 GRAMS

STEVE'S THIN CRUST DOUGH:
AP FLOUR 600 GRAMS
SEMOLINA FLOUR 60 GRAMS
WATER 330 GRAMS
SALT 1.5 TSP
INSTANT YEAST 4 GRAMS
SUGAR 1 TSP
UNSALTED BUTTER 60 GRAMS

My key takeaways and plans for Experiment Two:
1) The jury is still out on AP vs Bread Flour. I’m going to use Bread Flour next time.
2) I’m sticking with the Semolina Flour, 50% hydration, and Salt content.
3) The reduction to 4g yeast was fine. I’m going to further reduce to 3g on the next attempt.
4) I’m skipping sugar in the next recipe because I know my Instant Yeast is good.
5) This next part I’m not sure about. I am going with Bills recommendation of 1.5 tbsp corn oil for this quantity of flour. I think the 60g of butter worked for Chef Tuan because his dough was significantly thinner and cooked at a significantly higher temp (not sure.) I’ve heard oil can cause dough to be denser. My deepdish dough recipe is similar to the recipe used in this video and denseness was an issue when rolled thin. Since I’d like to go with a thickness closer to Bill’s, for inside cooking I’m going to follow his oil recommendation next time.
6) For the sauce, I started with uncooked, lightly seasoned, uncooked, hand crushed San Marzano tomatoes. I wanted to preserve as much of the San Marzano tomato’s flavor as possible like @vincenzosplate recommends, but is way too watery for this thin dough. The flavor wasn’t right for this style of pizza either. It needed more salt, sugar, and spices. It needed to be cooked to thicken and required more stuff added which ultimately meant the great flavor of the San Marzano was significantly reduced. In the future I’m likely going to go with a fresh tomato like Roma to not waste a more costly product while benefiting at the same time with using a fresh ingredient. I will also be using a blender and not hand crushing for this style of pizza.
7) I’d like to find a recipe that works well inside and outside in the pizza oven but recognize I may end up needing two different recipes.

For my next Experiment I will be trying the recipe below:

STEVE'S 2ND DOUGH EXPERIMENT:

BREAD FLOUR 600 GRAMS
SEMOLINA FLOUR 60 GRAMS
WATER 330 GRAMS
SALT 1.5 TSP
INSTANT YEAST 3 GRAMS
CORN OIL 1
1.5 TBSP