Chicago Tavern Style pizza is a Windy City staple with its cracker thin crust loaded with your favorite toppings. This pizza cooks up perfectly in your home oven.
Place the flour and cornmeal in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, and mix to combine.
Proof the yeast in the warm water, by mixing thoroughly.
Mix the yeast mixture into the flour and use the 2 tablespoons of the cold water to rinse the yeast bowl and then add to the flour.
Continue to mix for a couple minutes, stopping and scaping the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add the salt and olive oil and mix for 3 minutes. The dough should form a ball and grip on the dough hook.
Remove the dough ball and knead by hand for 2-3 minutes.
Cover with a warm, damp towel and allow to rest for 30 minutes
Cut the dough into 3 equal sized balls and form into balls by gently pulling and stretching the dough and tucking the dough back under. Rotate and repeat this process until you have a dough ball with a smooth top. Repeat with the remaining dough balls. Place the dough ball on an oiled pan and then cover the dough balls with plastic wrap. Dough can also be refrigerated up to 48 hours, covered in plastic wrap, if desired.
When you are ready to make your pizzas remove the dough balls from the refrigerator allow to sit for 1-2 hours in a warm place, until doubled in size.
Sauce:
Combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine. If made before and refrigerated overnight bring back to room temperature or heat on the stove before applying to the pizza.
Pizza Assembly:
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees with a pizza stone or baking steel.
Roll your dough balls into circular pizzas. Use a pizza docker or fork to poke holes in the crust.
Place the dough on a well-floured pizza peel (we find a mixture of four and semolina or cornmeal works best).
Top the dough with sauce, cheese and toppings.
Slide the pizza onto the stone or steel and bake for 4 minutes then rotate the pizza 180 degrees. Cook an additional 3-5 minutes until cheese is melted and golden. Note: Cooking Steels will cook faster than stones or a pizza pan.
Remove to a cutting board and cut into square slices.
Notes
This Tavern Style Pizza Recipe is enough for 3 thin crust pizzas.