Spinach and Feta Thin Crust Pizza

Making your own pizza is easy and fun - the possibilities for topping combinations are nearly endless.  The crusts are easy to tailor, too; thick, thin, herbed, cheese stuffed...  And the sauces!  Red sauce, white sauce, pureed beans, no sauce at all...  The best part, though, is that it's inexpensive, not very time consuming, and the whole family can get involved.  Pizza is just good, no matter how you look at it.

A few kitchen items I use when I make pizza include my food processor, a rolling pin, a pizza peel and a pizza stone.  No, you probably don't need any of those things, but I find they make the process easy and improve the quality and flavor of the finished pizza.  If you do not have a pizza peel or stone, you can always pat the crust into some jelly roll pans (or cookie sheets) and bake them on the bottom rack, but you will get a crisper, more evenly baked crust with the stone.

For this pizza, I like a thin, crispy crust.  It's pretty simple to achieve this with a basic pizza dough recipe; more yeast and less oil yields a thicker, more bread-like crust, and less yeast and more oil will turn into a crispy, thin crust.

Working with yeast isn't as tricky as a lot of people tend to think it is, and that is especially true with a pizza crust.  With this recipe, we will "proof" the yeast before we add it to the dry ingredients so that there won't be any Oops My Yeast is Dead surprises.  We'll feed the yeast some honey while it hangs out in some warm water and when it foams, we'll know our yeast is happy and our crust will be awesome.  If it doesn't foam, you need to go buy some new yeast and throw the old yeast away.  There is really no need to check the temperature of the water with a thermometer - it just needs to be warm enough to not be too hot.  It should be between 90-105 degrees, so you should be able to put your fingers in the water without needing to pull them back out right away, and it should be warmer than your hand.

The dough recipe makes enough for two 12-14 inch pizzas.  You can either use it all  now, or freeze half; after the rise, form half of the dough into a ball, wrap it well in plastic wrap and freeze.  Thaw when ready to use.

For the dough:
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbs olive oil, divided
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp raw honey
1 cup warm water (about 90-105 degrees)

Pour the water into a 2 cup (or larger) measuring cup.  Quickly stir in the honey and yeast, breaking up any clumps of yeast.  Set aside to rest for about 3-5 minutes, or until there is anywhere from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of froth on top.  It will look like this when it is ready:

Meanwhile, insert the blade (the dough blade is ideal, if you have one) into the food processor.  Place the flours, salt and 1 Tbs olive oil into your food processor.  Give it a few pulses to mix.  When your yeast and water are ready to go, turn your processor on "dough" speed and slowly pour the yeast mixture through the tube.  If the flour looks a little dry, add some more water by tablespoons full until it catches and creates a ball.  Let the ball whirl around in there for about 30 seconds (this the "kneading" part we are able to skip by letting the food processor do it for us).

Place the remaining 1 Tbs olive oil in a large bowl.  Remove the dough (it will be sticky) and place it in the bowl, turning to coat in the oil.  Cover with plastic wrap (or even a clean towel) and set aside to rise for about 45 minutes while you get the rest of your pizza ingredients together.

Spinach and Feta Thin Crust Pizza
makes one 12 - 14 inch pizza

2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs minced garlic
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 c shredded Provolone cheese
3 c chopped fresh spinach
 5 or 6 sun dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/4 c thinly sliced red onions
a handful of pitted olives, chopped or sliced
1/4 c shredded fresh Mozzarella cheese
3 oz Feta cheese, crumbled
Grated Asiago or Parmesan
1/2 recipe thin crust pizza dough (above)
Cornmeal for dusting the peel

Preheat oven (with stone) to 500F. *If you are not using a stone, lightly oil two jelly roll pans or pizza pans and adjust your oven racks to the lowest level.

Dust your pizza peel generously with cornmeal. Divide the dough in half (decide if you will be making two pizzas - if not, wrap the other half of the dough in plastic wrap and freeze or refrigerate).  With a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough directly on the pizza peel into a 12-14" inch round.  *If using pans, either roll it out or pat it into the prepared pans.

Using a pastry brush, evenly brush the olive oil over the whole crust.  Sprinkle with the minced garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, and provolone.  Top with spinach, tomatoes, onions, olives, Mozzarella, Feta, and grated Asiago or Parmesan.

Slide onto the pizza stone and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the crust is crisp and the cheese is just beginning to lightly brown. *If using pans, place them on the bottom rack and continue as directed for baking time.