The basic pizza dough recipe and process are the key to a great pizza crust. There are different types of pizza crust but the THIN CRUST is the old stand by that is my favorite.

Just follow the recipe and instructions for making pizza dough  for thin crust pizza. After your dough has risen and at least doubled in size, you are ready to roll out your dough and put it in the pizza pan to rise again.

Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, on a clean surface. You want your rolled out dough to be a little larger than your pizza pan.

Thin pizza crust

Lift the dough and place in on the pizza pan, letting it settle in and fit; smooth it out so that the wrinkles flatten out.

Dough in Pizza pan

Using the rolling pin, roll around the edge (lip) of the pizza pan, cutting off the excess dough.

Pizza dough for pizza crust

Be sure to save the cutaway leftover dough scraps to form a new small dough ball that can be placed in a container to rise . If you are making several pizzas, put all the scraps together to make a final dough ball.  The scrap dough ball gets a second rising which tends to make the best crust from the scraps of the first pizzas.

pizza dough-rise in pan

Cover your pizza pan with a plastic or aluminum circle.  (these can be found at restaurant supply stores or on eBay). Allow it to rise about 30 minutes before making your pizza.

Pizza dough-rise in the pizza pan

The next step is adding pizza sauce and your chosen ingredients. Ideas for ingredients will be shared in other articles on Tim's Best Pizza.   The sauce and the pizza ingredients do not have much effect on the outcome of the crust, so I will not elaborate on that step here.

The final step for making a top notch  pizza crust is cooking your pizza in a hot oven (550 degrees for my oven) for 10 minutes. (Ovens vary, so you might have to adjust the temperature or the time for your oven to get your best outcome). The pizza should be placed on the center rack of the oven for even cooking.

Test the crust before removing the pizza from the oven. I use my pizza cutter to lift up the edge of the pizza. As long as the crust is soft and flimsy, it is not ready. I know that it is ready just when it gets stiff and crisp. That's when you know that it will be a light, thin,  and crispy crust that is a delight to bite in to.

At this point---take the pizza out of the oven, slide it onto the serving tray, and cut it into pizza slices. Ready to serve!!!