How do I make this particular pizza dough?

Question

I don't know how widespread this was, but I have found myself in the position of having to duplicate those sheet pizzas that used to be used for cafeteria work. It consisted of a dough layer, a sauce layer, a cheese layer and a sprinkling of either sausage or peperoni cubes. I can handle all the other layers but I know the doughs that I normally use for my various pizza applications aren't going to replicate the base layer of this "pizza". It wasn't very crisp and it didn't rise very much and it wasn't very chewy. This leads me to believe that there should be little yeast, and the flour shouldn't be to hard, but beyond that I'm kind of lost here.

Please understand that I am NOT looking for a true pizza dough here. It should still be white and pliable when the toppings are finished. If anybody knows what the brand name they were or has a place to start to fix my dough, it would be very much apprieciated.

Answer 1

Not to disparage some of my go-to cookbooks, but when I want something that's a little more institutional or American traditional (and I'd say your pizza qualifies), the first places I look for recipes are the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook or the Joy of Cooking. I would bet that their recipes are going to steer you toward that kind of pizza crust.

I would think you'd want to look at a dough recipe with some fat in it--most likely olive oil. And I would think two rises would be good to get that sandwich bread texture of smaller bubbles/tighter crumb. Compared to a traditional Italian pizza, you'll also need a lot more dough, and I expect you'll cook it at a lower temperature than for a thin gourmet pizza (which is usually as hot as your oven can go).

If you're concerned about thick dough coming out a little undercooked (especially in the middle), you could blind bake it (with no toppings) briefly before taking it out and topping it.

If you're feeling really desperate for "that kind" of pizza dough and don't think anything you'll make will be white bread enough, Pillsbury makes a dough in a can that you pop open like their crescent rolls and cinnamon rolls. Pop it, and the dough is inside ready to rock--just unroll it and go.

Answer 2

I know exactly what you are talking about. I've been making pizza for many years, but only recently have tried to replicate this pizza that I grew up on. I have a very strong feeling that the crust was a very generic biscuit dough formula. Once the pizza was cooked, it could be rolled up (school pizza is soooo good that way!) but you had to really take care and roll it slowly or the crust would break. Very different from a regular crust.