Discover the secrets to creating Chef John's legendary South Shore Bar Pizza in this video! Learn how to achieve the perfect thin and crispy crust that's sure to impress, and follow along as we guide you through every step of this classic recipe, from preparing the simple cheese pie to baking it to perfection. Whether you're a pizza enthusiast or just love to try new regional foods, this easy-to-follow tutorial will have you savoring a slice of pizza history in no time!
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00:00 Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with South Shore Bar Pizza.
00:09 That's right, when I got a request for this recently, I did a search and I realized this
00:13 was the same thing we grew up eating, except we called it Cracker Crust Pizza.
00:18 And it was the style of pizza we got whenever we would go to a bowling alley or a movie
00:22 theater or any other kind of snack bar location.
00:26 But no matter what you call this, it's probably the easiest pizza to make and I am very excited
00:31 to be sharing my take.
00:33 So with that, let's go ahead and get started with the dough, which begins with some dry
00:37 active yeast, plus a little touch of sugar, followed by some warm water.
00:43 And by warm, we're talking about 105 degrees to 110 degrees.
00:47 And what we'll do is give that a little mix and then let it sit there for about 10 minutes
00:52 to sort of let that yeast hydrate and wake up a little bit, which is the perfect amount
00:57 of time to pull the rest of your ingredients together.
01:01 And once that 10 minutes is up, we can go ahead and toss in our all-purpose flour.
01:06 And then we'll take our wooden spoon and we will stir this until it comes together to
01:10 form a very dry, very shaggy dough.
01:13 And by the way, I'm going to edit this dough making portion of the video very tightly,
01:18 since I use this large bowl, which I never use, and there was a lot of bright light coming
01:22 in through the window, reflecting off the metal in the bowl, which made a lot of this
01:26 mixing footage almost unwatchable.
01:29 So apologies for that.
01:30 And next time I'll go back to using the small one.
01:33 But anyway, once we've mixed in the flour and it looks like this, we will stop and toss
01:37 in some salt, as well as some melted butter and an equal amount of vegetable oil, which
01:44 for South Shore Bar Pizza is supposed to be corn oil, which I don't have or use, so I
01:50 just use sunflower and it was fine.
01:53 And what we'll do is take our wooden spoon and give this a mix until it just comes together,
01:57 which will probably take about a minute.
02:00 But again, I'm going to edit this severely.
02:02 But what we're going for is something that looks like this.
02:05 And once it does, we'll start kneading it with our hand until it sort of pulls together
02:09 into a ball of dough and the sides of our bowl are pretty much clean.
02:14 And once that's accomplished and our dough looks a little something like this, we can
02:18 transfer that onto our work surface, where we will knead this for another minute or so
02:23 until we end up with a dough that's pretty stiff, but fairly smooth and sort of elastic.
02:29 And unlike almost all other pizza doughs, this one is very low hydration, or just over
02:34 50% water, which means it is going to be very stiff and kind of firm, which is good because
02:40 that means this is a very easy dough to work with.
02:43 So like I said, we'll knead that for about a minute until we have something that looks
02:47 and feels like this, at which point we'll transfer that back into our bowl and we will
02:52 rub that with a little bit of oil to keep it from drying out, at which point we'll cover
02:57 this and we'll let it sit in a warm spot until it doubles in size, which is going to take
03:03 much, much longer than a regular dough.
03:05 Okay, because of the low hydration and that oil and butter we added, this might actually
03:10 take like four or five or six hours before it doubles.
03:13 So if you want this in the evening, you have to start it in the morning, or we could start
03:18 it later in the day and then simply refrigerate the dough overnight.
03:22 And while we're waiting for our dough to rise, we should probably make the sauce, which could
03:27 not be any simpler, since all we do is take some San Marzano tomatoes and blend them up
03:31 until they're smooth, and then all we'll add to this is some salt, as well as some dry
03:36 oregano, which we're supposed to rub in our hands to activate before we toss it in.
03:42 Then we'll finish up with a few optional, but mandatory shakes of cayenne, and believe
03:47 it or not, that's it.
03:49 We will give that a stir, and our South Shore Bar Pizza Sauce is ready to use.
03:55 And once that's set, we'll go back and check our dough, and about five hours later, mine
04:00 looked like this.
04:02 And what we'll do is transfer that onto the work surface and then divide it into four
04:05 portions, since this recipe will make four 10 to 12 inch pizzas.
04:11 And please note, even after doubling in size, the dough is still going to be fairly stiff,
04:16 and not light and airy like our usual pizza doughs.
04:19 But that's okay, as you'll see, that's exactly what we want.
04:23 And then what we'll do is take a portion and roll it into a ball, and then sort of flatten
04:27 it out into a disc, and we will head over to our pizza pan.
04:32 But before we place our dough on, we have to drizzle on a ridiculous amount of oil,
04:37 like one and a half to two tablespoons, so that our pan is greased very, very thoroughly.
04:42 And I don't care if you're cutting down on calories, this step is mandatory and absolutely
04:47 necessary, since that's going to help us achieve a nice crispy, flaky bottom crust.
04:53 And then once that is thoroughly and severely greased, we'll go ahead and place our dough
04:56 on top, and we'll start pressing it flat, going almost all the way to the edge.
05:02 Oh, and I should mention that South Shore Bar Pizza is almost always done in a 10-inch
05:07 pan that has about a 1-inch high edge going around it, whereas I'm using a 12-inch pan
05:12 that's pretty much flat.
05:14 So what I'm saying is my version is going to be a little bit thinner, and a little bit
05:17 larger, but the technique is pretty much identical.
05:21 And then once that's set, we need to take a fork and poke this all over.
05:26 And this is actually a very important step, since by poking this all over before we put
05:30 on the sauce and the cheese, we're going to prevent bubbles from forming as this bakes.
05:35 And if we don't do that, and bubbles do form, you're going to have sauce and cheese being
05:39 pushed off your pie, and quite possibly onto the bottom of your oven.
05:43 So please do not, under any circumstances, forget to fork your dough.
05:49 And then once that's been properly punctured, we'll go ahead and spoon over our sauce, and
05:54 we'll want to try to spread that out all the way to the edge, or as close as we can get,
05:59 without it running onto the pan.
06:01 Alright, when it comes to this style of pizza, if you see a big ring of unsauced and uncheesed
06:06 crust, you unfortunately have made this wrong.
06:10 But anyway, the point is we want a nice thin layer of sauce, spread pretty much all the
06:14 way to the edge, at which point we can top this with exactly 4 ounces of cheese.
06:19 And the typical blend back east would be half cheddar and half mozzarella, or half sharp
06:24 cheddar and half mild cheddar.
06:26 But I wanted to California this up a little bit, so I'm going with half sharp cheddar
06:30 and half Monterey Jack, which melts pretty much exactly the same as mozzarella.
06:36 But anyway, which cheeses will be up to you?
06:38 I mean you are, after all this salty, of what goes in your mouth, gee.
06:43 And just like the sauce, we want to get our cheese pretty much all the way to the edge,
06:47 and if it happens to go over the edge in a few spots, no problem.
06:50 Alright, those are going to be the best bits.
06:53 And that's it, since I'm just doing a cheese version, we're going to put no toppings on,
06:58 which is how we always got this at the snack bar.
07:00 But of course, if you want to toss on a few slices of pepperoni, go ahead.
07:04 That is not going to bother me.
07:07 And that's it, this is now ready to transfer into the center of a 500 degree oven for about
07:12 12 minutes, or until our cheese is melted and bubbling, and the bottom of our crust
07:17 is nicely browned, and it hopefully looks like this.
07:21 And because this is so thin, and we used all that oil, we should have no problems with
07:26 this sticking to the pan, which I didn't.
07:29 So I went ahead and transferred that to a cutting board, and because I had it, I tossed
07:34 on a little bit of fresh oregano, mostly for the aroma.
07:39 And I went ahead and cut this up, so I could go in for the official taste.
07:43 And if you enjoy thin crust pizza, you are going to absolutely love this, because this
07:48 might be the thinnest of all the thin crusts.
07:52 Which again is why we used to call this cracker crust pizza, since it's about as thick as
07:56 a saltine.
07:58 But having said that, there is so much more going on here, than just some sauce and cheese
08:02 on a really thin crust.
08:04 Right, thanks to the butter and oil, and that high heat, the bottom of the crust is kind
08:09 of crispy and flaky, but it is not dry and brittle.
08:13 Okay, this crust still has a little bit of a chew to it, and I find this combination
08:18 of flaky and crispy and chewy, very, very addictive.
08:23 So fair warning, this is really hard to stop eating, and you probably won't be able to
08:27 until the pizza's gone.
08:29 Which is fine, because one of these pizzas is a single portion.
08:32 Oh yeah, it's only six ounces of dough, and four ounces of cheese.
08:37 So I think that's totally doable.
08:40 And besides the unusually thin, uniquely textured crust, I think the combination of cheddar
08:45 and mozzarella, or Monterey Jack, or a mild cheddar, makes for a much more flavorful than
08:50 usual slice of pizza.
08:52 Alright, I love mozzarella, but every once in a while, this makes for a very tasty change
08:57 of pace.
08:58 Oh, and in the name of science, I put the rest of the dough in the fridge overnight,
09:03 so I could show you how it performs the next day, which is the pizza you see me cutting
09:07 up right here.
09:08 And it was as good, if not better, than the one I cooked the same day.
09:13 So if you did want to make your dough the day before, there will be no problems.
09:17 And again, the main differences between what I called "cracker crust pizza" as a kid, and
09:22 what they call "bar pizza" in the Northeast, is that that's done in a slightly smaller
09:26 pan, and for some reason they insist you use corn oil.
09:30 But other than that, they're pretty much the same pizzas.
09:33 And if you've never had much luck at making a traditional pizza, with that high hydration,
09:37 sticky, hard to work with dough, this my friends, is the pizza for you.
09:42 And I could have called this "cracker crust pizza", but "South Shore Bar Pizza" is definitely
09:47 a sexier name.
09:48 Plus, by calling it that, I will now be able to hear from all my friends in Boston, as
09:53 they try to explain, very politely of course, how this is in no way "South Shore Bar Pizza".
09:59 So I am looking forward to that.
10:02 But names aside, if you're looking for a super easy, extremely user-friendly, incredibly
10:08 thin, thin crust pizza, then I really do hope you give this a try soon.
10:13 So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
10:18 more info as usual.
10:20 And as always, enjoy!
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