See it made.
This is the typical Columbus (yes, Ohio) style pizza that Donato's made famous. Crispy cracker-style dough that's heavily docked and par-baked. Provolone in place of Mozzarella and lotsa pepperoni.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 210 g bread flour
- 105 g water, cold (50%)
- 5.3 g sugar (2.5%)
- 4.2 g salt (2%)
- 6.3 g neutral oil (3%)
- 2.5 g idy (1.2%)
- Casa M marinara pizza sauce
- Casa M Spice Co® Chain Reaction® Add
- makes 1 16” diameter skin
Method
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01
Mix to a stiff, dry, tight dough. It should feel dense and barely tacky — cracker dough, not pizza dough.
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02
Knead ~5 min until smooth but firm.
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03
Ball it, oil lightly, and cold-ferment 24–48 hrs in the fridge (Donatos crust is a controlled, low-rise dough — you do not want a puffy, airy ball).
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04
Preheat convection to 475–500°F. If you've got a stone or steel for the oven, preheat that too. We use a Lloyd's 16" pizza "steel" with holes in the bottom for the par-cook and the cook itself. That doesn't get preheated.
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05
Roll the dough 1/8" thin and dock it heavily
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06
Throw some corn meal or semolina flour on the pan for the Columbus Grit feeling on the bottom of the pie
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07
Lay the skin straight onto the pan. Lloyd's PSTK coating is nonstick, so you need barely a whisper of oil or none at all if it's been used a lot
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08
Par-bake right on the pan 4–5 min until set and pale.
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09
Pull it, top edge-to-edge with provolone → sauce → pepperoni
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10
For the sauce we use our All-Purpose Marinara Pizza Sauce with our Casa M Spice Co® Chain Reaction® in it. The recipe is also on our site
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11
Then finish 6–9 min until deep golden and crisp underneath.
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12
One pro move at the end: for the last 1–2 minutes, slide the crust off the pan directly onto the oven rack (or the stone if you preheated one). The dough is rigid enough by then, and the direct exposure through those already-crisped perforation spots takes it to full cracker. Not required — the pan alone gets you 90% there — but it's the finishing touch.
From Mike's Notebook
Dock the rolled skin aggressively and in tight rows — sparse holes let steam pocket up and lift the crust, which kills the cracker texture you're after.
After cold-fermenting, let the dough sit on the counter no longer than 60 minutes before rolling — too much warm-up makes it slack and harder to hold that 1/8" thickness without spring-back.
Judge your par-bake by touch, not the timer — the skin should feel set and papery when you press the center lightly, with zero give, before you pull it for topping.
Nutrition
Estimated · 1 serving · calculated from the ingredient list, not lab-tested.
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