My friend stretched the crusts, his wife and my daughter applied the toppings, he partly baked each pizza. The oven was 500F and we have a stone. When all the pies were parbaked, he quickly "flashed" them, my daughter cut each as it emerged from the oven, and we ate. We used two peels and two pizza pans. The parbaked pies were flashed on the stone, the bare rack, or the oven floor. This is shiitake mushroom and brie cheese. We only used a little red sauce on the pizzas. There was some Alfredo sauce used. This is pear and arugula. The arugula was tossed in salt and a plum vinegar, then scattered on the just-cooked pizza. The fresher the arugula, the more acid needed, I'm told. This is, I don't recall exactly, cremini mushroom and onions? We are all from Berkeley, where a collective called "Cheeseboard" has been making thin crust, mostly sauceless pizza for over fifty years (gosh, were the sixties that long ago?) In the morning people line up outside the store for parcooked pies. A few nights ago, one of the Cheeseboard guys stayed with us. His daughter is a friend of my daughter, and they were in Portland looking at a college. Our pies were an homage to Cheeseboard. They use a sourdough crust, which we couldn't duplicate, and they use varied and unusual cheeses - they also sell cheese, hence the name - and we just had mozz and Brie. This post was edited by johnliu on Sun, Apr 6, 14 at 8:31

Dense and rubbery dough will he helped by allowing the dough to rise before baking. I gathered that the dough was a thick crust rather than a thin crust. The addition of a couple of tablespoons of oil will allow you to roll the dough thinner....as will substituting a couple of tablespoons of corn meal for an equal amount of flour. I read once that the cornmeal cuts the glutin strands that keep you from being able to roll the dough really thin. Don't know if that's so or not, but it works. Also try partially rolling out the dough then wrapping and chilling and then rolling while it's still cold. If you roll your dough very thin, you will have a thin crust pizza. Linda C

Plllog, I do, but these were too big to bake in the Bakerstone pizza oven. I can only do about a 13" pizza in that oven. These were baked on a stone on the top shelf of the oven, just below the broiler. Oven set for 550°F. Stone given a blast of heat under the broiler for two minutes before switching back to oven bake, and the pizza slid on to the stone. Baked for 5 or 6 minutes and then finished under the boiler.

I only buy organic, so haven't tried the fresh stuff they sell. I used to make my own crusts and prebake them - maybe 6"-8" diameter for ease of fitting in the freezer - but I haven't made my own in awhile now, since I can get the ones from TJ's. I've also made larger ones and prebaked as well, since we've come to prefer crisp to soft. I also sprinkle some of the shredded cheese over the crust before adding sauce or fresh tomatoes, and it seems to help keep the crust from getting too soggy. I used to make pita pizzas when our kids were young, since it was so convenient and easy to make in the toaster oven. A tip for a quick and satisfying cracker crust is Ak-Mak flatbread. It makes a good substitute for regular crusts, as long as your toppings aren't too wet. I put a bit of olive oil on them first. I used whole sheets and placed them side by side together on a parchment covered baking sheet.