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Hi,
I made pizza tonight. I had purchased the Pillsbury dough from the grocery store earlier. I added the pizza sauce, olives, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni slices. The problem after preheating oven and putting it on the pizza sheet while baking at the required time, it was still soft/soggy in the crust and the bottom was also soft. I tried broiling afterwards, but it didn't really help. What is the best way to make a nice somewhat crunchy pizza? Thanks.
Try sprinkling corn meal on your pan before you lay the dough down on it. It will help get your crust crisp. Also did you try to preheat your pan or pizza stone before putting your dough on it? Depending on how thick you like your crust if thick you might try to pre-cook the dough partially before adding the toppings then baking it all.
A cornmeal-dusted pizza stone works better for me on a fresh dough pizza crust than anything else. A perforated pizza pan is better than a conventional pan or cookie sheet, in terms of crispy dough, but nothing really works as well as a stone (must be preheated, though). Also agree with another poster that you can parbake the crust, take it out, add toppings, and continue the baking process.
A cornmeal-dusted pizza stone works better for me on a fresh dough pizza crust than anything else. A perforated pizza pan is better than a conventional pan or cookie sheet, in terms of crispy dough, but nothing really works as well as a stone (must be preheated, though). Also agree with another poster that you can parbake the crust, take it out, add toppings, and continue the baking process.
Actually,i did try this in the past, but i guess i didn't leave it long enough in the oven and the dough fluffed. It was hard keeping the pizza sauce on it after taking it out of the oven.I did use a round perforated pizza pan, so not sure why this didn't work. I'll try stone. Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaxson
Try sprinkling corn meal on your pan before you lay the dough down on it. It will help get your crust crisp. Also did you try to preheat your pan or pizza stone before putting your dough on it? Depending on how thick you like your crust if thick you might try to pre-cook the dough partially before adding the toppings then baking it all.
I didn't try cornmeal. I'll try it next time. In the past, i did preheat the dough for around 5 minutes at 425 degrees to no success. It still felt soft. Thanks.
If you use the stone, the cornmeal step will be important, because it's easiest to assemble the pizza on a pizza peel and slide it onto the hot stone. The cornmeal helps it roll off the surface you've prepped it on, and onto the stone.
The stone is a porous material that retains heat, but also wicks moisture out of the bottom of the dough as it cooks. Aluminum pans don't absorb the water so there's a steam layer in between that prevents quick crisping. The advice is right, that cornmeal helps here. But I don't have a stone and I've had some success getting a crisp crust using steel pans and cornmeal. I like my crust really thin though. Are you making yours thicker? Mine is usually almost see-through, about 1/8", with thicker little divots from my fingers pushing and forming it into the pan. I also crank up the heat to 475-500. After all, you're really just intensely cooking the dough. The toppings themselves take little time.
A good way to rescue a somewhat soggy pizza crust is to "fry" it on the stovetop rather than broil it. Just put it in a skillet and heat it for a while. You need the heat to come up from the bottom in order to get the crust crispy. You can peak underneath to make sure it isn't burning - just lift it up with a spatula from the side.
Broiling will only add heat from the top and not have much effect on the consistency of the crust.
Pan frying is also a really good way to reheat any pizza, soggy or not!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JL
Hi,
I made pizza tonight. I had purchased the Pillsbury dough from the grocery store earlier. I added the pizza sauce, olives, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni slices. The problem after preheating oven and putting it on the pizza sheet while baking at the required time, it was still soft/soggy in the crust and the bottom was also soft. I tried broiling afterwards, but it didn't really help. What is the best way to make a nice somewhat crunchy pizza? Thanks.
Home pizza makers usually have the problem of getting a thin pizza off the peel onto a hot stone in the oven in one piece. A foolproof way to make good pizza is by using baking parchment paper. Cover your peel or a cookie sheet with a big sheet of the parchment, stretch your dough right on the paper and then add your toppings. With scissors, trim the excess paper from around the edge of the dough. Preheat your oven as high as it will go, like 550 degrees. Don't bother with the pizza stone -- with the parchment paper, you won't need it. When the oven is preheated, slide the pizza with the parchment right onto a center rack. The pizza will slide off your peel/pan easily and hold together because of the parchment. At that temperature, the pizza will cook in about 6 or 7 minutes (thin crust), and on the bare rack it will crisp up nicely on the bottom. Try it; it works.
We make pizza on the grill outside. The dough goes directly on the grill, no parchment paper required. It takes a few minutes only and always comes out great. We make our own dough, and use gorgonzola, asiago and fontina cheeses (we don't like bland pizza). It comes out great every time and never sticks to the grill. Here's our recent creation:
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This doesn't quite answer your question, but...
