ISO Pizza Crust baking help

[maria]

Hello guys, everytime i try to bake a pizza in my house, mking my own pizza crust at home, the base of the crust gets burnt and very crisp, hard, it will not be as we get in the shops, any ideas as how to make my pizza when i bake it in my house more softer and good?!

 

[Renee Attili]

Have you invested in a "Pizza Stone"? That would solve your burning crust problem.

 

[Barb L.]

Or use a pizza pan, raise your oven rack up a bit.

 

[DramaQueen]

I love making my own pizza and I like the thin, crisp crust. I always use a pizza stone on the bottom of my oven, preheated to 450 degrees and bake my pizzas at that temperature for about 10 to 12 minutes per pizza. Perfect, delicious pizza every time and the crust is a beautiful, golden brown. If you don't want it crisp just make the dough thicker or don't spread it out as much.

 

[Green Lady]

Find yourself a Pampered Chef consultant, they sell nice stones w/o lead for a reasonable price.

 

[carolelaine]

I use a Pizza stone and a rack about 1/2 up the oven. Maybe you need to try setting the temp on the oven about 25 degrees lower, you could have an oven that runs hot.

 

[justplainbill]

Using a preheated pizza stone helps in the sense that it can make the bottom crust less soggy. As you can see from previous responses (e.g. place rack higher in the oven vs. place stone in the bottom of the oven) there is some lack of unanimity in what works best. Let me add to the confusion by suggesting that you add some (or some more oil) to your dough. Using whole milk in place of perhaps 1/3 of the water also seems to help; it seems to make the crust chewier. Having watched several pizza parlors bake pizza it seems they will bake them for upwards of 20 minutes. For me to keep a pie in the oven for that length of time to have the toppings adequately cooked without drying out the crust I can’t bake at over 400F.

 

[Caine]

The first question that needs to be answered is "At what temperature are you baking the pizza?" The second question would be "how long are you baking the pizza at this temperature?"

Once these two questions are answered, everyone can stop guessing and make informed suggestions.

 

[DramaQueen]

I have 3 very good pizza recipe books including Wolfgang Puck's and they state the same thing my pizza stone booklet says, : The stone should be placed at the very lowest point in your oven and the pizza baked there too. When pizza is baked in a pizzaria it is also placed at the bottom of the oven. This keeps the crust from getting soggy and makes the crisp crust everyone seems to like.
As for getting the pizza stone from Pampered Chef, I bought mine at Target. It came with a pizza peel and wheel cutter for $19.95, far cheaper and with more equipment than P.C.

 

[kelly79]

Middle of the oven is key -
Is your pizza pan made of a dark metal? I don't use a stone, but bake it in the middle of the oven using a stainless jelly roll style pan (if I am making a "party size" pizza and always have a nice brown - just crisp on the bottom and soft in the middle crust.

 

[maria]

well, guys, thanks for all those suggestions, but i use a non stick black coloured rectangular baking tray for baking my pizza. and i usually keep my pizza in the middle oven at 350 F for about max. 10 minutes, and that makes the pizza base REALLY crisp and hard, i even tried lessening the temp of the oven and the time to keep it in the oven, but that didnt help me much, in a way, the pizza either sometimes turned out uncooked or still dough, or too crisp with the 'experiments' of temp and time i was doing. So, i still am confused and .... any more good help?!?!

 

[kitchenelf]

The black baking tray is probably a big factor. It pulls too much heat towards it. Your ideal baking vessel would be a stone. I also think once you use a stone you will need to increase your oven temp. 350º is a bit too low. You will more than likely want to be in the 450º range. You will put the stone in the oven when cold and let it heat up with the oven. Once the oven is to temp and stone is hot you put your pizza on the stone to cook.

 

[Dave Hutchins]

Save your self a ton of money and go to the hardware store and get the biggest flower pot saucer you can buy. turn it upside down in the oven and check your temp. It sounds like you oven is running hot. when your temp is right on slide your pizza on to the bottom of the stone saucer and it should turn out just fine.. The flower pot saucer should cost about 1/2 or less than a pizza stone. add ing evoo wil cause your crust to be crisp not soft, I let my crust rise for about thirty minutes before I put in to bake and it is a little thick and just barly crisp good luck

 

[keltin]

What type of oven are you using? Is it a convection oven? Gas or Electric? Most importantly, do you fully pre-heat your oven before cooking? If you throw the dough into a cold oven, it will rest above a very hot element or fire that is trying desperately to heat the oven to the desired temp. This burst of heat will also over heat your baking pan. You must pre-heat to avoid this!

If you are preheating, then turn the heat off once it is to temp and throw your dough in. If it is an electric oven, after 3 minutes, turn the oven on Broil for 1 to 1.5 minutes to get the top element to kick on and start browning the top. After that amount of time, turn the oven off again and let the residual heat cook your dough. If it needs more time to cook, alternate between bake and broil for a minute or so at a time.

If doing this fixes your problem, then your oven has a problem regulating temperature (you aren’t opening the door periodically are you???). Getting a thermometer to set on the rack to double check the temp is a good idea. Always pre-heat and then adjust the heat according to how your oven is acting.

It sounds like your problem is coming from the heating elements working too hard to keep the temp up, and the higher heat of an element trying to heat the whole oven is scorching your dough. Try these tricks and see if it helps.



On a side note, I don’t get the idea of the dark colored baking pans. I’ve seen this before and am having a hard time wrapping my head around it. There are only three ways to move heat: conduction (touching), convection (molecular transfer through a gas or liquid such as air), and radiation (transfer of energy via waves). In cooking, there is primarily two forms of cooking…conduction (food on the hot surface) and convection (hot air hitting the food). Neither conduction or convection is affected by the pan’s color.

In heat transfer, there is infrared radiation…..but I’ve yet to see where color in the visible spectrum affects the absorption rate of infrared radiation (non-visible). So, unless we are cooking with visible light, I don’t see how the color of the pan affects this?

The type of pan, the material, the thickness, yes….but I’m stumped on color.

Where is YT at? Any one else got any ideas?

 

[Fisher's Mom]

Save your self a ton of money and go to the hardware store and get the biggest flower pot saucer you can buy. turn it upside down in the oven and check your temp. It sounds like you oven is running hot. when your temp is right on slide your pizza on to the bottom of the stone saucer and it should turn out just fine.. The flower pot saucer should cost about 1/2 or less than a pizza stone. add ing evoo wil cause your crust to be crisp not soft, I let my crust rise for about thirty minutes before I put in to bake and it is a little thick and just barly crisp good luck

Thanks so much, Dave. I had wondered about that when I looked at pizza stones. (I have a terracotta casserole dish which works beautifully.) I'll be at the hardware/garden center tomorrow picking up a big saucer. Should I "season" it in any way? I remember when I first got the terracotta baker, I had to soak it in water for a while and then bake it in the oven for a while to season it (or maybe it was temper it).
Terry

 

[DramaQueen]

MARIA: As long as you insist on baking your pizza at 350 for 10 minutes you will get uncooked pizza. Every thing I ever learned about pizza making says that pizza should be cooked on the BOTTOM of the oven and at 425 to 450 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. You're not following the advice so many of us have given you. As for the pan, I wouldn't recommend using a non stick cookie sheet by any means. If you're serious about pizza making, then invest in a pizza stone, preheat your oven for at least 20 minutes with the stone on the very bottom rack at 450 then see what happens. This is what I do and I get perfect pizza every time. You might want to have your oven checked as to temperature accuracy.

 

[Caine]

Well, the temperature and time are definitely not making your pizza dough burnt, overly crisp, or hard, and the pizza joints where I come from have been using black pizza pans for at least the last 50 years that I know of (mostly likely the very SAME pans for the last 50 years, and that is why they are black!), so your pan is not the problem. Top, bottom or middle of the oven is not going to make enough difference to make your pizza dough burnt, overly crisp, or hard either, so it can't be that.

The only other thing I can think of is your dough recipe. Can you give us the ingredients?

 

[kelly79]

Using the dark non stick pan is a real problem. I have been given these types of pans as gifts - the non stick idea is great - but the dark pan always gets too hot and burns whatever I would try to make on them. I threw them out a long time ago and have stuck to a good grade of stainless - or commercial style baking pans and cookie sheets. I agree with DQ - 350 for 10 mins. will not give you the end result you are looking for. My oven would be preheated @ 425.

 

[Alix]

Hi Maria, I think Caine is right and we need to see your recipe. I have a suspicion that your pizza dough is spread a bit too thin perhaps and that is contributing to the over cooking issue. Give us your recipe and we will help you troubleshoot it.

 

[maria]

thnx guys, for all the suggestions.
Keltin, ur method of shifting between the broiling and baking was also good. I'll try and see it if it helps, and Dave, thnx fo tat very innovative idea. I'll now invest in a good flower pot saucer, and always keep it in the middle of the oven rack, at 450 for 10 mins. And i'll not make my dough very thin.
But i wanna ask you Dave, tat shall i always allow the saucer to preheat and then cool on itself in the oven? like the pizza stones? and will it not crack?