Pizza Crust: Tips & Tricks #2

As regular readers can tell, I'm pretty comfortable with making bread.  So it's often occurred to me to make pizza using homemade crust.  Unfortunately, it often doesn't work out the way I want it to.  A typical problem is a soggy crust, but there are others.   So I've learned a few things I'm going to pass along. 

1. If you can, use bread flour to make the dough.  The extra gluten will help the dough hold together while you spin, roll, or press it into shape. 
2. Use a non-stick cookie sheet.  I've used a couple of different pizza pans -- holes, no holes -- but I've come to prefer just using a non-stick cookie sheet.  I'm really tired of having things stick, and a non-stick pan makes it easier.  If you've got a baking stone and are comfortable using that, knock yourself out, but I don't have any experience using one of those.  Clearly, if you already have a system that works, use it; if not, try mine. 
   
3. Run the oven as hot as possible.  I'm told most commercial pizza ovens run at somewhere around 800 degrees.  So crank your oven up as high as it'll go -- usually 500 or 550. 
4. Pre-bake the crust.  This one I never see anywhere, and it feels like cheating, but it helps.  This gets back to the fact that your oven probably can't get as hot as it needs to for good pizza.  So recently I've taken to forming the dough on my cookie sheet and baking it without toppings for 8-10 minutes, until it's got a few blistered, brown spots.  Then I pull it out, put the toppings on, and put it back in until the cheese melts and browns a little bit. 
5. Don't overload the pizza with toppings or sauce.  A round 15-inch pizza should probably take around 3/4 cup of sauce, maybe 4 ounces by weight of grated cheese, and no more than a cup of additional toppings (or much less, particularly if they're wet toppings like tomato slices). 
6. You may find that the pizza cooks more quickly than you're used to, so watch it closely.  I made one the other night with smoked bratwurst, tomato sauce, and mozzarella.  The tomato sauce was hot, and I'd sliced up the bratwurst and browned the pieces while the crust was pre-baking. Sauce, meat, and cheese went on, and the pizza went back in.  It was ready in maybe three more minutes.  I guess making sure the toppings are hot is another way to compensate for a cool oven. 
7. Don't burn yourself: it's hot!  ;)

Comments

[Eric J]

Trader Joe's has a very nice pre-made Pizza dough that we like to use. It's sold as just a ball of dough, so you still get to shape it and roll it our yourself.

[Maura]

Thanks for the tips Joe. I've tried pizza dough several times and have never been very successful. I think the flour will make all the difference.

[Joe]

Maura, anything for you. :)

[Joe]

Eric: The Triangle has a Trader Joe's now -- in Cary. :(

[Sucar]

I have the absolute opposite problem. My crust is never too soggy (probably b/c I don't usually put red sauce on it at home) but can instead turn into rocks-particularly the edges. Bread flour is a definite must-for texture and flavor. But, I'm wondering if you have any suggestions for making the edges a little less cracker like. Should I just add more oil to the dough or baste the edges with a copious amount of something-butter? olive oil? egg something?

[Joe]

Sucar -- Well, I am a crispy crust person. But if I wanted a softer one -- yes, I'd try more oil. Or not using bread flour. :) Or anything else that'll soften the dough, as long as you can still handle it. Eggs and sugar would both soften it (if added to the mix), but I think those would be odd to add too much of. If you do want to add egg, you could try just using an egg yolk: more fat and less protein will make the dough softer.

I think basting it would just dissolve out starches that would re-form as an even crispier crust. I mean, you could baste it when it's essentially done, but that's probably not going to give you what you want.

If you use less water or knead less, you'll get a less tough crust (less gluten formation), but that's probably not what you want either -- again, you want something you can handle, and you're probably making the dough already in a way such that you can handle it.

You could try adding the fat earlier in the process. For instance, if you do this in a food processor, you could add the fat first, then add the water. Actually, adding just about anything (except protein [say egg white] and moderate amounts of salt [salt in moderation tightens the gluten]) will interfere with the gluten formation.

How thick do you make the edges? Mine are probably 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch tall (after it's baked, that is).

[Craig]

My partner & I have been experimenting with homemade pizza crusts the few weekends. We have been using a pizza stone which works great. We preheat the stone at 450. You may try preheating the cookie sheet. We wipe the stone with olive oil then place the dough on the stone. We bake the crust for 8 minutes then brush it with olive oil and put on the sauce & toppings. Bake an additional 10-12 min.

We have been making a dough with 2 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tblsp of honey, a little wheat germ and 1 packet of yeast dissolved in 1 cup warm water. After mixing, we let dough rise for 45 min to an hour. This has turned out well each time & is relatively healthy.

[Joe]

Craig -- thanks. I've been wondering how much sweetener I could add and get away with it without the crust browning too quickly. Have you happened to try King Arthur's white whole wheat flour? I may try that myself and see how it works. It should give something more like a traditional crust, but with a lot more fiber, and added flavor too.

[Michael Bacon]

Joe,

Couple of quick comments... My favorite way of doing pizza these days is to go get dough balls from the local pizza joint. Cinelli's does this, I think, and depending on the dough method used at the local place, Domino's and Papa John's do sometimes as well.

800 sounds a little ridiculous for pizza ovens, but I could be wrong. The oven at the Domino's I worked at was set to something around 435 or so. It may vary based on the style desired -- it may be that the brick oven places go hotter, because they can get more even heating from the brick surrounding it.

For hand-tossed crusts (and learning to toss the pizza is one of the best parts, I think), nothing beats a pizza screen set on the flat surface of a pizza oven, but since most of us don't have those pizza ovens, I've gotten good results with the stone. I don't have one myself, but I've used one at friends' houses.

[Joe]

Michael: It's good to hear from someone who's actually worked in a pizza place.

I think you can also get pizza dough from the Pizza Palace and Rue Cler -- probably Pop's and Satisfaction too, but I haven't checked.

The 800 degree figure is just something I've read, or actually an average, because I've seen different numbers. I imagine pizza ovens do differ. In particular, if it's a convective oven of a sort, then the temperature setting is deceptive, as the oven pumps a lot more heat into the food than in a normal oven.

I do enjoy tossing the dough, and I've never dropped one. :) But I toss it non-traditionally, in a way that would be hard to explain in words. I've never had access to a pizza screen though.