Having issues with the quality of your home-made pizza crust? Here are SIX pizza hacks that you can implement today that will make your crust much better than it was yesterday.
Don't Use Cold Dough
If you've decided to make the dough beforehand, be sure to take it out of the fridge around an hour before you plan to make your pizza. This will help the gluten "relax" and it'll be much easier for you to shape your dough the way you want.
Use A Ceramic Pizza Stone
Why is a ceramic pizza stone necessary? Your ceramic pizza stone will retain heat a lot better than a baking sheet, so that your pizza can cook quickly and crisp up nicely.
Bonus tip #1: You can get a thick pizza stone here at Barbecues Galore by clicking here.
Bonus tip #2: You'll need a pizza peel to get that pizza pie onto your cooking surface nice and neatly. Click here to see our selection of pizza accessories.
Use Parchment Paper Instead Of Cornmeal
Typically home-made pizza recipes call for covering your pizza stone in cornmeal, but there's a couple of drawbacks to this. First and foremost, cornmeal is uncommon in many household recipes, so you'll likely have to make the trip to the grocery store just for it. Secondly, it's messy and often gets burnt during the cooking process of the pizza.
Instead of getting a huge bag of corn meal and using barely a tenth of it, you can also use the parchment paper that's already in your cupboard. Albeit, your pizza crust won't be as crunchy. So, as long as you don't mind that, parchment paper is a great replacement for cornmeal.
Brush Your Dough With Olive Oil and Garlic
To combat the parchment paper in the area of crunchiness (if you chose to use this tip), you can brush on a mixture of olive oil and minced garlic which will crisp up your dough nicely.
Use The Right Toppings
Sometimes the crust isn't the problem, it's the toppings. The most common sauce that'll cause a soggy, soft, or non-crisp crust is pizza sauce. If there's too much of it or it's too watery, it's going to take a LONG time to evaporate, even in a pizza oven, and it's going to absorb into your crust. If you notice your sauce is too watery, reduce it by boiling it for a bit to get rid of the excess water and liquid.
Lastly, toppings that release water while cooking will increase the moisture level of the crust. This could be ingredients like fresh tomatoes, bell peppers, egg plant, zucchini, and other moist veggies.
Par-bake Your Crust
Also known as blind baking, par-baking is the process of baking your crust before you put your custard, fruit etc., into a pie. Although this is a pastry baking technique, you can also use it to ensure your pizza is nice and crusty. Just bake your dough for about 5 to 8 minutes, or until it starts turning brown, then take it out and put on your toppings. You can place the pizza back in your pizza oven for a few minutes to heat up your toppings and/or melt your cheese.
Bonus tip #3: You can par-bake a few crusts, let them cool, freeze them, then take them out whenever you'd like to have a pizza. It'll make the next few home-made pizzas quick and easy.
That's All Folks
Share a photo of your home-made pizza on Instagram and tag us @barbecuesgalore!
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