How To Make Pizza Crusts Crispy

Temperature

One of the most essential elements to creating crispy pizza is oven temperature. When using conventional home-based ovens, temperatures can vary greatly. While, in rare cases, an amateur pizza maker will have access to a brick oven or something more extravagant, this is usually not the case. While brick and other advanced ovens will provide the best results, creating a crispy-crust pizza at home is very possible – you just have to be a little creative!.

Home-based ovens are generally not able to reach the temperatures of professional pizza cooking ovens; due to this, amateur pizza cookers will need to focus on preparing their dough properly and choosing the right cooking surface.

Preparing the Dough

Water

For starters, the amount of water in the dough mix can greatly contribute to it crispiness. If using olive oil as an essential element in your dough, simply use less to make room for more lukewarm water.

Pepperoni pizza

Thickness

For best results, it is important that dough be rolled-out to a thin consistency; this can be accomplished by simply rolling the dough right onto the peel, as this guarantees a streamlined transfer of the dough to the selected baking surface.

Home Pizza Baking Methods

Now, there are two methods for cooking pizza to ensure that it bakes to desired crispiness; these two methods depend entirely on the baking surface chosen.

You can use either of these two surfaces for creating crispy pizza.

1. Pizza Stone

If the decision is made to bake using a pizza stone, make sure you give it enough time to heat up before dropping in the dough mix from the peel. Make sure to follow these guidelines while performing this:

Moving the dough from the peel to the stone is more easily accomplished if the peel is covered with cornmeal; this will serve to streamline the transfer. The trick here is to have the pizza ingredients completely cook just as the crust begins to brown. While every oven is different, a temperature around 450 should be sufficient. Don’t get discouraged, however, if your results aren’t perfect at first; finding the right temperature to use with your oven may require a bit of experimentation.

It is important that the pizza is not removed too quickly – this is a typical mistake. It is essential to allow enough time for the crust to bake without burning the other ingredients. If necessary, you can, with caution, take a look underneath the pizza to monitor the progress of the crust. Keep in mind, however, if you’re not extra careful, these ovens can cause severe burns!

2. Pizza Screen

Another option for making a crispy pizza is with a screen. While this can be a messy process, this surface can turn out some great results. Pizza screens allow heat transfer directly to the underside of the cooking dough.

They also help to fight moisture transfer; the pizza screen reduces water transfer within the dough to make it nice and crispy but also helps the dough cook to a favorable texture.

Screens are not expensive due to the fact that they require frequent cleaning to avoid burnt cheese from clogging the holes; however, with proper care, a quality screen will last for years.

Most importantly: take your time and don’t be afraid to make mistakes – best of luck!