65
[Question] When making pizza, is there a way to prevent soggy crust? (reddthat.com)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Telorand@reddthat.com to c/cooking@lemmy.world
60 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've been doing this for a while, but it's a problem I've never solved. Dunno if it's my crust recipe or something I need to do during construction.

The recipe is as follows:

  • 1c water, 120°F
  • 1 packet dry active yeast (2.25tsp)
  • 1Tbsp granulated sugar
  • 2Tbsp olive oil
  • 3.5C white flour
  • 1tsp salt
  1. Mix the yeast and sugar in the warm water, wait to bloom
  2. Add everything else and mix into dough.
  3. Knead, proof
  4. Roll out, transfer to pan
  5. Second proof (optional)
  6. Preheat oven to 425°F
  7. Construct pizza with favorite toppings
  8. Bake at 425°F for 15min or until cheese is sufficiently browned

Step 7 usually has jarred marinara, meats (except pepperoni), spices, and cheese, and all the veggies (and pepperoni) go on top.

Still, the very middle part of the pizza ends up a little doughy, just where the sauce meets the crust. The outside of the pizza is just fine, but the only thing I can think is that the sauce is adding too much water. Do I need to add a layer of oil before the sauce, or should I try to reduce the sauce before adding it? Should I reduce the temp and increase the time?

Thanks!

Edit: Everyone has had some great ideas. I'll have plenty to try!

(page 2) 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

You could experiment. First try less sauce. Then maybe try making a different sauce. Lastly try a different dough.

[-] xvf17@sfba.social 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

@Telorand Soggy crust is usually from the toppings. Try using less marinara. Also experiment with pre cooking veggies, especially mushrooms.

Your oven temp looks a little low. I bake at 550° convection for about 6:30. Finally, if you don’t have a pizza stone or (preferably) a steel, you might consider that. It really helps get the crust done better.

[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago

I had a pizza stone once, and it was great, but it cracked one day, and I just never replaced it. I have a perforated pizza pan, and that seems to work well enough.

It's gotta be the moisture. I put mushrooms in with the marinara, and my SO likes extra sauce, so sounds like I need to do some trial and error with cooking temps and sauce moisture content. Lots of y'all do higher cooking temp, and I've never been brave enough to go hotter in the past.

[-] truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago
  • Dough should use x/2 water for x amount of flour, in weight. And no sugar. So for example 300 g flour, 150 g water, 3 g salt. You can feed the yeast some of the flour instead. But don't mix yeast and the salt.
  • Boil the sauce so it's as thick as possible. Should be very big, slow bursting bubbles.
  • Preheat oven as high as it can go. It will still be colder than a real pizza oven.
[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago

I'll definitely try reducing the sauce next time and maybe going hotter temp!

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›
this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
65 points (100.0% liked)

Cooking

7556 readers
303 users here now

Lemmy

Welcome to LW Cooking, a community for discussing all things related to food and cooking! We want this to be a place for members to feel safe to discuss and share everything they love about the culinary arts. Please feel free to take part and help our community grow!

Taken a nice photo of your creation? We highly encourage sharing with our friends over at !foodporn@lemmy.world.

Posts in this community must be food/cooking related and must have one of the "tags" below in the title.

We would like the use and number of tags to grow organically. For now, feel free to use a tag that isn't listed if you think it makes sense to do so. We are encouraging using tags to help organize and make browsing easier. As time goes on and users get used to tagging, we may be more strict but for now please use your best judgement. We will ask you to add a tag if you forget and we reserve the right to remove posts that aren't tagged after a time.

TAGS:

FORMAT:

[QUESTION] What are your favorite spices to use in soups?

Other Cooking Communities:

!bbq@lemmy.world - Lemmy.world's home for BBQ.

!foodporn@lemmy.world - Showcasing your best culinary creations.

!sousvide@lemmy.world - All things sous vide precision cooking.

!koreanfood@lemmy.world - Celebrating Korean cuisine!

While posting and commenting in this community, you must abide by the Lemmy.World Terms of Service: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/

  1. Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, ableist, or advocating violence will be removed.
  2. Be civil: disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally insult others.
  3. Spam, self promotion, trolling, and bots are not allowed
  4. Shitposts and memes are allowed until they prove to be a problem.

Failure to follow these guidelines will result in your post/comment being removed and/or more severe actions. All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users. We ask that the users report any comment or post that violates the rules, and to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world
DimFisher@lemmy.world