Bread Machine pizza dough??

[piratesmate]

I got several really good pizza dough recipes from people here on the board. However, I'm having a bit of trouble when I make the pizza. The center of the crust doesn't get "hard" enough to pick up. Is this typical - do those of you who make it just eat it with a knife & fork? If not, what are you baking instructions - i.e. how long, what temp & what rack position?

I thought maybe I just made the pizza too large, but the crust on the calzone (same recipe) was firmer.

Thanks for the help!

Deb

 

[Tantor]

I went out and bought the pizza pans with the small holes on the bottom so the crust gets brown all over. It works great. I found them at specialty stores. If you find one try it I'm sure it will work much better.

 

[piratesmate]

Thanks for the tip Tantor. Unfortunately, I'll have to make do with what I already have for the time being. I've been out of work for a year & a half and it's hard enough to come up with $$ for the food, let alone new "toys."

Deb

 

[TigH]

Hiya, Deb!

What type of pizza pan are you using?

I find that I have to cook the pizza longer when using a regular metal pizza pan. My sister complains that the cheese gets too brown though.

I have better results when using a pizza stone. Unfortunately I only have one stone and I have several pizza pans, so the stone pizza comes out with a nice crust and the other ones are just ok. I am looking for a new crust recipe to try out. My dad LOVES this crust, but it's a little too doughy for me. I had a pizza at Palio at the Swan a few weeks ago and it had the perfect crust, very light and crisp.

One thing I tried (and had luck with but can never remember to do!!) is to cook the pizza with just sauce and the toppings (minus the cheese) on the lowest rack for half the cooking time. Then I add the cheese half way and cook it for the rest of the time. (about 20-25 minutes total depending on the amount of toppings and how soggy they can get, mushrooms and green pepper or ham and pineapple seem to be soggy pizza makers, but they are favorites of ours).

For the most part, the pizza cooked on the metal pans is ok for the first few slices, but when you go back for seconds, it has kind of gotten soggy on the bottom. I guess this is just a result of the hot pizza on the metal pan creating steam or something.

Good luck!!!!! If I find a better recipe, I'll let you know. I guess some people swear by cooking the pizza on the highest rack and some swear by cooking it on the lowest rack. I keep playing around with things to see what works best for us. One day I want to get the brick oven pizza kit and just cook the pizza that way!

 

[SideshowBob]

Wowsers... got SSB very hungry reading that!!!

 

[mchuey]

Hello,

I had the same problem as you and was considering purchasing a pizza stone for the oven but didn't really want to spend the money. Last night we went to dinner at a friend's house and she came up with a great and cheap solution. She paid $1.50 for a large piece of slate tile at the local home improvement store. She said it works just as well as the pizza stone. So I would suggest trying that.

mchuey

 

[TigH]

SSB, I owe you some pizza!

In the name of research, we made home made pizzas tonight. I used the baking stone for each pizza. Oven temp. was 400 degrees. Pizza was cooked on the bottom rack. Each pizza was cooked for 15 minutes with sauce and toppings, then removed from the oven to add cheese, then cooked another 10 minutes.

All pizzas were cooked thoroughly and the crust remained crisp when the pizza was transferred from the stone to a wire bakers rack so the next pizza could be baked.

 

[piratesmate]

Thanks for the "research" TigH! I've been offline for a number of days (seems like MONTHS!!!) due to my hard drive developing some bad sectors - right where Windows sits!

I tried it again on Thursday & took your suggestion of not putting the cheese on in the beginning. I did use 400 degrees & the middle rack. It turned out much better this way - we could even pick it up . . . well, sort of. Anyway, I think another time I might try starting without the sauce, too. The middle just isn't quite firm enough - and we don't even like ours crispy!

Mchuey - I would have thought that a slate tile would have some type of treatment on it. I'd be a little concerned about doing that. Today's slate tiles last much better than the old ones did - there must be a reason. Just a thought . . . .

Thanks again!

Deb