Baked my own pizza crust the other day. Couldn’t get the dough cooked and risen in the middle without burning the toppings.

Does this mean I need a pizza stone?

What am I saying? This is STW, of course I do. And a wood fired oven flown in from Italy…

Oven based pizza stones work really well, funnily enough I got one after a thread on here. 😆

I’ll ask my pizza chef.

I don’t have a pizza stone, use a metal tray, even last week when cooking a whole load for daughter’s birthday party, so no idea what you are doing wrong – mine are thin base and I do the throwing thing to move dough to the outside.

get a stone paving slab – bigger, cheaper, stronger

been meaning to make a wood fired pizza oven for ages, it does not look difficult

I use ave a metal pizza tray, but I have started baking the base separately for about 5 mins, then adding the toppings.
Never managed to do the throwing thing though.

Risen? What like, deep pan bruv? It should bubble up in places and be crispy really, not at all “dough-ey”. Was it on a tray? Sounds like oven too hot perhaps? Anyways, pizza stones work really well. They need to be hot though (think of the stone inside an actual pizza oven). Don’t put the pizza onto a cold stone and THEN into the oven.

Oven needs to be on full wack…as hot as possible….Italian phd student of Mrs Dusty says to do what amateur advises…bake base & tomato “sauce” for a few mins before adding topping.
Yeah I fancy building a wood fired oven too!!

I have a book for building a pizza oven but never started yet.

I have a book for building a pizza oven but never started yet.

Ditto. Struggled to find clay locally.

Pre heat oven with the pizza stone in, roll out the dough as thin as you can get it then blind bake it on the stone for a few min until it starts to get bubbly. Then you can top it and bake again for 10-15min. Top of the oven, gas mark 7.

Stone in oven (cold), turn it upto max (240C or so), make pizza, put pizza on stone, and turn the oven onto a medium grill (if the stones hot enough it’s the base drying out that’s a worry, not raw dough!)

yup, stone warmed up, then dough to the stone, no topping for a bit, then topping.

If stone is cured all right and dough is firm it should be fine; I tend to use oatmeal or leftover polenta to provide an insulate layer..

i put the tray in the oven , heat it up to max

use grease proof paper to roll out the dough on and put the topping on.

put the grease proof paper straight onto the preheated tray .

8 minutes.

take it off the tray and the paper and stick it straight into the oven on the shelf.

leave it for another 8 minutes.

Baking parchment, I presume you mean?

I’ve got a ‘pizza tray’ from the supermarket, basically a round baking tray with holes in it like perforations. Seems to work, though a stone seems to be what everyone recommends.

shouldn’t you be using polenta or semolina on the hot stone to stop the pizza sticking?

Why do Dominos not pre-bake?

Because their oven will be at plus 400C domestic will be at 250C max

Because their oven will be at plus 400C domestic will be at 250C max

It’s more like a grill with pizzas going through on a conveyor made of mesh so it can grill both sides, not an oven in the conventional sense.

Being at 400c woudl be more likely to incinerate the toppinsg before anything’s baked, surely? Especially as they can do thick crusts, mine were thin.

TINAS’s idea seems more likely – cooking both sides. Sounds like bakestone is the way forwards.

Why do Dominos not pre-bake?

‘Cause they use a mix of thick tomato puree and water (with herbs, sugar citric acid and thickener) for the sauce – and not that tin of sloppy wet tomatoes that for some reason people insist on using at home.

‘Cause they also cook pizzas on metal trays with holes in the bottom – which allow heat to get straight into the base.

… Or solid trays filled with boiling oil (deep pan, init).

True, the ovens are at 400C, but its gas-fired – not a ‘grill’ – and a very all-round heat (think fan oven on steroids), hence I’m not sure it really makes much sense to compare commercial ovens with home ones. 200C will do fine.

You can get a metal tray from Poundland – and hammer lots of holes into it. Or you can faff about with a pizza stone.

Semolina flour (and polenta) are also your best pizza base finishing friends.

and not that tin of sloppy wet tomatoes that for some reason people insist on using at home.

Wash your mouth out, my sugo cooks down for at least an hour to get it to the right consistency! 😆

Oh, and Domino’s pizzas are rank, proper gantin.

I use a metal tray with holes in as others. Have the oven at max. Throw a couple of ice cubes on to the bottom of the oven for steam when you put the pizza in and turn the oven off. Takes about 10-12 minutes.

In a restaurant (but not an Italian) where we made nice pizza, we’d put the dough into a med-hot, heavy frying pan. By the time you spread the sauce and added toppings, it could go into an oven (175 maybe) to finish off.

NoEyeDeer was right about the sauce. It shouldn’t be much thinner than tomato puree, according to an Italian chef I worked under. Barely pourable.

‘Cause they use a mix of thick tomato puree and water (with herbs, sugar citric acid and thickener) for the sauce – and not that tin of sloppy wet tomatoes that for some reason people insist on using at home

I cook down a tin of chopped toms with a clove of crushed garlic, chilli flakes, oregano or thyme, salt pepper and a tsp sugar – give it all a mash with a spud basher half way through – just cook ’til the required consistency is reached.

I cook down a tin of chopped toms with a clove of crushed garlic, chilli flakes, oregano or thyme, salt pepper and a tsp sugar – give it all a mash with a spud basher half way through – just cook ’til the required consistency is reached.

and hope you’re not cooking those seeds for too long or it’ll get bitter…

Ah, interesting – she used a jar of pasta sauce for the sauce, which was indeed significantly runnier than puree.

She’s bought trays with holes in, apparently, so we’ll try that and thicker sauce.

I cook in a pan on the hob then under the grill, both on full blast as I can’t get the oven hot enough, especially if cooking more than one
Like this
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jul/15/how-to-make-neapolitan-pizza-recipe

I cook down a tin of chopped toms with a clove of crushed garlic, chilli flakes, oregano or thyme, salt pepper and a tsp sugar – give it all a mash with a spud basher half way through – just cook ’til the required consistency is reached.

Pretty much this but I usually do a tin of tomatoes, some extra puree and a splash of balsamic vinegar + the herbs (no salt, pepper or chilli flakes). I start by simmering/reducing it before preparing the rest of the toppings.

Would sir care for my pizza sauce recipe?

My pizza sauce recipe. Makes about a litre of sauce, good for around eight 10″ pizzas (and it’s lush).

Ingredients
[list][*]2tbsp olive oil[/*][*]Knob of butter[/*]
[*]1 onion, diced[/*]
[*]4 garlic cloves, chopped[/*]
[*]1 carrot, grated[/*]
[*]2 tins chopped tomatoes[/*]
[*]2tsp basil[/*]
[*]2tsp oregano[/*]
[*]Ground black pepper[/*]
[*]150g tomato purée[/*]
[*]50g tomato ketchup[/*]
[*]Salt & sugar to taste[/*][/list]Method
Fry the onion in the oil and butter on a medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add the garlic and carrot and fry for a couple of minutes more, until the onion is soft and translucent.

Add the tomatoes, herbs and generous twists of black pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, allowing the tomatoes to break down and release their sweetness.

Remove from the heat. Add the tomato purée and ketchup, stir well and then pulp the mixture with a hand blender until coarsely blended. Add a little sugar or salt to taste if needed.

Would prefer to buy something.. but then again – if we made a big enough batch of sauce we could freeze it in portions.

we made a big enough batch of sauce we could freeze it in portions.

Exactly what I do.

(I’ve just edited my post above to include the recipe)

Rather than adding polenta or semolina to the stone before cooking I add it into the dough when making it. It gives it a better, crisper texture and doesn’t disintegrate when wet.

A big +1 for ash258369’s suggestion – our old pizza stone eventually cracked after a while & someone suggested I try that instead, never looked back!

Best results with a big ol’ heavy cast iron pan (I got a huge one from TK maxx for a tenner…) on the gas full bung until it’s smoking hot, a light wipe over with some oil on a bit of kitchen roll then dump the base in – give it a minute until it starts to bubble up, then add toppings & transfer to a hot grill to finish the top.

Used to spend ages making a sauce too, but have now just settled on a half-decent passata – once you’ve fired your toppings on & a little drizzle of olive oil / balsamic you don’t really notice any difference.

turn it upto max (240C or so)

Cooker top trumps, ours goes to 280c, but I am sure some one must have one of those catalytic cleaner ones that can nuke everything?

We use Heinz BBQ Sauce as a Pizza base. Is yummy.

Carrots cougar?

You’re dead to me now…..

How much pineapple to put on?

Like the look of Cougars recipe, may have to give that a go been using a tin of puree with a healthy squirt of tomato or BBQ sauce to take the sharpness off(2:1 ish ratio) 1 small tin does a 14inch pizza with no waste.

No one else doing a cauliflower/almond base then?

I remember when this forum was low-carb as far as the eye could see……

Hard to “debug” from what you’ve posted. Oven temperature VIP and thoroughky pre-heated. i use Jamie Oliver receipe and it works well, never had an issue, could be they are rolled out thin and toppings I use are quite simple. Pizza stone is very helpful fwiw