Take and Bake Pizza

Pizza Shop Talk The Think Tank
1

I wonder if anyone has experience with par-baked crusts or if anyone makes take and bake pizzas? Does anyone know if you pre-bake the whole pizza or just par-bake the crust and then put on topping? I am at a farmers market and do sell Lehmann NY Style Pizza and make my dough. I am thinking about making a take and bake pizza and also selling pizza related items like mozzarella, sauces, and other cheeses.

Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Norma

2

The beauty of take-and-bake pizzas are that you do not have to cook them at all. Form the dough into the tray, sauce/cheese/top it, and wrap the whole thing up in plastic wrap. Your baking instructions should be developed so that the pizza cooks correctly from raw in a home oven.

Here is an example (our pdf instructions for take-n-bake).

You can get the pressware trays from M-Press Packaging @ 541-548-9889 shipped by the case. I know others have used parchment paper and cardboard circles instead to save some bucks and avoid the odd chemical odor the pressware gives off… I’m pretty sure that’s how Mama Mimi’s in Ohio does it.

Good luck.

3

brad randall,

Thank you for your pdf instructions for take and bake and also the link to how you think Mama Mimi’s in Ohio does it.

I have looked at many pizzas for sale in the grocery store and at Sam’s club, but couldn’t ever decide how they made them. I can see how the pizza should be made within 24 hours if using the dough I am making. Since there are many people that come to market for food they want to reheat at home, I was just thinking about this idea and how it could work.

I also use my dough at home to experiment with different kinds of pizza, so maybe I could decide by experimenting with the dough balls, how long the instructions should be for baking.

Until I would see if this Take and Bake would sell at market, I probably would go with your advise at what others might be doing with parchment paper and a cardboard circle. Thanks for the information about the pressware trays.

All your ideas have been a great help for me.

Thanks,

Norma

4

I used to be a wholesaler of a par-baked product for the Disney area hotels…we did a Sam’s/Wal-mart kinda thing…then the customer has a longer opportunity to use it/bake it…

There is an “art” to making a great tasting par-bake - in your case I think I’d stick with your regular dough/circles/parchment paper

5

Patriot’sPizza,

Since you were a wholesaler of par-baked products and did things something like Sam’s/Wal-mart, do you mind telling me how they also did this type of Take and Bake? It always intrigued me how they could do this. I know Sam’s club sells their dough and then also they do sell their pizzas to take home and bake.

Do you have any idea what the “art” of doing that kind of take and bake is? I am not saying I want to do a Take and Bake this way, but am curious just how it is done.

Thanks for telling me it would be a good way to stay with parchment paper and circles.

Thanks for your advise,

Norma

6

Sam’s just buys frozen dough, presses it out w/a DoughPro, bakes/cools/tops/packs…not so much in all stores tho, as they also use a central commissary in some states…

That method is fine, but you may find the cheese & toppings “fall off” easier/quicker than a regular preped/baked pizza…

Notice, a press is used vrs a sheeter - too much gas lost - too long to re-proof dough b4 baking…temp is lower & dough is docked…dough must be fully proofed

I’ve not had great success w/my old MM360’s in making a good par-bake shell - my 1st oven (a Quizno style sub oven by Holman) did a decent job, till I got my big set-up of CTX infrared ovens (which I still like)

I had a special dough recipe/technique as well that compared most favorably with a pie fresh out of the oven…$100K & its yours!

7

Patriot’sPizza,

Thanks again for the information about Sam’s pizza dough. I didn’t know it was frozen, but that makes sense since so many franchise pizza businesses use dough from a commissary. I never bought a take and bake pizza at Sam’s, but have been looking at them. I did try a slice of pizza from them and wasn’t impressed. The Sam’s near me uses a conveyor oven.

I make a regular Lehmann dough for the NY Style pizza and am working on a poolish preferment that is made 3 days before and then incorporated into the final dough, put into the deli case, then left to cold ferment for one day before baking. In my opinion this dough has more flavor in the crust than my regular Lehmann dough. It is also more artisan looking. I open my dough by hand.

I also am experimenting with Chicago thin crust formulas’s and Sicilian Tomato Pie pizzas. I have found so far that the poolish preferment for the Lehmann dough is working well for the Tomato Pie.

I only have a Baker’s Pride GP-61 double-stack counter top propane gas oven. It works well with this style of pizza I am making. I have never tried any other ovens, but my home oven.

LOL, $100K for the special dough/recipe technique…I only make pizzas at a farmers market.

Thanks for all your advise and information,

Norma

8

The $100K was just the down payment… :lol:

just 20,000 $5 pizzas!

You can do it!

9

Patriot’sPizza,

Yes…maybe 10,000 $10.00 pizzas! I am 63 years old so I wonder how long it would take me to make up the money. :roll:

Seriously though, what size pizzas do you sell for take and bake?

Thanks,

Norma

10

I sold 16" to most of the hotels & 12" to the bars & such…back in '04 we sold the 16" for $5.75 (course, some days we sold 1,000)

11

Thanks for the telling me what size pizzas you sold.

Norma

12

Norma;
Take and bake pizza is just that, buy the pizza and take it home to bake it, crust and all. When you make it on a par-baked crust all you are doing is making the very same pizza that you buy in the frozen food case at your local supermarket. The thing that makes take and bake such a popular item is that the crust is fresh baked. Take a look in the RECIPE BANK at my take and bake pizza formulas, I’ve got some really good ones posted that we have used very successfully for a good number of years now. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

13

Tom,

I read the recipes in the recipe bank. Your recipes sound very tasty.

I read that the recipes have sugar added. Is that necessary if the dough I would be using is only one day cold fermented and I would have on the instructions to use within 24 hours. When using the new poolish preferment for the Lehmann dough, I have also experimented with this dough at home and it lasted up to five days before it started to overferment.

In you opinion do you think the added brushed on topping on the crust gives additional flavor when baking or does it deter crust spring in the oven. For my customers that are used to how my pies taste, do you think it would be a good idea to change my recipe?

Another question I would like to ask you if I should keep my sauce thicker? I do use a mix of Saporito Super Heavy Pizza Sauce with Basil mixed with 7/11. I sauteed the red onions, fresh garlic and then add chopped fresh basil, fresh oregano, fresh parsley and sauteed for a little longer. I then add Parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, a little sugar, and a little Italian blend of dried herbs. I let this sit overnight in the deli case and don’t cook the sauce. This sauce is very thick and I need to add some water before I dress the pies.

I would like to be able to use my normal dough and make the Take and Bake Pizza. Do you think this would work? I am going to dress a pizza at market when I purchase some circles and see what happens when I try to bake it at home. I never knew Take and Bake would only involve making the pizza, instructions and then wrapping. :smiley:

Thank you for your ideas and help,

Norma

14

I had a pretty good take and bake from a shop in bloomington indiana, it was a CUBAN BLACK BEAN pizza.
from Avers. anyone else tried this? travels well, about 70 miles lol

15

Sounds like you need to try mine. I par bake my own dough. It tastes nothing like frozen pizza from the supermarket.

16

Pizza of the Month,

Do you mind giving any tips on how you par bake your own dough? It sounds interesting that someone is doing the par bake for a Take and Bake. It sounds like baking your own panini like I do out of my regular Lehmann dough and just baking it until it balloons and then taking out of the oven before it becomes hard. Just a thought.

Thanks,

Norma

17

I have a thicker crust pizza. It’s a secret recipe. Sorry I can’t tell you more. All I do is bake it 2.5 minutes then cool it and top it. Then it goes in the freezer till sold.

18

Pizza of the Month,

Thanks for the tips! Interesting that it goes in the freezer.

Thanks,

Norma

19

Norma;
What do you mnean by “brushed on topping”? Brushing on a flavor infused oil will not affect the rising or oven spring of the dough in any way.
I think you are missing part of the take and bake concept. It will not replicate the flavor or textural characteristics of your existing crust that is baked on site. The reason for this is because you will need to add a significant amount of sugar to the dough formula (about 5% of the flour weight) to get the crust to brown properly in a home oven. You might want to experiment with adding sweet dairy whey (available from any BAKERY INGREDIENT supplier). The whey is high in lactose (milk sugar), which happens to be a very reactive sugar when it comes to browning, but it is also the least sweet of all the sugars, so it will color the crust while having the least impact on flavor. The amount to use would be about 5% of the flour weight. You will probably want to experiment a little to find the level that works best in your dough formulation. The biggest problem with take and bake pizza is the potential for temperature abuse at the hands of the consumer, they then have a habit of bringing it back and saying that it didn’t bake properly.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

20

Tom,

Thank you for explaining about using brushing on flavor of a infused oil. That is something I never tried, so I didn’t know what the results would be.

Since the market I made pizzas at is only open one day a week and the hours I am there making pizza is over 12 hours, I could see the problems you are talking about with not adding sugar or some other kind of leavening agent to my dough. I did miss the point about why there needed to be some kind of sugar added to make the pizza brown better in a home oven.

I can also see the problem of customers not handling the product in the right way.

Thank you for helping me in my learning curve about pizza and specifically a Take and Bake Pizza,

Norma