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TOM,

I sure you have been asked this question many times. If you have answered it please direct me to the answer.

I am a home pizza baker and can’t seem to find the solution to this delima. When baking directly on the pizza stone at 550 degrees, I always get a tough bottom of the dough. It is leather-like, not so bad that it is a total waste but it isn’t good enough to want to bake another this way. I use Artisan flour and high gluten flour with about .25% oil in the dough. Everything is good except the tough bottom. Any solutions to this problem?

MWTC
 
How much flour and water do you use? This can have a great impact upon the bottom crust characteristics. Next, how do you form/shape the dough? By hand? With a rolling pin? By hand is by far the best method as you don’t end up degassing the dough as you do with a rolling pin.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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MWTC

I was having the same troubles, seem like it was either the top was perfect but the bottom was too done or the other way around. This thread is a good one to read (although very long)

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index. … 985.0.html

I took one of the tips and bake the pizza on the stone for about 3-5 minutes then put it on a rack in the top slot so the cheese get done without baking the bottom more. Hope this and the thread helps.
 
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TOM,

I use 65% hydration and at least 24 hour cold fermentation, and I form the dough by hand.

MWTC
 
I also allow a two hour counter rise before baking on the stone.

MWTC
 
That is a very long final proofing time (2 hrs.) If the dough is not rising excessively during this time (I doubt that it is or you wouldn’t be doing it) you might just be too low on yeast level. What type of yeast are you using?
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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I’m using .25% ADY. I also got the same result from .25% IDY. Basically 1/2 tsp for 800 grams of flour.

I am using a 4 hour <72degrees preferment before balling it up. Then I go to a 24 to 48 hour cold ferment. Then the 2 hour counter rise. With a 1 hour 550 degree baking stone preheat.

The recipe is: 800 grams Artisan Flour (Giusto’s)
520 grams of 112 degree water, pinch of sugar
1/2 tsp ADY
1-1/2 tps Salt
1 tsp Olive Oil

MWTC
 
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I’m betting that the dough is running out of sugar to support the yeast fermentation. If the flour isn’t malted (I doubt that it is) and with just a pinch of added sugar, thew dough should be able to support 4 to 6 hours of vigorous fermentation. After that, you run out of steam, and lose yeast activity. The long, 4 hour fermentation period before putting it in the cooler is what is killing your dough. Try taking it directly to the cooler right after mixing. Then allow the flavor to develop gradually overnight in the cooler. This is hoe most of the artisan breads are made, and it is also how bagel doughs develop their excellent flavor.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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If one-half teaspoon of ADY is being used for 800 grams of flour as stated in the dough recipe, I believe that is closer to 0.20% than 0.5%.
 
Good eye. I was thinking of another recipe. That one was .5% yeast.

For this recipe I figured .25%

Thanks for the correction. 8)

MWTC
 
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If the yeast is running or has already run out of nutrients to feed upon there would be little if any further yeast activity by the time the dough is taken to the oven. The resulting outcome would be poor volume or oven spring at the oven. Translation: thick, dense bottom crust characteristic.
Further more, because of this, the crust will conduct heat from the bottom through the crust up to the toppings where the heat is dissipated as steam from the sauce and toppings (physics #101), resulting in a less than ideally crispy, but instead leathery bottom crust characteristic.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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I am getting great oven spring and volume, just the bottom is leathery. Not well done, its a nice brown, just tough. Having stated that, does your suggestion still stand? If yes, I’ll proceed with experimenting with your suggestion.

What yeast % would you recommend for the direct into the fridge technique? And would you recommend sugar or honey, if yes what %?

Thank-you Tom

MWTC
 
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If you are getting the oven spring, then you most likely still have sufficient yeast activity. If you want to try the refrigerated dough management you can use your same yeast level. Just be sure to allow the dough to set at room temperature for about 90 minutes after you take it out of the cooler before shaping, dressing and baking.
From all that you have now described, I’m thinking that you are just not getting enough heat into the bottom of the dough. Even though you are baking on a pizza stone, you are probably pulling most of the heat out of the stone with the pizza and getting a less than ideal bottom bake. This is common with most home type ovens.
Tom Lehmann/TDD
 
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So am I SOL or would a longer preheat help? I have heard of using the cleaning cycle to get the oven hotter, is that an option? Or is it back to pan baking?

Are there any ovens available to the home baker that will get hot enough?

MWTC
 
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Take a gander at the very next thread posting on “Residential Pizza Ovens”. This looks like it might be in your future.
Tom Lehmann/TDD
 
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Tom

So the bottom line is that we home pizza bakers can’t bake directly on the pizza stone if we don’t like the texture of the bottom of the pizza that is produced at our limited temperature.

Our options now continue with screens and disks. Then to Pans.

Correct?

MWTC
 
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It looks like your recipe makes around 47 ounces of dough. How many pizzas are you making out of that amount of dough and what size are they? Maybe you need to adjust your pizza size/dough thickness relative to your oven/stone temperatures so that the pizzas bake long enough to properly cook everything (cheeses and toppings) without the bottom overbaking and turning to “leather”. You might also have to move the pizza off of the stone onto a higher oven rack position once the bottom crust is where you want it, and allow the pizza to finish baking at the higher oven rack position.
 
I usually get 3-12oz doughs and 1-10oz dough. I will experiment with what you spoke about to see the results. The 12oz doughs stretch out to be around 11 inch pies. I am just getting tired of the same sub par results. I’ve experimented with many types of flour and oil %'s and get the same toughness on the bottom.

Thanks for the input.

MWTC
 
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If you are using 12 ounces of dough for an 11-inch pizza, in Tom’s language that translates to a thickness factor of about 0.126, which corresponds to a rather thick-crust pizza. It’s possible that in order to get the top of the pizza to bake correctly you are having to bake the pizza too long and the bottom ends up with a leather-like characteristic. You might want to make the pizza bigger (increased diameter) or move the pizza around in the oven or adjust oven/stone temperatures to get the proper balance between the bake of the bottom of the pizza and the top of the pizza. You might also want to try putting your stone at the middle oven rack position as a benchmark and go up or down from there based on your results. Home ovens differ quite widely from one to the other, so you will have to experiment to find what set of conditions produces the best results for you with your particular style of pizza.

There’s nothing wrong with using pans either, especially if you like a thicker crust. Liberally oil the pan and you should be able to get a good bottom crust with a “fried” effect without being leather-like. In a home oven, there is no one set of rules to making pizzas. Each style has its own set of rules.
 
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