Gum line and shrinkage on a gluten-free pizza crust

[jklk3517]

I have been making gluten-free pizza for four years now and I am always trying to improve it. I have two problems I would like to correct. The first one is the gum line; it is more then half of the thickness of the crust.
Second it shrinks one inch when I par-bake it.
This is the process I go through:
I press our dough out into a twelve inch circle on a Dough-Pro at 200 degrees
Then I par-bake the crust 550 for 4 minutes on an electric conveyor oven
Heat seal it in an oven safe cooking platter and freeze it.
Then right out of the freezer I add toppings and back into the 600 degree gas Bakers Pride pizza oven.
The dough is made out of these ingredients:
White and brown rice flour, tapioca flour, potato flour, xanthan gum, gelatin, honey, canola oil and yeast.

 

[stpaullee]

I’m not sure what a gum line is so I can’t help you there. If the crust is shrinking an inch when you par bake it–make it an inch bigger and it should be perfect!

 

[jklk3517]

Thanks, but I don’t want to use more dough and that is what I would need to do to make it an inch larger. So thanks but that isn’t what I want to do.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

I think the gum line is a result of going directly from the freezer to the oven. Many gluten-free crusts made by the formula and process thast you are using tend to lack to open, porous crumb structure needed to allow for baking at such high temperature, especially straight from the freezer. The dense crumb structure common to this type of product conducts heat through the crust to the toppings where it is dissipated as steam without ever allowing the crust to get hot enough to fully bake it, hence a gum line. Sometimes allowing the dough to proof/rise after panning it will help to create the desirable, open crumb structure. Typical proofing times run from 20 to 45-minutes for a thin crust. The only other option is to reduce the baking temperature to something in the 450 to 475F range and bake for a longer time (could be as long as 30-minutes). As for the shrinkage, every gluten-free dough formula is different. It is common to this type of crust unless you make it from a batter as we do. First, try opening it to a larger diameter with the same dough weight, if that isn’t possible, then you will need to increase the dough weight to allow opening it up to the larger diameter. Since the dough is gluten-free, dough relaxers such as PZ-44 will not be effective.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[jklk3517]

Thanks Tom, I will try pressing the dough to a larger size. I will also try the longer bake time. Although it will be hard to regulate the oven temp since we use the same oven for our conventional high gluten dough. The batter type dough you are referring to, use eggs is that correct?

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

Yes, it does contain eggs. I can send you a copy of the formula if you like.
Just send me an e-mail at [email protected] requesting a copy of our gluten-free pizza dough formula.
Tom Lehmann/TDD

 

[jklk3517]

Tom, thanks for the offer but I am trying to stay away from adding egg. We are so close to having our gluten-free dough to perform like our high gluten flour dough I don’t want to deviate from what we got. We have a 60 year old high-gluten dough recipe that we are trying to duplicate. I am just trying to improve on what we have done so far. If you any other ideas I would like to try them.

 

[Patriot_sPizza]

have you considered…

I know you are not equipped to process/freeze dough, in the traditional sense, but might The good Dr. help reformulate your dough (like your regular dough) and make a batch, but, say boost up the yeast, then freeze the batch, removing/baking a par as needed, rather than par-baking?

 

[jklk3517]

Thanks for the offer but I will try what the good Dr suggested first. Then I will post the results. I have a good gluten-free dough and our customers love it. I am just trying to improve it. Thanks all.