B;
Some of the so called “gourmet” pizzas pride themselves on their very crispy crust characteristic, and by par-baking the crust you can achieve a crispier crust than you can without par-baking, this might be one reason. Another might be (I’m on thin ice here now) because some of those “gourmet” pizzas were developed by individuals with a chef’s background, not that there is anything wrong with that, but in many cases they are not pizza bakers so they use what they know best to achieve a consistently crispy crust. As we all know, you can achieve a crispy crust without par-baking but it sometimes takes a little inside skill and knowledge so I don’t find them at fault, then again, like I said above, the par=baked crust will almost always be crispier than a fresh baked crust. As I see it, the biggest thing that seperates a par-baked crust from a fresh baked crust is how it eats after it has cooled off a bit. The pizza made on a par-baked crust will almost always have a dry taste to it. A number of years ago I developed a simple formulation change to address this but to my knowledge no one is using it today at the retail/pizzeria level, possibly due to the stigma attached to using a par-baked crust.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
. You will still find more of them made on one form or another of a par-baked crust than any other (baked to rise) type. The pizzas normally sold to bars are also made on a par-baked crust too since they are only baked in what many might call a toaster oven. There are also some excellent slice operations working off of both thick and thin crust par-baked crusts. At one time a major chain even used a par-baked thin crust with good success. Yep, there are still a lot of pizzas made on par-baked thin crusts.
