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Pizza Help Browning

December

New member
An issue with our pizza has bothered me for awhile, however its the opposite issue that most have…
I think our pizza gets too much browning on the bottom leading to a slight burnt/bitter taste.
We use 460f at 6:10
Ive only heard of people using full open on bottom fingers. Does anyone use anything but full open on bottom?
My pizza is on the right, the other pizza is from another place in my area that sells way more pizza than I do
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so I have never heard of anyone using anything other than fully open on the bottom but I was also kind of curious if it ever happens. Something I have noticed with the way impingers cook though, and it seems kind of weird, is the more top fingers you have open the darker the bottoms get. Obviously I don’t know how your oven is setup but you could try closing a bit more off the top and see how it looks. Your bottom looks great to me though.
 
I was just thinking of a ton of other things that can effect your bottom also. Like how much sugar is in your dough and even different flours will brown vastly differently. Another thing is you could try just cooking on a disk instead screens. The disk will be a bit more closed off and you can temper the airflow to the bottom.
 
Do you have some gaps in between your fully open fingers? For instance in one of our stores our MM360 has:
Single Row, Single Row, spacer, full open, spacer, full, full.
In our other store it is:
Full, full, space, full, space, full, full

Could also be too much sugar in the dough. A disc vs screen could help. We bake in deep dish style stacking round pans. No oil in the pan though.
 
I did use a Lloyds hearth disk and it did help. The only problem was they are too heavy (we have to sideways straight arm the pizza out of the oven bc its right against the wall) and they stay hot for a really long time

My pizza is on the left with the Lloyds disk. A competitor pizza is on the right
image
 
I buy fresh dough from a fresh dough provider, so I wouldn’t be able to remove the sugar

Another store in a different town that also buys the same dough and cheese (grande) that we use, sells 3x times as much pizza as I do. Their pizza is the one on the left.

I want to sell more pizza, so I was trying to kind of emulate how their pizza looks when it’s done

They seem to go against conventional wisdom
Bake time is 4:30 at 515f
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I’m 6:20 at 500F. Do they use the same ovens? Screens? I stopped using the hearth disks from Lloyds and use there hex hole screens.
 
They use lincolns, I use edge.

We both use the same screens the cheapo ones.

I called the guys from Edge, interestingly they suggested a finger pattern on top. Im not totally sure they were understanding what I was trying to convey.
 
What did they suggest? Like I said I have seen top finger changes make a difference in the bottom bake. Less top heat usually gives a lighter bottom. Also is it not possible for you to make your own dough?
 
What is you dough handling procedure? Are you slapping out and baking your dough straight out of the cooler, or is there some time given for the dough to warm up a bit before forming and/or cooking?
 
They suggested

First finger:1/4 left open
Second finger:1/4 right open
Third finger:1/4 left open
Fourth finger 1/4 right open

Which is alot more open than my current
1/4,closed,closed,1/4 I use now.

Im going to show him through picture messages how dark my pizza comes out and how I want to get rid of that slight burnt/bitter taste that comes with it
 
We try to never use cold dough, it sucks when we have to use an underproofed dough bc we got too ahead. It doesn’t happen really at all anymore.
 
Try from open to exit on top
Closed, closed, closed, 1/2 panel with holes facing inwards of the oven. Might need to bump time a bit but try it and see what happens.
 
Yes so what edge is saying is you’ll allow more heat on top and take some heat off the bottom. Basically like closing multiple vents in your home to get an area colder/warmer. More air flow through the top means less tomthe bottom
 
Ohhh gotcha, yes like your car heater, if you choose just the low warmer you get all the vents on the floor, if you choose the option for both top and bottom heat you get half and half.

Forgive me im a slow learner
 
I would think full open, closed, closed, full open is a simple change, and equal to what they suggest.
Also the Yeast dies out after 2 minutes, so you wanna as much bang at the beginng as possible.
 
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