Continue to Site

pizza softens soon after leaving oven

  • Thread starter Thread starter system
  • Start date Start date
S

system

Guest
Hi, could you possibly tell me why soon after leaving the oven my pizza softens and loses its crispy texture?
 
the technical industry term we use for that is “life”. It happens to the best of 'em!
seriously, its the moisture from your sauce, toppings, cheese, penetrating the crust.

doing a archive search will give you some ideas, such as spreading a thin layer of oil on the dough skin before saucing it, or lowering the oven temp or increasing bake times to ensure you crust is thoroughly baked.

Try to repost with more details if you need better suggestions. Oven type, oven temp, bake time setting, pizza toppings most notorious for this behavior, etc.

Good luck!
 
Last edited:
Good point. This is why we are not excited about the MM WOW oven. We will take the few minutes more cooking time to have a fully developed crust. We will shave time in other ways such as streamlining the delivery process.
 
Last edited:
The most common reason is due to incorrect baking. If you use sugar in the dough, try deleting it. This will allow you to bake the pizza a little longer without excessive color development. The longer baking time will crisp up the crust better than a short baking time. Another cause might be baking at too high of a temperature. If you use a deck oven consider baking at 500 to 525F rather than 550F or above. Ditto for a stone hearth oven too. If you are using an air impingement oven, make sure the oven is correctly profiled, then get one or two of the Hearth Bake Diske from Lloyd Pans <www.lloydpans.com>, set the oven temperature at 475 to 490F and the baking time at 5.5 to 6-minutes (no sugar in the dough for this one either). When the pizza comes out of the oven, regardless of which one you bake in, don’t put the pizza directly on a metal pan or table for cutting as this can cause condensation to form on the bottom of the crust, instead, cut the pizzas on a cardboard circle, wood cutting board, or a stone or engineered quartz cutting top. This should give you a crispier pizza for a longer time, if you don’t have a paper thin crust. If you do have a very thin crust, make it a little thicker and you should be good to go.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
Last edited:
Interesting! I never knew or thought about the cutting surface affecting crust longevity. Thanks, Tom.
 
Last edited:
Charles;
When just removed from the oven, the pizza is putting off a lot of moisture, if you place the pizza onto any metal surface (say, for cutting) you run the risk of forcing that moisture right back into the bottom of the crust, thus potentially reducing it’s crispiness. But the big killer is when we put that hot pizza right onto a metal serving pan/tray and deliver it to the customer’s table. In this case, it is better to put a cardboard circle on the pan, which acts as an insulator to help keep the pizza hot, and it also helps to prevent condensation from forming on the bottom of the pizza, and it tends to absorb any moisture from the pizza (crust) rather than forcing it back into the crust again.
Hope this helps,
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
Last edited:
Anybody here use the cardboard under their pie’s like Tom mentioned…and where do you get them from (and do you re-use them?)?
 
Last edited:
These are the regular “pizza circles” that we normally use in our boxes or under the pizza if we bag them rather than box them. You could also use ripple sheets to the same affect. Infact, ripple sheets are even better because they are designed to allow moisture to easily escape from the bottom of the pizza.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
Last edited:
I just thought I’d add an FYI to my last reply, the one about using “ripple sheets”. If you are looking for a source for the ripple sheets they are availabler from Arvco Container Corp. 616-381-0900. They refer to them as “Stay Crisp Ripple Sheets”.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
Last edited:
You could also try adding Japanese bread crumbs to your dough. I am sure that some company markets them as an additive, but but I can’t remember the product name.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top