Slice Pie Help

[robozig]

Our shop sells pizza by the slice.

We throw out an 18" skin, sauce it, throw on a light layer of cheese and bake it until it’s just turning a golden brown. Then we cut it into six slices. What we don’t sell during the rush is put into one of our dough trays and refrigerated.

Recently, however, we’ve been getting requests for slices without the traditional marinara sauce. I’ve tried to make a slice pie without any sauce or cheese at all. Just an 18" skin docked really well and brushed with olive oil. More often than not it seems no matter how much I dock the dough I still get mega bubbles, and it gets a bit crunchy in the center.

Any suggestions on how to remedy this would be greatly appreciated.

(by the way our 18" dough weighs just a little over 2lbs)

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

It can be done, but you will need to drop your baking temperature to something in the 375 to 400F range in a deck oven. It won’t be quite so easy if you are using an air impingement oven as the air flow wants to skin over the dough, which just sets the stage for making something that looks more like a pita than a pizza skin. Using tha deck oven, allow the dough skin to bake until it begins to bubble, then invert it to bake the other side. Place the baked crust on a screen to cool, flipping it over once or twice to help flatten out any bubbles. Another thing that we have used successfully is a weighted deep-dish pan placed in the center of the dough skin, this helps to keep the center in place while the skin is baking. This method works well with an air impingement oven and best of all, you won’t need to make any temperature changes, just a shorter bake time is all that will be needed.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[system]

my remedy to the slice delima may not work where you are…
I do 8" pies, hand tossed, 50 sq. inches, sell them for a little less than I did the slices per sq. in.
customer can have whatever pizza they want, price is right.
downside is the wait…have not had a problem with it here, I know it can be the major factor…

perhaps, keep slices, add the 8" on, if it is a less cheaper and they get what they want, some may go for it

as for baking the 18" w/o sauce and or cheese, I do not know,

Otis

 

[robozig]

Tom Lehmann:

Another thing that we have used successfully is a weighted deep-dish pan placed in the center of the dough skin, this helps to keep the center in place while the skin is baking. This method works well with an air impingement oven and best of all, you won’t need to make any temperature changes, just a shorter bake time is all that will be needed.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Thanks. I tried this method today and it worked rather well.