The Extra Step You Need To Take For The Crispiest Homemade Pizza
After a long week, there are few things more comforting than Friday night pizza. You slide it into the oven, wait patiently for it to bake and grab a slice... only to have the crust collapse and dump your toppings onto your plate. Whether you're a pizza purist or a DiGiorno connoisseur, we can all agree that a limp, wet crust is the best way to ruin pizza night. Luckily, there's an easy way to solve this problem that produces a golden, sturdy crust every time, whether you're using your own recipe or enjoying a high quality store bought pizza.
The trick is to preheat your baking sheet or pizza stone, ensuring you're placing your pie on a nice, hot surface before it goes into the oven (which is also a great way to prevent soggy crust on dessert pies). This may sound like extra work, but really just requires forethought. You have to preheat your oven before putting the pizza in anyway, so slip a pizza stone or metal baking sheet inside right before you fire up the oven. However, both these surfaces need between 30 minutes to an hour to preheat properly, so be sure to plan ahead — nobody wants to be hangry.
Once your cooking surface is properly preheated, slide your prepared pizza onto it. (Pro tip: A sprinkling of cornmeal between your prep surface and crust will make this transition much smoother.) When the dough hits the heated ceramic or metal surface, it'll sizzle a bit, which means your crust is already starting to crisp beautifully.
More tips for a sturdy crust
When it comes to truly craveable pizza, heat is key, which is why pizzerias use super-hot ovens that are carefully monitored and kept at a constant temperature. Preheating your cooking surface helps temporarily recreate these conditions, ensuring your pizza receives 360 degrees of even heat. This prevents moisture from seeping underneath the pie and steaming it rather than toasting it. Instead, the hot surface evaporates any errant wetness, creating a dreamy crust that's tender inside and crisp outside.
Of course, there are other steps you can take to help this hack do its job. For instance, if you're making homemade pizza, let the dough come to room temperature before rolling it out. The extreme heat from the oven and the cold dough clash with each other, creating condensation, so letting your dough warm up a bit keeps it from getting sweaty. You can also give moisture-rich ingredients like bell peppers and mushrooms a quick sauté to rid them of extra water and give them a delicious, toasty flavor.
The final tip for ensuring your crust's structural integrity is to apply your sauce at the right time and temperature. Like the dough, cold sauce will produce steam when heated, so make sure it's room temperature before adding it. It's also crucial to top your pizza right before baking it so the sauce doesn't have time to soak into the crust. If you love artisanal flavors, Trader Joe's bisque makes a delicious pizza sauce that won't add much extra moisture.