How to create a thicker pizza under-side

[Kbduke01]

Hello, glad to have found this informative baking group.

I just learned to make 10 inch pizzas. These are best described as relatively thin pizzas that have very crispy crust with an underside that's a bit chewy but can vary to have a cracker type consistency.

Anyway, I'm wanting to make my pizzas with a bit thicker underside. Is it as simple as increasing the amount of grams I use in the dough recipe? Or perhaps is there a proofing technique that allows for my dough to have a thicker underside without adding more flour to the recipe?

Thanks for helping me with the science of this!

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hello, glad to have found this informative baking group.

I just learned to make 10 inch pizzas. These are best described as relatively thin pizzas that have very crispy crust with an underside that's a bit chewy but can vary to have a cracker type consistency.

Anyway, I'm wanting to make my pizzas with a bit thicker underside. Is it as simple as increasing the amount of grams I use in the dough recipe? Or perhaps is there a proofing technique that allows for my dough to have a thicker underside without adding more flour to the recipe?

Thanks for helping me with the science of this!

1. Make more dough.

2. Learn to make a good dough ball

3. Use a technique that works for you. I don’t like the stretching over the hand techinque.

Easy tutorial on a dough ball

How to Make Simple Pizza Dough Balls

Making our 72-hour dough is relatively easy, simple in fact. The most challenging part comes after the 24 hour bulk ferment or 72-hour cold ferment and that's when we ball it up. Or make our dough balls. The reason we are folding our dough is to strengthen the protein threads inside the...

shop.bakingsteel.com

Stretching the dough on the counter

 

[Kbduke01]

Wow thanks for the resources. Did you know the bakingsteel company is local to me? I'm in Massachusetts and in the south shore of MA there's a type of pizza called "bar pizza". Are you familiar at all? The owner of bakingsteel actually has some videos on he makes his bar pizzas.

I've recently started to make my own at home and love doing it and trying different variations.

The dough basically gets stretched in a 10 inch pizza pan. They are rather thin pizzas with a very crispy crust (by way of the 10 Inch pan that are essential for creating this type of pizza). Many folks here (including myself) love to burn the edges with the caramalization of sauce and cheese that we spread all the way over to the edge of the pan.

Nice to know it's as simple as making more dough to make a thicker under side.

I'm looking to experiment with bread flour and 00 flour with this type of pizza and wondering your thoughts!

 

[Kbduke01]

Typical south shore MA bar pizza

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Wow thanks for the resources. Did you know the bakingsteel company is local to me? I'm in Massachusetts and in the south shore of MA there's a type of pizza called "bar pizza". Are you familiar at all? The owner of bakingsteel actually has some videos on he makes his bar pizzas.

I've recently started to make my own at home and love doing it and trying different variations.

The dough basically gets stretched in a 10 inch pizza pan. They are rather thin pizzas with a very crispy crust (by way of the 10 Inch pan that are essential for creating this type of pizza). Many folks here (including myself) love to burn the edges with the caramalization of sauce and cheese that we spread all the way over to the edge of the pan.

Nice to know it's as simple as making more dough to make a thicker under side.

I'm looking to experiment with bread flour and 00 flour with this type of pizza and wondering your thoughts!

I’ve owned a couple of the baking steels. Currently on the larger one. I gave the smaller one to my sister.

I use the steel for a couple of things besides pizza.

i’ve used both bread and 00 flour for pizza. My preference is 00. But you can make good pizza with either or.

The thing with pizza though is once you start making it for your friends, is they want you to make it all the time

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Typical south shore MA bar pizza

View attachment 4117

now that’s a pie!

 

[Kbduke01]

You've been a great help thanks. They're small but cook quickly and are delicious.

Do you believe in proofing dough in an oven to reduce proof time? For instance, if an oven doesn't have a "proof" feature, I just turn my oven on for 30 seconds or so and just try to maintain a temperature a little over 100° F. I find this doubles the size of the dough in much quicker time. Or do you stick with the room temperature proofing method?

What other things do you use your baking steel for?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

You've been a great help thanks. They're small but cook quickly and are delicious.

Do you believe in proofing dough in an oven to reduce proof time? For instance, if an oven doesn't have a "proof" feature, I just turn my oven on for 30 seconds or so and just try to maintain a temperature a little over 100° F. I find this doubles the size of the dough in much quicker time. Or do you stick with the room temperature proofing method?

What other things do you use your baking steel for?

100°F is too hot. Don’t turn the oven on. Try turning the oven light on and leaving it for about 20 minutes or so. Then check the temperature inside your oven.

The closer to the lightbulb, the warmer it will be.

even if you turn your oven on to warm it, to adjust the temperature back down all you have to do is open the oven door to cool it.

You want to get the temperature about 90°F.

I use my baking steel for baguettes and bread

 

[retired baker]

for thicker dough don't stretch it, roll the dough....and use more dough.