Making pizzas at home is fun to do by yourself or with friends and family.
Creating your own pizzas at home can’t be beaten. However, if your pizza crust burns regularly, read below to discover some tips for making sure the pizza comes out perfect every time.
If your pizza bottom is getting burnt, there could be many reasons, but luckily we will explain ways to fix each one.
For example, it may be that you need to distance your pizza from the heat, use less of certain ingredients, or place a buffer between your pizza and the heat source.
So let’s find out what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it to get that perfect pie.
Distance your pizza from the heat source!
If you find that your pizza bottom is burnt to a crisp and the toppings are either barely done or overly cooked, you might want to consider moving your pizza further away from the heat source.
When you are cooking your pizza in an oven that heats from the bottom. It will help move your pizza onto a rack further up and away from the bottom heat source.
This may mean that you have to cook your pizza slightly longer because it is cooking at a slower pace, but this way, your crust will be perfect.
Cooking pizza in an oven is the most common for people, and if you choose this method, then convection mode is the best for preventing burnt bottoms.
Keep in mind that you’ll be cooking your pizza at temperatures between 450-500 degrees Fahrenheit most of the time.
If you’re using a pizza oven and cooking more than one pizza, then remember the bottom is the coolest place, and where you’ve already placed a pizza will be cooler than the rest.
If you’re getting a burnt bottom, consider placing the pizza in the same spot each time.
When you are cooking your pizza on a grill and tend to find your pizza bottom burnt, you will want to turn down the heat. Lowering the heat can be as effective as distancing your pizza from the heat source.
Too much of certain ingredients
Certain ingredients in your dough can also be the leading cause of burnt pizza bottoms; if so, that’s an easy fix.
If you’re using lots or any sugar in your dough, keep in mind that sugar, when heated, browns and burns just like on a stove-top. So if your crust is burning, it may be that the sugar is burning because you are cooking at a high temperature.
The best thing to prevent this is to cut the sugar out of your dough, but if you want to include it, cook your pizza at a lower temperature.
Your pizza bottom might also be burning because of too much flour on the crust. It is tempting to want to add more flour to the crust (or peel) so that it doesn’t stick to any surfaces.
However, flour burns at high temperatures, so adding more increases the likelihood of a burnt pizza. Instead, try sticking to the recipe’s allotted amount of flour, which should fix that problem.
Placing a buffer between the pizza and the heat
Using a buffer between your delicious pizza and the heat source reduces the direct heat your pizza receives and, therefore, reduces the chance of it coming out burnt. If you are cooking your pizza in an oven, let’s go over some of the best buffer options for your pizza.
1) Pizza Tray
By adding a metal pizza baking tray under your pizza, you provide a layer of metal to evenly distribute the heat and remove the intensity of the direct heat to the pizza bottom.
2) Aluminum Foil
Aluminum foil is great for baking in the oven, and using it under pizza is no exception.
If you place a layer of foil underneath the pizza, it will have a similar effect as a baking tray, distributing the heat and diffusing the intensity. If you still get a burnt bottom when using aluminum foil, rip slightly, crumbling the foil to allow more air space between the pizza and the hot foil.
3) Parchment paper
If you don’t have a baking tray or foil when cooking your pizza in the oven, you can resort to parchment paper. This isn’t the best option but will be somewhat effective in providing a buffer from the heat to your pizza.
Perfect Pies
Now that you’ve prepared your beautiful pizza pie with all the toppings, you’ll want to make sure you follow some of the above steps to prevent a burnt pizza bottom.
Remember it may be a case of needing to move the pizza away from the heat source, providing a buffer from the heat, or changing some of the ingredients; with these tricks, you’ll have a perfect pie every time.
