Passionate About Pizza: Making Great Homemade Pizza (51 page)

Dough Is Too Sticky
– Try adding a Tablespoon of flour at a time until the dough becomes manageable enough. As you knead the dough, it will become less sticky, so do not go overboard adding flour. You can also wet your hands and use a dough scraper to scrape the dough off the surface, to make kneading a little more manageable.

Ridiculous Rising

Dough Does not Rise
– Try proofing your yeast next time by watching it for activity for ten to fifteen minutes after dissolving it in warm water. The yeast you used may not be active. Alternatively, you may have used too hot water or an ingredient that killed the yeast. If it does not rise within two to three hours, it is not likely that it is going to rise. You will have to start over. You can use quick-rise techniques to recover quickly, if needed.

Dough Rose Too Long
– Unless it has risen for more than twenty-four or so hours at room temperature or forty-eight hours in the refrigerator, do not worry. The dough may be a little sticky and very easy to shape, but it should work fine.

Forgot To Oil Bowl
– The dough might stick to the bowl and rise a little less, but it should work fine. Dig as much as possible out with your hands and knead it a bit to get it off your hands. If you do knead the dough, let it rest before shaping.

Forgot To Oil Surface Of Dough
– The dough might form a dry skin on top. Try kneading the dough for a few minutes after the rise then let it rest; it should work fine. However, you might notice small flecks of the skin as hard spots in the finished dough. Aside from those flecks, it should be fine. You probably will not notice anything in the finished pizza.

No Time To Cook The Pizza
– Plans change. You can place the kneaded dough (if it has already risen, punch it down and knead it again) in a zip-lock freezer bag, and store it in either the refrigerator or freezer. Let the dough come to room temperature again before shaping it.

Forgot To Remove The Dough From The Refrigerator
– Use the microwave to heat the dough to room temperature. Place the dough in the microwave and heat it on the lowest power setting for 90 seconds. Wait a few minutes and heat it again for 90 seconds on the lowest power setting. Repeat the cycle of waiting and heating on the lowest setting until the dough is at or near room temperature.

Persnickety Sauce Preparations

Forgot To Cook The Sauce
– Relax and try one of the uncooked sauce recipes. Alternatively, you can make an uncooked version of your sauce recipe and wing it (as long as there are no meat ingredients; you must cook them). You may find that you like your sauce better that way, anyway!

Tomato Sauce Too Thin
– Next time, strain the tomatoes or tomato sauce before using it to reduce the water content of the sauce. You can do this for many sauces. Use a strainer or cheesecloth.

Tomatoes Too Runny
– Strain the tomatoes after squashing them to eliminate water that makes them runny.

Topping Preparation Predicaments

Forgot To Cook The Meat
– Take the time to cook it before placing it on the pizza; your oven will not get it hot enough to cook it while the pizza is cooking. It is not worth getting a stomach bug because the meat did not cook enough! Alternatively, leave it off the pizza this time.

Did not Buy The Right Ingredients
– It is time to be creative! Look into your cupboards and use what you have. If you like something off a pizza, chances are that you will like it on a pizza.

Risky Resting

Let The Dough Rest Too Long
– The dough will seem like it has risen again and it has. Just press it flat to deflate the bubbles and begin shaping. If it seems to have doubled in bulk, punch it down again, knead it briefly, and let it rest again. Do not let it go too long the second time!

The Plastic Wrap Is Sticking Too Much
– Do not worry about it. Peel it off as carefully as you can, then continue with sprinkling and spreading flour over the dough. You are going to shape it, anyway, so it will recover.

Strained Shaping

Dough Keeps Springing Back
– If you have not used high-gluten flour, let the dough rest a little longer. If you did use high-gluten flour, be patient. With several minutes (or more) of alternating shaping and resting, the dough will probably be large and stable enough to make a pizza. I am not kidding – if you used high gluten flour, you will be in for a fight. Be patient and do not use it next time!

Dough Is So Stiff Shaping Is Difficult
– You can let the dough rest a little longer so that the gluten relaxes. You may just have to deal with this dough. Try using slightly less (a quarter cup or so) flour next time so that the dough is less dry and softer.

Pulled or Poked A Hole
– Just pinch the hole together and be gentle with it. If the dough does not stick together you can wet just the area around the hole to make the dough stick to itself. If you have ripped a large hole, you can knead the dough back together, let it rest a few minutes, then start shaping again. You only get to restart once this way, though.

Dropped The Dough
– Were you showing off? Well, pick it up! If the dough is not particularly dirty, you can use it. If it is not too damaged or dirty, just brush off any foreign bodies and continue shaping, more carefully. If the dough is really messed up but not dirty, knead the dough back together, let it rest a few minutes, and then start again. If dropped dough freaks you out then trash it and start over. You can use quick-rise techniques to recover quickly.

Rim or Edge Wrong Size
– Was the rim of the last pizza you made too large? If so, press down a little closer to the edge when you shape your next pizza. This will make the rim smaller. Was the rim too small? If so, do not press so close to the edge next time.

Crust Is Too Thin
– Was the crust thinner than you wanted? If so, you can use the same amount of dough and make a smaller pizza. Another alternative is to use a larger amount of dough. One further alternative is to let the shaped dough rise after shaping for a few minutes before assembling the pizza.

Crust Is Too Thick
– Was the crust thicker than you wanted? Try using slightly less dough, next time. Just cut off a piece of the dough after rising and before you make the dough disk. Alternatively, you can make a bigger pizza.

Awkward Assembly

Assembled The Pizza On the Counter
– Bummer, the pizza is ready to go into the oven but you realize that it’s sitting on the counter or work surface not the pizza pan, peel, or screen. It feels awkward and a little stressful but you can save it. Gently slide two long, thin spatulas under the pizza one on each side. Holding one spatula in each hand, you will want to slide the pizza onto the pizza peel, pan, or screen. Pick up the pizza as small a distance as you can manage while still moving it so the toppings will be dislodged less. Readjust the toppings, if needed.

Forgot To Add The Sauce
– Oops! You could try a custom assembly with the sauce on top. You could enjoy a sauce-less pizza and remember to add sauce the next time; some restaurants call this white pizza! Alternatively, you can heat up the sauce and serve it on the side.

Forgot To Add One of the Toppings
– No big deal. You might be able to take the pizza out and place it on top. You need to let the pizza cook for a few minutes, approximately one third of the total cooking time, to let the crust firm up before you take it out. This ensures that the pizza retains its form when you move it around. Moreover, please remember to be careful with that hot pizza. You do not want to drop it or to burn anything with it!

Bizarre Baking

Pizza Will not Cook In Middle
– If you are using a baking stone, be sure that it is heated prior to placing the pizza on the stone. You should preheat the stone for at least forty-five minutes at 500 degrees Fahrenheit prior to baking the pizza. If you are using a pan, try cooking it near the bottom of the oven at a higher temperature for the first five to ten minutes.

Pizza Crust Is Too Crunchy
– Try cooking your next pizza for two to three minutes less. You might want to check the pizza while it is baking so that you will notice if it finishes cooking sooner than you had planned. Pizzas that are thin, that have fewer toppings, or that have a small amount of sauce definitely cook faster, so you might want to watch them closely.

Pizza Crust Seems Under Cooked
– Try cooking your next pizza for two to three minutes longer until the toppings boil over the entire surface of the pizza. If you noticed before you cut the pizza, you can try to return it to the oven. If you have already cut it, you may be able to place the pizza on a pan and cook it a little longer.

Pizza Crust Is Fine But Toppings Are Over Cooked
– Try placing aluminum foil with the shiny side up over the top of the pizza just after you have placed the pizza into the oven. The foil will keep the top from cooking as quickly as it would without the foil. You may need to join two pieces of foil together to create one piece large enough to cover the pizza. Leave the foil covering on for 3 – 4 minutes. Take the foil off and let the pizza continue to cook until done. You can adjust the doneness of the toppings by the length of time you leave the foil in place. You can also try baking the pizza lower in the oven, next time.

Pizza Crust Is Fine But Toppings Are Under Cooked
– This is a sign that your oven is not keeping up with the heat. You might try setting the oven to a higher temperature. Alternatively, you can place a pizza stone on a rack 3 – 4 inches above where you cooked this pizza. This pizza stone will radiate heat to cook the toppings more quickly.

Forgot To Preheat Oven
– Do not try to cook the pizza on a cold baking stone! If you have one, use a pizza screen; if you do not, use the thinnest, darkest pan you have.

Darn, You Burned It
– You might want to get in the habit of checking the pizza every few minutes, to prevent this the next time. In addition, you can try setting several timers and not socializing so much when the pizza is in the oven.

Funky Finished Pizza

Thin-style Too Thick
– If you are trying for very thin pizza and you just cannot get it thin enough for your tastes, try using less dough for the same size pizza. This will force you to roll or stretch it thinner to reach the same size. Just cut away a piece of dough before shaping.

Pizza Tastes Bland
– Make sure that you used the proper amount of salt in the dough. If the toppings are bland, you might want to try a different brand, next time, because they do vary in flavor and taste. You can add salt and pepper to the cooked pizza before serving.

Tastes Like Spaghetti
– Do not use the same sauce for pizza that you do for spaghetti!

Thin-style Too Thin
– If your pizza came out too thin for your tastes, try stretching it or rolling it out less next time so that you leave a thicker layer of dough. Alternatively, let the shaped pizza dough rise for a few minutes before assembling the pizza.

Pizza Has Pools of Liquid
– Try absorbing some of the liquid with the corner of a paper towel. Watch out for cheese or toppings that will stick to the paper. You might try switching to different brands of toppings with less fat or grease. Drain any cooked meat well.

Cheese Has Poor Flavor
– Switch brands or varieties of cheese. I do not use store brand cheeses for this reason. Higher quality ingredients generally result in better tasting pizza.

Cheese Is Runny
– Try using pre-grated cheese. The commercial grating process seems to provide lower moisture content.