| p>The local pizza shop down the street from your | | | | pizza's we the soggy bottom crust. They typically use |
| house has a couple advantages when it comes to | | | | some type of paper tray as a vehicle to carry the |
| making their pizza's nice and crispy. But, with a couple | | | | pizza home and to cook the pizza in. The problem is |
| of changes to your kitchen tools and techniques you | | | | that the paper can't get hot enough to cook the |
| can make a great tasting, homemade crispy crust | | | | bottom of the pizza, and worse, traps the moisture in |
| pizza for your friends and family also. | | | | the dough...not allowing for the bottom to be cooked let |
| The restaurant down the street uses a commercial | | | | alone turn crispy. |
| oven that reaches temperatures of 800 degrees or | | | | Here is the second secret. Buy yourself a baking |
| hotter. This gives them an advantage of cooking a high | | | | stone. These are relatively inexpensive items that you |
| temperatures for a short period of time...resulting in a | | | | place into your oven, pre-heat to as hot as your oven |
| crisp crust. Often when we make pizza at home we | | | | will go, and then place your pizza (or bread) directly |
| set the oven at 350 degrees either because that is | | | | onto the surface to cook. These provide even heat |
| always what we do, or because the "recipe" calls for | | | | distribution and their porous nature allows the moisture |
| this temperature. | | | | of the dough to escape, resulting in a perfectly crisp |
| Here is the first secret. Turn up your oven as high as it | | | | crust. |
| will go! Our home oven says 550 degrees and runs a | | | | One last tip. Because we are baking at a higher |
| little hot, so we maybe we are pushing 600 degrees. I | | | | temperature, we will not need to bake the pizza as |
| think most home ovens will get to 450 degrees if not | | | | long. In some cases we may only need to bake it for |
| hotter. Turn your oven all the way to high. | | | | 10 minutes or so, depending on the thickness of the |
| The commercial ovens also use a stone deck, or | | | | crust. |
| some type of heat conducting surface. These | | | | There you have it, the secrets to a crispy homemade |
| surfaces get very hot and trap the ovens heat, | | | | pizza crust. Increase the heat of your oven, purchase |
| resulting in a surface that is actually cooking the crust | | | | a baking stone, and reduce the time you cook your |
| from the bottom, as the oven heat is cooking the | | | | pizza, and you will re-create what the restaurant down |
| toppings and top of the dough. | | | | the street is doing... and I bet you will be making pizza's |
| We have all experienced one of those take-n-bake | | | | that will rival theirs in no time. |