I’ve been making pizza from scratch for about 3 years now, and I always like my pizza to be thin and crispy. When I first started making pizzas, they would either end up with a thick crust or a thin but soggy crust. So, I spent a lot of time asking around the internet and researching how to get my pizza crust the way I like it. I did find out why the pizza crust was not getting crispy – my oven was not hot enough!
For those using regular ovens, the best way to get a crispy pizza crust is to cook your pizza at a high temperature, the highest your oven can go. This will ensure that the pizza crust will be crispy.
While a very hot oven is optimal for cooking pizza, that is not the only thing that can affect the texture of your crust. There are several factors to consider and we will be talking about them in this article. So, if you’re wondering how to get crispy pizza crust every time, you came to the right place!
Why Isn’t My Pizza Crispy?
You finally have the perfect pizza dough recipe and expect the pizza crust to be crispy only to find out that it’s a soggy mess. Or, your pizza tastes good but lacks the crispy crust you wanted.
There are a lot of factors that can affect the texture of your pizza dough, especially if you make pizza from scratch and you do not have a pizza oven. Making pizza dough from scratch can be a little tricky, especially for the first couple of pizza dough that you make.
It could be that you still need to tweak the recipe, adjust the water-to-flour ratio, the sauce is too watery, or your oven is not hot enough.
Pizza dough can be doughy and chewy or thin and crispy. If your recipe calls for a thin-crust pizza but you ended up with a chewy crust, you might have encountered any of the factors mentioned above.
Let’s take a look at what you can do to make your pizza crust crispy.
How To Get Crispy Pizza Crust
If you are a fan of Italian-style pizzas or artisan pizzas, you know that these pizzas are known for their supple and thin crusts. If you are trying to create a crispy pizza crust, here’s how:
Make The Crust Thinner
If you have the right recipe for a thin-crust pizza and followed the recipe down to the T, the pizza dough should not tear when it’s being rolled out.
When I first started making pizza dough from scratch, I was afraid to spread the dough as thin as I could because I was afraid of tearing the dough. This resulted in a thick pizza crust even when I was following a recipe for a thin-crust pizza. I love thick pizza crust but when I want a crispy crust, I roll the pizza dough as thin as I can.
If you want a thinner crust, roll the dough about 1/8″ thick. The dough will still puff up a little bit in the oven so you do not want the raw dough to be thick in the first place. The cooking time will also differ and will affect the texture of the crust.
Hydration Level
When making pizza dough, most people follow the baker’s percentage. You will notice that most recipes will talk about a certain percentage of the water level. The baker’s percentage refers to the amount of water you need in relation to the amount of flour you will use. So, for example, if the recipe calls for 1000g of flour, you need 600g of water. That is 60% hydration.
When using a regular oven, a pizza is often cooked for a longer time compared to a pizza being cooked in a wood-fired oven. The longer the pizza stays in the oven, the more water will evaporate from the dough. If there is less water in your pizza dough, the pizza will end up dry and hard.
A hydration level of 65% to 75% is recommended for people who have regular ovens. These types of ovens do not produce a temperature high enough to cook pizza fast, unlike a wood-fired oven.
Too Much Sauce, Cheese, Or Toppings
Putting too much pizza sauce, cheese, or toppings can be a factor in a soggy pizza crust. Too many toppings can prevent moisture from escaping, hence a soggy dough.
Fresh mozzarella cheese holds a lot of moisture so you might want to use less of it. If you like to use a lot of fresh mozzarella cheese on your pizza, make sure to pat the slices down with a paper towel to absorb excess moisture.
A watery cause can also be a culprit in preventing pizza crust to be crispy. You do not want to use too much as the raw pizza dough will get the pizza soggy right before it is cooked.
Use A Pizza Stone
A pizza stone or steel is able to absorb and retain heat easily when it is pre-heated along with the oven. This mimics the high heat that is needed to have a fluffy and crispy crust that most pizzas have. People who do not have a wood-fired oven use pizza steel to have a cooking surface that is hot enough to be able to produce a crispy pizza crust.
Increase Oven’s Temperature
If your recipe is already perfect, you have a pizza stone and used fewer toppings but, your pizza crust is still not crispy, the problem might lie in your oven.
Pizzas are cooked at a high temperature for a short period of time to ensure that the crust gets crispy. This also ensures that the cheese melts over the pizza and that the toppings are cooked without them burning.
A commercial or wood-fired oven can have a temperature as high as 900 to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. This is why it is possible for pizzas to be cooked in a shorter amount of time as they are usually cooked at around 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
For a regular oven, it is recommended to crank the temperature up as high as it can get if you want to achieve a crispy pizza crust. Regular ovens can get as hot as 450 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s not as high as wood-fired or commercial ovens, that’s why most homemade pizzas take longer to cook.
How To Make A Crispy Pizza Without A Pizza Stone
While a pizza stone is ideal when baking pizza, you do not need to have one. If have a pizza pan, you can coat it in olive oil to help crisp up the bottom of your dough.
You can also use a cast iron skillet as a substitute for a pizza stone. Just pre-heat the skillet along with the oven then coat it with olive oil before assembling your pizza in it.
Final Thoughts
Homemade pizza can be chewy and they can also be crispy. If you like a crispy pizza crust, you need to cook your pizza at a high temperature to achieve a crispy crust. If your oven is already hot enough but the pizza still is soggy, it might come down to the pizza toppings you used or the recipe you followed.
We’ve already talked about how you can get a crispy pizza crust so you can get started adjusting what you need to tweak in order to have a crispy pizza crust. If you have any questions, do let us know via the contact form on our website.
