Cooking your own pizza is a great group activity. It is fun for all the family and they really do taste all the better when you’ve put the work in yourself!
When it comes to making homemade pizza, it is a fairly simple process and there is very little that can go wrong.
The dough is the most complicated part of cooking the pizza. It is sometimes difficult to get the dough to cook all the way through, sometimes leaving you with undercooked, doughy pizza.
This is the last thing you want when you’ve put in all of this effort to make your pizza perfect. Noone wants to eat undercooked pizza dough But don’t fret!
You’ve come to the right place for 9 of the most common reasons that your pizza dough is not cooking! Read on to find out.
Why Is Your Pizza Dough Not Cooking?
Sometimes, even when you think you’ve done everything right, your pizza might come out of the oven with undercooked dough.
In order to prevent this from happening follow the advice in this article. Below are some of the top reasons for undercooked pizza dough.
Baking Time
Baking time is essential to making sure your pizza dough is cooked to perfection. You should make sure that you’re not taking the pizza out of the oven too soon.
If you’re concerned that the pizza may overcook, this may be where you’re going wrong. While you don’t want a completely charred pizza dough, you do want the pizza dough to darken.
Trust the cooking time in order to make sure that the dough is cooked all the way through.
Don’t be too afraid of the dough burning and make sure that you try out different cooking times until you find the best time for your pizza.
Oven Temperature
The temperature of the oven is essential when it comes to cooking your homemade pizza dough. It is important to remember that different styles of pizzas need to be baked at different temperatures.
When you are cooking your pizza, you should consider the thickness of the pizza. You will need to adjust the temperature of your oven depending on how thick the pizzas are.
When you bake your pizza, consider the thin crust or thick crust.
Thicker pizzas will take longer to cook all the way through. This is why this pizza will need to be baked at a low baking temperature so that it doesn’t burn on top and not cook through.
You should always consider the temperature in comparison to the type of pizza that you are baking.
If you are cooking a Neapolitan style pizza, these pizzas are very thin. These pizzas can be baked at a high heat for a very short amount of time.
In contrast, a thick pizza like the Detroit style pizza is a lot thicker than the traditional pizzas and they will need to be baked at a low heat for longer. Otherwise you will be eating raw pizza dough.
Dough Is Too Thick
Sometimes your dough may be thicker than it needs to be which is why it isn’t cooking in the expected time.
If the pizza is too thick and you’re baking it for a short amount of time the pizza dough will likely not cook through. A thick crust will also mean the you may be left with raw dough.
No Baking Stone
Pizza recipes are usually based on the fact that you are cooking on a pizza stone or a pizza steel. This will help your pizza to cook much faster and more effectively.
It will help to make sure that the pizza dough cooks through if you have a pizza stone in your oven.
Using a baking stone or steel is a great way to create a perfect pizza base. It will mean that the internal temperature of the pizza will be solid ensuring the pizza is fully cooked.
You can try to use a baking sheet instead of pizza steels but it does not conduct heat in the same way.
Wet Toppings
Toppings can affect the way that the pizza dough cooks. If you’re using wet ingredients, you are likely not going to be able to bake the pizza properly as there will be too much moisture to soak into the dough.
It is a good idea to not overload your pizza with toppings like vegetables and fresh mozzarella as this can make the dough much more soggy.
If you do want to use these toppings on your pizza, you can make sure that you dry out the wet toppings as much as possible so as to avoid the pizza getting soggy.
You can opt to use low moisture mozzarella on the top of the pizza which contains less water but remember not too add too much cheese. This will create great pizza.
Neapolitan pizza may be better with no toppings at all as they are very thin pizza.
Too Many Toppings
You can have too many toppings on a pizza which will prevent your pizza from cooking all the way through. Lots of people even think that some pizzas are better off with no toppings on them.
Bake the pizza with a little olive oil and a sprinkling of toppings to create a great pizza. If you are cooking a thin pizza, cook it at a very high temperature in the oven.
If you are using home ovens you will have to ensure that the oven will retain heat so that you don’t have to cook the pizza long.
Cold Dough
A lot of people think that you should store your dough in the fridge in order to slow the rise of the dough. The way the dough rises is different at different temperatures.
However, if you cook cold pizza dough, it can prevent the dough from baking in the oven well. It will cook better at room temperature so ensure that you treat the dough properly.
It may take longer than expected to bake if you are baking it from a cold temperature.
Undercooked pizza dough can give you food poisoning so it is a good idea to ensure that when you are making pizza you keep the dough at ideal temperature and this will cook the pizza faster.
Toppings Should Be Added Directly Before Baking
When you add the toppings to a pizza, you will need to add them as late as possible. If you add the toppings too soon then the dough will become very soggy and it will stick to the pizza peel.
Add the toppings at the very last second before you put it in the oven to ensure that the pizza doesn’t go soggy. This is a great way to fix undercooked pizza dough.
Make sure that you have a layer of tomato sauce acting as a layer in between the toppings and the pizza but make sure you don’t add too much sauce. This will improve your pizza game.
Preheat The Oven
It is very important to preheat the oven for enough time before you put the pizza in the oven. You should turn the oven on for at least 15 minutes prior to putting the pizza in the oven.
On most ovens, there will be a light that indicates whether or not the oven has completely preheated.
If you don’t preheat the oven properly then it is likely that the pizza won’t cook through and it may cook unevenly in places.
Final Thoughts
If you find that your pizza dough isn’t cooking through there are a few things that you can do in order to ensure that it cooks correctly.
Follow these 9 steps to ensure that you are cooking the pizza dough in the best possible way and to help you to fix undercooked pizza dough.
It is a shame to put so much effort into a pizza and end up with undercooked pizza dough, so follow these steps to ensure that your pizza crust and pizza dough is cooked to perfection.
