Random pizza baking debate

[dulcemariamar]

Please settle this family debate about baking pizza.

Do you blind bake pizza dough for a few minutes to avoid sogginess or do you just directly add sauce and toppings directly to the raw dough and then cook it?

The debate involves cooking mini pizzas so now sure if that changes your answers

[sonrisa]

If your pizza is getting soggy from your sauce/toppings, your sauce or toppings are too wet.

[nsl]

I've never heard of blind baking pizza, but I usually make mine in a cast-iron skillet (brown bottom of the crust on the stovetop first before putting it in the oven) or on a pre-heated pizza stone.

[momin2013]

No blind baking! The oven should be super hot for pizza (like 475), so it shouldn’t be soggy!

[VillainV]

I do blind bake, but only for like 30 seconds. We have an Ooni and I can’t for the life of me get raw dough to reliably come off the peel in the pizza oven to save my life, despite having had other outdoor pizza ovens before and never having an issue. So I blind bake very briefly before topping to make the whole process less stressful for me.

[mainelyfoolish]

For a regular tomato sauce & cheese topped pizza, I do not prebake the crust.

The recipe I use for a spinach & artichoke pizza calls for blind baking the crust. The spinach & artichoke topping is a lot thicker than a red sauce.

[tacokick]

Pizza doesn’t need to be blind baked unless you are working at cooler temperatures than recommended. I’ve blind baked when grilling but only because we were grilling other items and weren’t getting up to 450°+.

[yaga]

I blind bake only because the recipe I use recommends it. 2 minutes on the pizza stone, then add toppings. I feel like it makes it easy to maneuver, though.

I've made different sizes using the same dough recipe and it doesn't really change the bake time by all that much, btw.

[cmeon]

I've only heard it called par-baking in reference to pizza, but yes- I often do with my more regular crusts. I like to par-bake with a light coating of EVOO/freshly grated parm for 3-4 minutes. It adds a great flavor, and makes handling the topped pizza a lot easier with a peel. ETA: I bake pizza at 550F! I par-bake while it's on the way up.

[macmars45]

H adds sauce, cheese and toppings to the raw dough before baking. His pizza is so delicious.

[heygrey]

We have two pizza stones in the oven at 475. Toppings go right on the dough, then into the oven with a peel. The crust is never soggy.

[tacokick]

Dec 23, 2023 14:34:22 GMT -5 mofongo said:

Why is this called ‘blind bake’?? Pre-bake seems to make more sense to me! Lol

In French it’s called cuire à blanc so I’ve always wondering if it was some translation or mispronunciation. Or that you are baking an unfilled pie crust it’s “blind” like a pipe or alley can be blind—there is something on three sides but not the middle or top/fourth side.

Who knows?

A lot of newer cookbooks call it pre-baking though.

[plutosmoon]

My recipe says to bake with just sauce only first for 8 minutes at 550, remove then add cheese and toppings and to bake for another 5ish minutes. My pizza always turns out pretty good.

[rhian]

No. I heat my oven as high as it will go and use a baking stone and haven't had issues with sogginess.

[archiethedragon]

I usually blind bake

[mags]

I put mine on BBQ grill for a few min. before i bake in oven.

[scm1011]

Am I the only person who has never heard the term "blind bake" before?

I make a pizza weekly and put the sauce and cheese on the raw dough and then it all goes in the over at 480*

[definitelyO]

raw dough and then cook at 550 in the oven- no issues.

the 1 time we grilled it - we cooked the dough a bit first and then added toppings and cooked again.

[tacokick]

Dec 23, 2023 16:21:49 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Am I the only person who has never heard the term "blind bake" before?

It generally only comes up with certain pies. I bake a lot and probably only blind bake 1-2 times a year.

[sparty04]

Dec 23, 2023 14:22:26 GMT -5 VillainV said:

I do blind bake, but only for like 30 seconds. We have an Ooni and I can’t for the life of me get raw dough to reliably come off the peel in the pizza oven to save my life, despite having had other outdoor pizza ovens before and never having an issue. So I blind bake very briefly before topping to make the whole process less stressful for me.

We use corn meal on the bottom but a quick pre bake is something I haven't considered. Maybe we will try that

[isabel]

No pre-baking. Sauce goes directly on raw dough. If your pizza is soggy, you’re not cooking it long enough or your toppings have too much moisture. It’s super important to dry any wet toppings well, like fresh mozzarella or spinach.

[Doggy Mommy]

I used to pre bake the crust for a few minutes, but I don't think it really helped. What made a difference was getting a pizza stone and cooking at a higher temp.

[isabel]

Dec 23, 2023 14:22:26 GMT -5 VillainV said:

I do blind bake, but only for like 30 seconds. We have an Ooni and I can’t for the life of me get raw dough to reliably come off the peel in the pizza oven to save my life, despite having had other outdoor pizza ovens before and never having an issue. So I blind bake very briefly before topping to make the whole process less stressful for me.

Corn meal and a lot of it. Like way more than you would think. Cover the paddle with it and put the stretched dough on top. The excess cornmeal will come off/burn away. It took me a very long time to figure out how to do this, but I’ve gotten pretty flawless with it. Main thing is not to have any raw dough touching the paddle directly. Make sure there’s cornmeal everywhere. The cornmeal acts like little rollers for the dough. Pull the front end just a touch and then jiggle the paddle front to back to slide it off into the oven.

[isabel]

Dec 24, 2023 16:33:51 GMT -5 Doggy Mommy said:

I used to pre bake the crust for a few minutes, but I don't think it really helped. What made a difference was getting a pizza stone and cooking at a higher temp.

Also agree that a pizza stone and high heat are key. We pre-bake the pizza stone for about an hour before cooking the pizza.

[VillainV]

Dec 24, 2023 16:34:46 GMT -5 isabel said:

Dec 23, 2023 14:22:26 GMT -5 VillainV said:

I do blind bake, but only for like 30 seconds. We have an Ooni and I can’t for the life of me get raw dough to reliably come off the peel in the pizza oven to save my life, despite having had other outdoor pizza ovens before and never having an issue. So I blind bake very briefly before topping to make the whole process less stressful for me.

Corn meal and a lot of it. Like way more than you would think. Cover the paddle with it and put the stretched dough on top. The excess cornmeal will come off/burn away. It took me a very long time to figure out how to do this, but I’ve gotten pretty flawless with it. Main thing is not to have any raw dough touching the paddle directly. Make sure there’s cornmeal everywhere. The cornmeal acts like little rollers for the dough. Pull the front end just a touch and then jiggle the paddle front to back to slide it off into the oven.

I was able to do cornmeal with a previous pizza oven, but it doesn’t seem to work consistently with the Ooni. I’m even using the same peel. I can’t figure out why.

[Jalapeñomel]

I bake the dough for a bit before adding toppings.

I also never heard the term blind bake.

[dearprudence]

It depends on the dough. When I make it from scratch, no. When I buy the Trader Joe's dough I always blind bake. It just didn't cook through as quickly as the cheese.

[basilosaurus]

I recently went to a Japanese pizza place in Vietnam (yes, you read that correctly) and they blind baked in their super hot oven. I don't know if they did that for all the pizzas as I was more focused on my food than the kitchen, but I did notice because I was surprised.

I can't say I've feel the need in the past, but I don't often make pizza. When I do it's not wet sauce based

[basilosaurus]

Dec 24, 2023 16:42:17 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

I bake the dough for a bit before adding toppings.

I also never heard the term blind bake.

this surprises me because you watch reality tv. You don't watch gbbo?

[starburst604]

Shook because I’ve made (very uncomplicated) pizza like twice in my life and had no idea so many make homemade pizza. I guess bc one of the easy things in life is to “order pizza”, so I’m not often thinking of making it.