Need help on baking in a conventional oven

Question

My oven doesn't support broiler option. So I preheated it to the max supported temp ie. 250 degree Celsius(fan forced). I couldn't roll it very thin with hands as demonstrated so, spread it on a parchment sheet and assembled with sauce, slightly tossed veggies and cheese. Then placed the parchment sheet on the hot baking tray. In about 10 mins time, the cheese started to turn golden but bottom still looked underdone. After shifting it to lower rack and cooking further further about 7-8 mins, it was nothing like what I was waiting for. It was very hard😒. Plz share how cud we bake it in a conventional fan oven. I really want to try it again.

drbabs · Answer

I’m guessing that maybe it was too thick? Or could it be your yeast? Make sure it’s fresh. Here’s how. https://redstaryeast.com/yeast-activity-test/

It could just be the recipe. This is my go-to pizza dough recipe. https://www.food.com/recipe/robertas-pizza-dough-537809 It requires kneading, but it works really well.

Agarwalk · Answer

Hi,I did try the pizza again, this time with parchment underneath and could spread it too. That's worked well. The pizza wasn't hard, it did had bubbles here and there. It was baked fine, as in not hard, not raw. But I felt that softness while eating was missing. It was way too chewy and we could feel that. What could be the reason for that? Anything that you could point of instantly which could be obvious in my process?

drbabs · Answer

I just read through this recipe https://food52.com/recipes..., and the writer makes the pizza on parchment and slides the whole thing onto the heated steel. So I could be wrong about the parchment being an insulator. You might want to try that again, too.

Agarwalk · Answer

Sure, I am going to try that today only😁

drbabs · Answer

Sounds like you did well! Try coarse ground corn meal on the sheet instead of flour next time. It seems to act like little ball bearings to make sliding easier.

Agarwalk · Answer

I didn't stretch it too thin,  actually couldn't do much😁. But it was not very thick either. So what happened is since I don't have a pizza peel, i used the back of a large steel plate. Dusted it generously with flour(didnt use semolina as last time it didnt appear to give a very good feel, may be because anyways my pizza wasn't baked right) and laid my stretched pizza base onto it and topped it. Before sliding, I did dust more flour underneath making sure it's sliding. While sliding(my first ever attempt), may be I did it with a jerk or something that the topped pizza doubled onto itself such that the base got folded inside and toppings facing the bottom and top, also causing some toppings to fall on the hot tray. So the part which was left in single layer, had Puffed up well, I could see the risen texture but the part that got doubled was a little raw. Also I realized that towards the last one minute or so, I should have shifted my tray to the top so as to get brown edges as they were still white. So lit of improvement and practice still needed but atleast it wasn't rock hard like the first attempt 😜

drbabs · Answer

That's great! That happened to me the first time I made pizza, too.  It sounds as if you might have stretched it a little thin. I promise it will get easier with practice.

Agarwalk · Answer

Hi,I did try this pizza again, stretched out and placed on a generously dusted tray back, used lesser toppings. While sliding onto the oven tray placed at the bottom rack, things happened and it wasn't as expected. Because if which the pizza got doubled and couldn't cook perfectly but it was much better in terms of rise, the chew. I am sure if I am able to flip it correctly next time, it wl b really good. Thanks again for taking the time out to answer.

Agarwalk · Answer

Thank you so much for replying. I will try the steps mentioned by you. Hopefully, it will come out better.

drbabs · Answer

Pizza is challenging! 250 Celsius is equal to about 442 Fahrenheit, which is, as pizza goes, a pretty cool oven. So you might have to lower your expectations, but I have some ideas for you. In your situation, I’d put the baking sheet on the lowest rack of the oven (closest to the heating element). Heat the oven to the highest temperature you can. Use the fan. Once the oven reaches temperature, don’t open it for an hour.  Meanwhile, you said you had difficulty with the dough. The parchment can behave as an insulator and prevent you from getting the char you want. Sprinkle a pizza peel generously with corn meal, and stretch your dough out on that. If it keeps springing back when you stretch it out, step away from it for a few minutes to let the gluten relax, then go back to it. It will stretch out! It might not look perfect, but it will be fine. Finally, sauce and veggies add a lot of moisture, which you want to avoid, so add them sparingly. The sauce in the recipe is simple enough. I’d put it in a small saucepan on low heat to let some of the liquid reduce. We make pizza fairly frequently, and I keep sauce that I’ve reduced in the freezer. Any vegetables you add should be as dry as possible. Good luck! I promise it gets easier the more you do it.

Need help on baking in a conventional oven

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