Any suggestions for getting a better crust on your standard from-the-supermarket Tombstone or Jack’s or Home Run Inn frozen pizza? Resources at my disposal include an electric oven and a convection toaster oven. I also do have a baking stone, but once broke my sister’s baking stone by putting a frozen pizza on it, so haven’t tried that since. I have tried cooking at 375º to 450º and I cool it on a rack for air circulation. Crust is still too soft and soggy.
I defrost my pizza and cook it at 500 on an oven rack until it’s done (which for me is the cheese just starting to brown).
I have also started my pizza directly on the oven floor, but that takes a little more daring and quickness. You can’t really go more than about 1 or possibly two minutes before you risk burning the bottom. I would not recommend it unless you have a pizza peel (or similar method of getting the pizza off the floor quickly and easily) and like to screw around like I do. It works well, but is not a normal technique and I can’t guarantee it will work as well on your oven as it does mine. I’d recommend the defrost and high heat method I outlined above.
i recall package directions are for a preheated to temperature oven and a frozen pizza.
That’s correct. Oh, and I guess I just assumed in my post, when I say I cook it at 500, that means preheated, of course.
Are you cooking it on a pan? That’s your problem right there; cook frozen pizzas directly on the wire oven rack. Don’t worry, it won’t fall through! Even the specially designed pizza pans with the holes in them don’t really allow enough circulation to let the bottom crust get crispy. Of course, if you’re using fresh dough, this won’t work because it’ll all sink through the rack. But frozen pizzas should work just fine; I’ve never found one that didn’t.
That and temperature are the key; 450-500 degrees is about as hot as your average oven gets, and that’s what you want for a good pizza. Hot and fast, that’s what she said, just until the cheese gets golden brown.
-Phnord, the guy who’s eaten way too many pizzas in his life.
Helpful tip: The tines of a fork fit well over the wires of an oven rack and are extremely helpful when trying to remove a freshly-cooked pizza; just don’t burn your fingers!
Salt and pepper and some fresh chopped garlic also make it better IMO.
We let it sit out for about twenty minutes after taking it out of the freezer, then bake directly on the (preheated) oven rack at 450.
Huh. We always cook our Jack’s pizzas on a cheap Target pizza pan at 425 F. in a preheated electric oven and they turn out perfectly, nice crispy crust and all. We do use the smaller oven on our 2-oven range, but I can’t see how that would make a difference.
We have noticed that if the pizza partially thawed on the trip home from the grocery store and then was placed in the freezer—we always have a half dozen of them in the freezer—it might be a little less crisp in the center.
You know how you can toss a quarter cup of water into the floor of the oven when making bread for a nice crisp crust? I wonder if that would work for frozen pizzas too. I’d imagine the pizza would need to be directly on the oven rack and just a couple minutes in to cooking. I’m going to try it next time I have a frozen pizza!
I bought this stuff called “pizza seasoning” from Penzey’s. It’s sold basically to improve the taste of frozen pizza and it works pretty well.
I have a 14" cast iron frying pan that I use to bake pizza. I take the frozen pizza, add extra spices, mozzarella and pepperoni, and put it in the pan once it’s preheated in the oven to 415 degrees. The lower heat gives the extra topping more time to melt and the crust to get the balance I prefer of soft vs. crisp.
Cook until crust is almost done then broil to get cheese brown and toppings cooked.
This. And one other thing that makes a world of difference to me is; Preheat the shit out of the oven. Don’t just wait 10 minutes and stick it in. Let it heat up for 30 to 45 minutes. (Well after the temp light goes off.)
Unless you’re heating up a stone or pan in the oven, that really shouldn’t make much of a difference, in my experience. I made a pizza today, 500F, and stuck it in actually about 5 minutes before the “preheated” light turned on (it was preheating for about 15-20 minutes at this point), and it came out nice and crispy.
While I do advocate defrosting a pizza, I’m curious now how sticking a frozen pizza in a cold oven and setting it to 500, pulling it out when the cheese starts browning, would turn out. I actually would not be surprised if the defrost and preheat step is unnecessary if starting with a cold oven and frozen pizza. Hmmm…almost makes me want to throw another pie in the oven.
I think it nmay have to do with the oven. On mine, the temp light goes off at the ten minute mark.
Also, I use the temp the box says and NOT 500F.
If it’s a small pizza I’ll actually defrost it and then do it on top of the oven in a large frying pan (if you have a large paella pan you can do a really big pizza) with a little olive oil. After about 10 min on medium the crust starts to crisp up nicely and I just toss it under the broiler.
To me frozen pizza has 2 goals to proper cooking that aren’t necessarily complimentary, the toppings and the crust, hence the 2 methods.
Here you go: cast iron pizza pan. If you have a problem with sticking, you can either dust the pan with some cornmeal or do what I do and cover the pan with some Reynolds Wrap Nonstick before you heat the oven. Heat the oven as described, giving it some extra time after the temp light goes off to let the pan soak up some extra heat. Put your pizza on the pan, cook, and remove carefully. You’ll end up with a very nicely done bottom crust.
A thawed pizza will bake up better no matter how you cook it. The frozen center makes it harder to not over cook the outside and under cook the inside.
But the sauce and cheese-like substance on a frozen pizza is designed to melt and taste relatively normal when heated from frozen. How will it cook and taste if you thaw a frozen pizza first?