# Making pizza, need crust help ASAP **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-pizza-need-crust-help-asap/764192 "2016-08-27T21:58:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-pizza-need-crust-help-asap/764192/1 "2016-08-27T21:58:09Z")
Every year or so we buy pizza dough from a local bakery or make our own, and it starts well but never ends up quite right. The only time we get it right is when we use the pre-made flatbreads or the refrigerator-dough-in-a-can. What do I need to do in terms of stretching, oven temp, baking pan, timing, and sauce, to get it right? Please don’t say cornmeal because I don’t think I have that, but I’ll try whatever you suggest in the next hour or so. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-pizza-need-crust-help-asap/764192/2 "2016-08-27T22:07:35Z")
Very high heat and a heavy cooking surface. If you don’t have a stone use or a large cast iron pan use the heaviest baking sheet you have. Let the dough get up to room temp if it’s been refrigerated. Take the dough and break it by pounding it with the side of your fist before you start stretching it. It just takes practice to stretch it right. I prefer granular durham (semolina) to corm meal, it’s just help release the baked shell from the pan, corn meal works too. Smear your pan lightly with oil. Keep your crust thin so it will cook quickly. It’s summer time, so you could grill it outside, make smaller shells, smear them with oil and grill them over high heat on both sides, then top with pre-heated sauce followed by the cheese and toppings and close the lid to melt the cheese, or take them inside to finish in the oven. ---
**Author:** ![\_len](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/c0e974/32.png) [@\_len](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_len)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2016, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-pizza-need-crust-help-asap/764192/3 "2016-08-27T23:06:55Z")
I second the cast-iron skillet. Might also help to par-bake the crust. I use olive oil with the cast-iron skillet. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-pizza-need-crust-help-asap/764192/4 "2016-08-27T23:50:42Z")
> [@\_len](#): > > I second the cast-iron skillet. Might also help to par-bake the crust. I use olive oil with the cast-iron skillet. Aww, we just missed you. It’s in the oven on the stone, as hot as this 1965 Brady-bunch piece of shit will go. I wonder if an upside-down cast iron skillet would work? ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-pizza-need-crust-help-asap/764192/5 "2016-08-28T00:22:51Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Very high heat and a heavy cooking surface. If you don’t have a stone use or a large cast iron pan use the heaviest baking sheet you have. Let the dough get up to room temp if it’s been refrigerated. Take the dough and break it by pounding it with the side of your fist before you start stretching it. It just takes practice to stretch it right. I prefer granular durham (semolina) to corm meal, it’s just help release the baked shell from the pan, corn meal works too. Smear your pan lightly with oil. Keep your crust thin so it will cook quickly. > > It’s summer time, so you could grill it outside, make smaller shells, smear them with oil and grill them over high heat on both sides, then top with pre-heated sauce followed by the cheese and toppings and close the lid to melt the cheese, or take them inside to finish in the oven. Turned out great, thanks! Room temp dough, punched it a few times, and spread some olive oil on the counter before stretching the dough. Also, it was so thin I could have read through it. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-pizza-need-crust-help-asap/764192/6 "2016-08-28T00:46:45Z")
We have cast iron pizza pans. Absolutely awesome on the grill at about 500 degrees F. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-pizza-need-crust-help-asap/764192/7 "2016-08-28T00:50:09Z")
Use an autolyse step. [Here](http://www.varasanos.com/pizzarecipe.htm) is the most thorough pizza dough description you could ever want. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-pizza-need-crust-help-asap/764192/8 "2016-08-28T01:07:40Z")
Iron skillets are real good. I have the Pizza Steel. You really have to get that SOB HOT, but works great. Better than a iron skillet or a cast iron pizza plate, but honestly the cast iron is good enough unless you’re really doing a lot of pizza. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-pizza-need-crust-help-asap/764192/9 "2016-08-28T02:09:28Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > Use an autolyse step. [Here](http://www.varasanos.com/pizzarecipe.htm) is the most thorough pizza dough description you could ever want. I don’t make my own dough often but that looks great! Might be worth the work. We got a Napoli style pizza like that last Friday before a concert. Allowed over an hour for dinner, forgetting that the pizza would be out less than 5 minutes after ordering in a place with a real brick oven. It was delicious and we had enough time to get a beer and a t-shirt before the show. I would love to replicate that pizza at home.