I've been experimenting with pizza. It was too soggy for me, especially the center of the pizza and especially with veggies or sausage or pepperoni.

First, I modified the crust and subbed out some of the pastry flour for bread flour. This made the dough more elastic but it was still soggy in the center. The amount of whole wheat/flax/white flour is the same I've just increased the gluten.

So I par-baked the crust for about a minute. But that created the Boboli problem (do Bobolis still exist?). Everything just sorted of floated on top of an already cooked crust and did not mesh well. It did not taste the same but it did eliminate the dreaded "soggy bottom" problem.

Then I par-baked and docked the crust. This was much closer to my unbaked crusts in flavor and much crisper.

I par-bake on parchment but then after I top the crust I just go right from the peel to stone. I was putting a bunch of flour on the peel which stayed on the crust AND made a mess in the oven. So then I tried lightly dusting the bottom of the crust before I topped it and leaving a small edge hanging of the end of the peel. That fixed the flour problem.

I have at least a couple more things. I want to dock BEFORE I bake to see if it makes a difference. Also, talking to some tavern pizza makers they bake on a pan I forgot to ask if it was hot or cold when they put the dough on it but if it is hot I will have to top the dough then slide it on to a hot pan. Some oil on the pan may crisp it up too. In college we sprayed pans with oil then baked the pizzas most of the way in the pan and took it out at the end for a few minutes on the deck to crisp up. But these were more like cake pans and the pizza was more like Greek style.

I have a few different recipes too so I may play around with those but I do not want to change too many things at once.

No pizza making for a while as we'll be out of town and then it will be Passover.

I also made matzah at Sunday School yesterday. We had pre-K through 6th grade come in and mix, roll, and dock dough. The entire process of making matzah, from adding the water to the flour to finishing the bake is supposed to be 18 minutes or less to prevent any rising. We also slid the matzah on to pans that had been heating in the oven. It was a little daunting until I realized it's not really too different from using a stone.

I use a pizza stone, which I preheat for about an hour at 500 degrees. I roll out the crust in between 2 sheets of parchment, lightly oiled (it makes a difference). I reduce the oven temp to 450 or 475 before putting in the pizza, I use a peel and slide the pizza with the bottom piece of parchment, I set a timer for 3 minutes and then gently slide the peel just a little under the pizza and use a gloved hand to slide off the parchment. This might sound involved but it's not. The pizza continues to bake directly on the stone with no dusting flour or cornmeal. It will not stick to the stone at this point. If I'm using mushrooms I always sauté them first to remove the excess water (there is plenty in mushrooms) and concentrate the flavor (even with canned mushrooms). I always pre cook the sausage to reduce the grease and excess moisture.

Aaron, to reduce the Boboli effect, reduce the yeast, by a lot. The reduced yeast works but it needs more time, so make the dough early in the day or earlier.

Joan, I posted the recipe. Chicken Juniper aka Elegant Chicken.

Thanks for posting the recipe Cwcdesign.

Thanks Mike. I'll have to read the paper. The thread is interesting and certainly took a path the poster never intended.

BTW, the person who started the thread grew up three houses down from me in Chicago. We discovered this on a pizza thread.