My cheese always burns before I get the crust to brown nicely with char.
Recipe is 70% hydration dough.
Baked at maximum temp in my oven. 250celcius home oven, on a pizza stone. Around the 7-8 minute mark, the cheese, no matter what kind, always burns before Im able to cook the crust nicely.
Ive used, pre-shredded, self-shredded, different brands too. Burns way too early still.
Any advice is appreciated!
by AccordingDish3728
11 Comments
Maybe parbaking the cust could help
Add diastatic malt powder to your flour, no more than 2% of total flour. It acts as a sugar, and helps tremendously with browning
You gave us info on the cheese but not enough on the actual point of concern. Any sugar or diastatic malt powder in the dough? Those help with browning. Are you preheating long enough to give the stone max effect?
Another cheat is drizzling some olive oil on the outer crust before baking.
Add the cheese later
It all depends on oven heat, recipe, and cook times but you can try parbaking the crust and sauce then adding cheese later in the bake, adding sugar or diastatic malt powder to dough recipe, brushing the crust with oil pre bake, or starting with your shredded cheese near frozen (keep in the freezer 20+ minutes before building the pizza), start with bigger chunks of cheese instead of shedding you can fine dice a block of cheese by hand. Some combination of these have helped me tremendously when I had the same issue as you.
You could add malt powder but it’s not necessary. Just parebake it on the highest rack with just the sauce. Then add the cheese and toppings and finish it.
Pizza steel. Parbaking is for babies.
Is the stone actually hot though? Have you lasered it?
I use semolina flour for the base/peel and it makes a massive difference in browning the bottom. You could also give the pizza a light misting of water which will keep the cheese from burning so quickly.
Also make sure you’re using strong bread flour as this browns better than plain flour.
Buy a creme brulee gas torch. I use it to finish the crust all the time as it is down to direction of heat. It finishes it perfectly.
Your dough does not look proofed well. Hard to say over vs under. Do you make the dough in one day? Do you do a long proof or bench rest? The same reasons sugar and malt help are that you need sugars in the dough either from those ingredients working with the yeast or just proper fermentation.
You need to two-time it, first with just the bun and tomato sauce, then get it out as soon as the crust starts to brown and toss on cheese and the other toppings. Your pizza and cheese now should be done at approximately the same time.
Source: Vito Lacopelli YT. My pizza guru of sorts.