Fixes
When the pizza does not cooperate.
Most failures are water, heat, or time. Match the symptom to the recipe you actually baked before you change every variable at once.
The timings on this site are specific: 8 minutes at 550°F for Margherita and Neapolitan pizzas on a steel, 9 minutes at 500°F for New York, 10 minutes at 500°F for the pepperoni pizza, and about 16 minutes for the cast-iron method. If your result does not match the description in the recipe, use the notes below. They are written for those methods, not for a generic pie.
Soggy center
The usual causes are too much sauce, wet fresh mozzarella, or a deck that was not hot. The sauce weights are 150 grams on the Margherita, about 150 grams on each Neapolitan pizza, 110 grams on the pepperoni pizza, and 130 grams on each New York pizza. Fresh mozzarella has to be patted dry. A steel needs 45 minutes of preheat, a stone 60. Adding cheese “to soak it up” makes the next pizza wetter.
Pale crust, or a top that burns first
A pale bottom means the deck was cool or the rack was too high. Move the steel down a position next time and preheat the full time. A burnt top with a raw middle means the broiler ran too long or the oven air was hot while the deck was not. Finish under the broiler for 60 to 90 seconds only, after the bottom has color.
Dough snaps back
It is tight, cold, or under-rested. The New York and Neapolitan doughs need their tempering time, 60 minutes and 2 hours, before they stretch to the written diameters. Cover a stubborn ball for 10 minutes. Forcing it with a pin knocks out the gas the ferment made.
Dough will not hold a shape
It fermented too long or too warm. The same-day dough is past its best if the balls collapse and smell sharply alcoholic. Bake on parchment so you can move the slack dough, and use less yeast or cooler water next time. Do not knead a collapsed dough back into a tight ball and expect the original timing.
Tough or crackery crust
Extra flour worked in during shaping, or a dough that was rolled thin and baked after it had already been overhandled, eats the tenderness the oil and the rest were there to provide. Flour the peel, not the whole surface of the dough. The 2 percent oil in the same-day dough and the 3 percent oil in the New York dough are already in the formulas. Adding another pour in the bowl changes the bake.
Large bubbles and holes
A bubble that chars is a pocket of gas under thin dough. Pop it with a fork in the first two minutes if it is lifting the toppings. A rim that is one giant bubble usually means the edge was left very thick and the center very thin. Even out the next stretch. You do not need to dock the whole pizza with a fork. That flattens the rim the recipes are trying to keep.
Cheese that is greasy or rubbery
Low-moisture mozzarella releases fat when it is piled on and baked hot. Stay at the gram weights: 120 grams on the pepperoni pizza, 140 grams on each New York pizza. Fresh mozzarella that was not dried weeps instead. Grease on the surface of a pepperoni pizza is also the pepperoni. Blot the finished slice if you want less of it. Do not answer that grease by baking the pizza until the cheese is hard.
The pizza sticks to the peel
Shake the peel before the pizza goes in. If the dough does not move, lift the stuck edge and dust a little flour or semolina underneath. Top the pizza quickly. Sauce soaking through glues dough to wood. Parchment avoids the problem: 4 minutes on the paper, then the rest of the recipe’s time directly on the steel.
After baking
U.S. food-safety guidance is to refrigerate perishable cooked pizza, sauce, and cheese within 2 hours, or within 1 hour if the room is warmer than 90°F (32°C). Reheat leftovers until they reach 165°F (74°C). Raw flour is not a ready-to-eat food, so do not taste unbaked dough. A pale, underbaked center is a cooking problem and also a “do not serve the raw dough” problem. If the bottom is still floury and the crumb looks uncooked, put the pizza back on the hot deck rather than calling it done.
Common questions
Should I add flour if the dough is sticky?
Not by the handful. Wet hands and a short rest handle a dough that is sticky because it is 65 percent hydration. Add flour only if the dough was dry-flour stiff at the start and you are sure the scale was wrong. Extra flour in a sticky-but-correct dough makes the next pizza tough.
The pepperoni did not cup. Did the bake fail?
No. Cupping depends on the pepperoni itself. The pepperoni recipe is done when the cheese is melted, the slices look glossy, and the bottom has spots, at about 10 minutes and 500°F (260°C).
Can I fix a soggy pizza after it is baked?
You can set slices in a dry skillet over medium heat until the bottom crisps and the slice is reheated to 165°F (74°C). That does not repair a raw center. If the dough under the sauce is still pasty, the pizza needed more heat or less water on top, and the next one has to be baked differently.