Sweet Potato Pizza Crust recipe - Slimming Eats Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How to make pizza crust tastier? ›

Salt: Salt adds necessary flavor. Sugar: 1 Tablespoon of sugar increases the yeast's activity and tenderizes the dough, especially when paired with a little olive oil. Cornmeal: Cornmeal isn't in the dough, but it's used to dust the pizza pan. Cornmeal gives the pizza crust a little extra flavor and crisp.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (with a pizza stone inside, if you have one). Add cornmeal and flour to a pizza peel or use a pizza pan. Pick the top of the dough a few times with a fork and pre-bake the dough in the pizza pan, or slide onto a hot pizza stone to pre-bake for 3-4 minutes.

Before you add the sauce or any toppings, lightly brush the stretched pizza dough with olive oil and prick it all over with a fork. Brushing it with oil will prevent any excess moisture from seeping into the crust. No more soggy pizza crust!

Bake the naked pizza dough in the oven at 450 degrees for 7 minutes. During this time prep your toppings. I am sort of a purist so it's sauce, cheese , and seasoning. Never add the toppings to raw pizza dough.

Sugar is an oft-misunderstood ingredient in dough. Some people believe that it's necessary to include sugar to feed the yeast. In truth, yeast is perfectly happy munching on flour. If you don't want to add sugar, you don't have to, and there are plenty of breads where sugar is completely unnecessary.

Sugar helps the dough rise faster, and increases browning. So using it is a matter of taste, and what you like in a pizza. If you're in for a day-long rise in the refrigerator (for example), you won't need any extra sugar.

Sugar not only adds flavor, but is helpful in the fermentation of the yeast. It will also give your dough that lovely golden brown color diners are looking for. Additionally, sugar increases the moisture retention of your dough, tenderizing the crust.

Some recipes like quiches recommend partially cooked pie shells because the baking time wouldn't be long enough to fully cook the dough otherwise. Pre-baking a crust can ensure that your pie or tart crust will be fully baked and browned, and not soggy.

Blind Bake Crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the chilled pie dough with aluminum foil and use granulated sugar to fill the whole pie plate. Bake for 40 minutes; remove the foil and sugar and set the crust aside while you make the filling.

Can I refrigerate my pizza dough and bake it later? ›

At which point during the dough making process would it be best to freeze or refrigerate? You can refrigerate the dough after almost any step, but after the first rise (or a little before) works best. Store it, covered, in the refrigerator for 1-3* days. Allow room for the dough to expand as it will continue to rise.

Pizza Dough Flavor Enhancers

Barley Malt Syrup – Barley malt syrup is used to add flavor and sweetness to dough. If you use a dough recipe that calls for sugar, try substituting this instead. Not only will you get a hint of sweetness and a slight improvement in browning, you'll also get some extra flavor.

You must have salt in a dough recipe. If you don't it will taste bland and flat. This by itself could be causing it to taste the way you are describing as “bready”. For every 3 cups of flour, you should be adding at least 1 tsp of salt minimum.

Too little yeast and your dough won't rise enough, and the pizza base will taste bland. Use too much yeast and your dough may over-ferment. Tell-tale signs are your dough expanding too much or tasting and smelling a bit sour, with an almost alcoholic aftertaste (the yeast produces alcohol as it ferments).

Baldwin suggests making your toppings yourself for the best homemade pizza. "Slice your own pepperoni for a thicker cut, roast red peppers and garlic, crumble and sauté some sausage," she says. "Doing all these things from scratch makes the pizza truly great."