Tackling the question of whether to par bake your pizza crust
One of the first questions I get these days is always, “Do you par bake?” The answer is yes, but for different reasons.
Regardless of pan pizza or a round pie, my first thought is evaporation and how it’s going to affect the final product once dough has been baked a second time.
At times, a second bake for thin-crust pizzas can be great because you are looking for a distinct crisp at the finish, and cooking out more of the moisture can help with this. Not every thin or cracker crust needs a second bake, but sometimes it’s an extra step that can help you with high volume.
Par bakes can be a huge game changer during a busy service – especially with pan PIZZAs – but they require some advance planning.
In my restaurant we par bake three different pan styles. It is one main person’s job in the morning to stretch, proof, re-stretch and par bake every pan for the day. Sometimes it takes two people, but if it means a quicker and smoother dinner rush, it all evens out.
Par baking gives a different final texture because it’s always a tad drier than if the pizza were baked from raw at the start. But the thing I love about par baking is how easy it makes the rush feel. The pizza area is very tight at my restaurant, and it can be very hot. If we were to bake all pizzas from raw, it would be hard for me to control proofing on the four styles we make, increasing the probability of inconsistencies.
As restaurant owners, we want our customers to have a great experience, but we also want them to have the same great experience every time. Keeping pan pizzas consistent is one of the main hardships I see with concepts baking from raw, especially with the thicker styles.
In addition to making the day easier, par bakes are great for events that require high volume in short periods of time. Of course, I want to put my best foot forward for any event I do, but I must be realistic as well.
For events where I want to hand stretch pies and bake fresh, I think about all the logistics required and make sure it makes sense for the lowest common denominator. Meaning, does the system make sense for the newest and least skilled employee? If it only makes sense to me, then it’s going to fail. Which means par baked pizzas. I’ve worked at plenty of festivals where booths are struggling to keep up from the get-go because they insist on baking from fresh. Sometimes the wait is worth it and people will wait. Other times, it’s not worth the stress.
Regarding dough and par bakes, I circle back to evaporation because no one likes a dry pizza.
Twice baking a pizza is going to evaporate out more moisture than if it were to be baked once. Knowing this, I will tweak the hydration and initial bake temp of my dough to compensate for loss of moisture.
If you plan on freezing your par bakes – whether for stockpiling shells for future events or maybe you’ve branched into the retail side and are selling par-baked, vacuum sealed pizzas – you want to consider evaporation. In addition to evaporation, improper freezing can result in problems with gluten structure due to ice crystal formation.
When you take a food-handler certification course, which I hope everyone has done, you learn about proper freezing and thawing methods.
This is not just important for proteins and bacteria. In relation to dough, improper methods can have a tremendous effect on your final product once it has been baked through.
If you are looking to freeze a pizza – whether just a shell or one with toppings, – you want to make sure it has cooled completely before entering the fridge or freezer. We’ve all tried to cook a meal, only to pull something out of the freezer and it’s covered in ice crystals and now it tastes weird and like the freezer.
Freezer burn can happen if it’s in there for too long. It also happens because the temperature the item was at when it went into the freezer was incorrect. If your pizza going into the freezer is too warm, the moisture within the dough – as well as the steam trying to escape – becomes trapped. This moisture cannot escape in time and becomes frozen within.
These ice crystals can not only affect the final flavor but also tear into the gluten web that you’ve taken so much time and care to create, leaving a weaker pizza that breaks down some when baked for the final time. The last thing we want is a pizza to taste like the freezer and break down on us when we try to hold it.
The last tip I will leave you with: when you are par baking a pan pizza, flip the shell over when you take it out of the oven.
If you are tweaking hydration to account for freezing or just planning for a busy service, the bottom of the dough is going to steam in the pan, if left as is. You want to allow the bottom to release steam and come to room temp without that moisture being trapped.
If it does not have time to air out a bit, the pizza will struggle to become crisp when you bake it the final time. The dough will color as normal, but you will find that the pizza will not be quite as crisp as intended because there is too much leftover moisture and the shorter final bake does not allow enough time to cook it out. If you forget, docking the pizza or taking it out of the pan to cook directly on the stone can help. But for some styles, such as Detroit, this isn’t always an option.
Regardless of if you choose to par bake or not, I am a huge advocate for making any restaurant operation as easy and smooth as possible during its peak hours. Find a system that works for you and stick it. You can always adjust your dough recipe and method to accommodate your circumstances.
LAURA MEYER is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, California.
