What causes pizza dough to become tough, and how can you avoid it in the future? Flour Protein Content There are a number of things that can cause a pizza crust to become excessively tough or chewy. The tough and chewy stage is set when a high protei...

Q: I am new to the pizza industry and I have read about “proofing” dough. Would you explain what this is and why it’s done. A: Proofing, or rising, is done primarily to allow the dough to achieve a greater height, or lightness than it would if ...

Dough Uses Calzone Do I need to use a different dough for making my calzones? Tom Lehmann No, not really. Most pizza doughs will make a perfectly good calzone. But, there are some modifications to a pizza dough that will make it an even better choice...

Calzones Calzones are easy — if you don’t have them, you’re missing out From time to time I get requests from readers asking for a dough formula suitable for making calzones. The truth of the matter is that while you can use a speci...

One of my cookbooks on pizza, The Great Chicago-Style Pizza Cookbook, first came out in 1983. If my math is correct, that was 25 years ago. Holy pepperoni, pizzaman, that’s a long time ago. Yes, even though this book is still in print, I honestly a...

Lost Art Focaccia is a good way to “wow” customers The genesis of the flatbread called focaccia is lost in the dawn of history. Some food historians credit ancient Etruscans for having discovered how to form a dough into a flat round and ...

There is a malady called Celiac Disease and persons suffering from this disease have a very low tolerance to wheat proteins. This is not to be confused with persons having an allergic reaction to wheat proteins. In this latter case, even the most min...

Herb Infused Dough When making a flavored crust, is there a rule of thumb for how much dried herbs to add to the dough? When adding either onion or garlic to the dough, you must be careful not to add too much. Both onion and garlic have a significant...

Pizza Margherita still popular menu addition You may have heard this story before (and surely from me at one time or another, either at International Pizza Expo or in the pages of this magazine), but it bears retelling. When pizza Margherita came alo...

It seems like we are always looking for something more flavorful in pizza crusts and breadsticks. One answer to this search is sourdough. Sourdough has been in use much longer than yeast as we know it today. We know that some type of sourdough was us...

Dough Uses Stuff It! Find new sales with stuffed crust pizza Pasquale “Pat” Bruno How much do we know about stuffed crust pizza? I know that the idea of stuffing, say, cheese into a crust is not new. In fact, as I recall, a family in New ...

With today’s consumers being better educated than before, and having a greater concern for healthy eating, they are making more food buying decisions based on what they perceive as being good for them. We are seeing this in the growth of vegeta...