A soggy pizza is the worst kind of pizza, but unfortunately, it’s very common among people who make pizza at home for the first time. But fortunately, a soggy pizza can be fixed in just 5 minutes using this simple method.
In order to fix a pizza with a soggy base, you have to move the pizza on the lowest rack of the oven and reduce the temperature to 325°F (165°C) and cook it for another 5 minutes.
This method should fix most soggy pizzas, if after 5 minutes your pizza is still soggy, you can keep it in the oven for a few more minutes. If your pizza was just slightly soggy, to begin with, you might want to keep it in the oven for fewer minutes.
As important as it is to know how to save a soggy pizza, I would say that it’s even more important to know how to prevent it from becoming soggy in the same place. So let’s have a look at 7 different things that you can do to prevent your pizza from becoming soggy in the first place.
How to Prevent a Pizza From Becoming Soggy
1. Use Fewer Wet Toppings
One of the main things that make a pizza soggy is the toppings. Most toppings are filled with either water, oil, or fat. When the toppings are heated all of those liquids will get absorbed by the dough.
According to a study, the top three most popular pizza toppings are pepperoni, extra cheese, and mushrooms. And all of them are filled with water or grease.
Pepperoni is filled with grease that starts melting and spreading all over the pizza when heaters. Mushrooms are 90% water. In the case of cheese, things can greatly differ from how the cheese was stored, and what type of chase it is, but most of them are full of water as well.
Using slightly less greasy or watery toppings will in most cases stop the pizza from getting soggy.
Another thing that you can do is to leave your toppings for 15 minutes on some paper towels which will absorb some of the excess liquids, without affecting the taste.
2. Use Fewer Toppings
Another big common mistake is overcrowding the pizza.
If the entirety of the pizza is covered, the stream coming from the dough will have nowhere to go, and it will make your pizza soggy.
When the dough is cooking, the water inside of it transforms into steam which will try to escape the dough.
If the top of the pizza is covered with toppings, the steam will have no place through which it can escape, so it will all gather in the small space between the dough and the toppings and it will make the pizza soggy.
There are two ways in which you can solve this problem.
The first, and simplest one is to use fewer toppings and give the steam enough space to escape. But this option won’t be to everybody’s liking, since a lot of people like their pizza to be filled with toppings, this is when the second option comes in.
The second option that you have is to cook your pizza in two steps. In the first round cook your pizza, but only with the sauce on top of it for a few minutes until it’s almost cooked. Then quickly take the pizza out and add the toppings, then put it back in, and leave it in a few more minutes until the toppings are cooked.
3. Don’t Add the Sauce Too Early
A common thing that can make your pizza soggy is adding the sauce too early.
The sauce that you put on the uncooked dough will get absorbed if you leave it for too long.
The sauce is full of water, and while the water won’t get absorbed by the dough immediately, if you let it sit on the dough for too long, some of it will get absorbed, making your dough considerably wetter, which in turn will make your pizza soggy.
You should only put sauce on the dough when all of your toppings are ready to be placed as well.
Now that we covered all the things that go on top of the pizza, let’s take a look at the dough itself.
4. Use Room Temperature Dough
This is usually a problem for people who let their dough rise in the fridge, or use cold dough in general.
In the oven, the dough will heat up from the exterior to the interior. If the dough is at room temperature the exterior will form a crust, while the interior will be completely cooked and soft. But if the dough is cold the exterior will be completely cooked while the interior won’t.
If you like leaving your dough rise in the fridge that is completely fine, you don’t have to change that. But, what you should do is to let your dough at room temperature for at least an hour before making your pizza. This won’t affect the rise of the dough, and your pizza won’t be undercooked anymore.
5. Make Thinner Pizzas
Another common problem that can make a pizza soggy is the thickness.
Everybody likes pizza a certain way, some like it with a very thin base, and some like it very thick. But some pizzas can be so thick that they can’t cook properly.
On average for a pizza to cock properly, it shouldn’t be thicker than 1 inch. A pizza that is thicker than 1 inch will have a very hard time cooking, and in most cases, it will come out soggy, or cooked completely but burnt on the bottom.
Technically speaking you can make a dough that can be bigger than that, like bread for example. But pizza and bread are completely different things, they use different types of dough, and pizza usually has sauce and toppings on it, which makes it harder for it to grow as much.
So, if your pizza is thick, try stretching it more, to make it thinner. If you stretch your pizza as much as you can but it grows bigger in the oven, you might want to adjust your dough recipe or look for a new one.
If you are having a hard time stretching your dough due to tears you should check out my article: 7 Reasons Why Your Pizza Dough Tears When You Stretch It, here I take a look at the 7 most common reasons why a pizza dough tears, and what you can do to fix it.
6. Add More Bottom Heat
Now let’s take a look at heat-related problems, while they are not as common as you might think, they are still one possible reason why your pizza dough is uncooked.
The way heat works in a gas home oven is really interesting. The hottest part is at the top, but if you place a metal tray or a pizza stone in the oven, it will heat up faster the closer it is to the bottom, where the source of the heat is. As a result, the middle of the oven is usually used for pizza since it offers a good balance.
But if you don’t get enough heat from the bottom your pizza won’t cook properly, and it will come out of the oven soggy.
Not all ovens are the same, some of them can heat up more than others, and some have a more powerful flame While others might have a weaker flame and a lower heat output.
If your pizza doesn’t get enough heat from the bottom you should try to switch things up and place the pizza closer to the bottom of the oven, and see if this will help your pizza cook properly.
Something else that you could do is to use a pizza stone. Pizza stones are big sheets of stone that are used for cooking pizzas in gas and electric ovens. And their purpose is to increase the heat in the oven.
7. Adjust the Temperature
Temperature is usually more of a problem for home ovens than for pizza ovens. So if you own a pizza oven you can skip this one.
Professional pizza ovens reach temperatures around 800°F (427°C), while most home ovens can reach a temperature between 450 and 500°F (250 to 260°C), which is the temperature at which you should be cooking your pizza.
Technically speaking you can’t have an oven that is too hot for a pizza. But practically, every pizza is different. If you were to cook a thick pizza at 1000°F (540°C), the bottom of the pizza will be completely burnt by the time the interior is completely cooked. So getting the oven as hot as you can is not always the best answer.
Buf if our pizza comes out of the oven soggy, you shouldn’t worry about your oven being too hot. The problem is most likely that it’s not hot enough. Pizza should be cooked for as little time as possible at the highest temperature that you can achieve. So don’t be afraid of turning the gas up.
Final Thoughts
If you have a soggy pizza you can easily fix it by placing it in the oven for 5 minutes at low to medium heat. If after 5 minutes the pizza is still soggy, but not as much, leave it in the oven for a few more minutes.
This method won’t burn the bottom of the pizza, and won’t affect the taste in any way. But instead of using this method, I would suggest you prevent your pizza from getting soggy in the first place. Here is a quick recap of the things that you can do to stop your pizza from getting soggy:
- Don’t use as many oily or wet toppings, or place them on some paper towels so that they can absorb excess humidity.
- Don’t overcrowd your pizza with toppings, the dough needs room to let steam out, if it can’t do that the dough won’t cook properly.
- Cold dough cooks unevenly, leaving your pizza uncooked on the interior, only use dough at room temperature
- Pizzas shouldn’t be thicker than 1 inch, the thicker the pizza the harder it will be to cook properly
- The sauce should only be added to the dough when you are ready to add the other toppings and place the pizza in the oven. If you add it too early the dough will absorb the sauce, and won’t be able to cook properly.
- Try placing your pizza closer to the bottom of the oven. Or use a pizza stone.
- Experiment with different temperatures until you find the right one. On average pizzas should be cooked between 450 and 500°F (250 to 260°C).