Troubleshooting · symptom → cause → fix
No rim – the pizza comes out flat as a pancake
The pizza is the same thickness from the centre to the edge, with none of the airy cornicione you were after.
Most likely cause
The rim was pressed flat when stretching
How you know: You pressed or rolled out the whole dough, including the outermost centimetres.
Do this: Leave 1–2 cm of rim completely untouched and push the gas outwards from the centre towards the edge.
Other possible causes
-
The dough is under- or overproofed
- How to tell
- Underproofed: firm and dead. Overproofed: slack and full of large blisters that burst.
- Fix
- Adjust fermentation time and yeast amount – see the links below.
-
Not enough heat
- How to tell
- The pizza needs many minutes in the oven and the rim sets before it has time to rise.
- Fix
- More heat from below and above: preheat the steel or stone properly and bake high up in the oven. A rim rises from fast, intense heat.
Quick answer: the rim is made by gas pushed out towards the edge that expands quickly in high heat. A flat rim means the gas was pressed out, the fermentation was off, or the heat was too low.
The nerdy explanation
When you stretch from the centre you move the gas outwards – the rim becomes a ring of airy dough. In the oven the gas expands and the water turns to steam, and the rim puffs up before the crust sets. At 450 °C (840 °F) that takes seconds. At 250 °C (480 °F) the surface has time to dry and set first, and the rise is smaller.
See stretching, fermentation and baking temperature. More problems are in the troubleshooting section.
Frequently asked questions
Will more dough give a higher rim?
Not automatically. A heavier ball gives a bigger or thicker pizza, but the rim comes from the gas in the dough and how quickly it expands in the heat.
Can I get a rim in a home oven?
Yes, but lower than in a pizza oven. A preheated steel, the highest temperature and slightly lower hydration all help.