Troubleshooting · symptom → cause → fix
Raw in the middle – dough that won’t bake through
The rim is done but the middle is doughy, pale and raw under the toppings.
Most likely cause
Too much topping
How you know: Lots of sauce, lots of cheese or wet ingredients in the middle of the pizza.
Do this: Less sauce – around 70 g is enough for a 250 g ball – and dry the cheese and vegetables before they go on.
Other possible causes
-
Floor temperature too low
- How to tell
- The base is pale even without toppings, and the top is done long before the bottom.
- Fix
- Preheat the steel or stone for longer. Check the surface with an infrared thermometer instead of trusting the oven display.
-
The middle is too thick
- How to tell
- The dough is as thick in the middle as it is next to the rim.
- Fix
- Stretch the middle thinner. It's the rim that should be thick, not the centre.
Quick answer: too much topping, too little heat from below or a middle that’s too thick. Most often it’s the topping – wet ingredients cool the base and the steam has nowhere to go.
The nerdy explanation
The base is baked by heat from the steel or the stone. Everything on top cools it down: sauce and cheese contain a lot of water that has to boil off before the dough underneath can bake. A thin middle with a sensible amount of topping bakes in the same time as the rim; a thick, wet middle doesn’t.
See baking temperature, topping order and pizza in a home oven. More problems are in the troubleshooting section.
Frequently asked questions
Can I just bake the pizza longer?
In a home oven, yes, but the rim risks drying out. Better to move the pizza closer to the heat from below, or leave it directly on the steel for an extra minute without the grill.
Does par-baking the base help?
It can help in a weak oven, but you lose the rim. If you sort out the topping amount and the heat, it's rarely needed.