How do I prevent the cheese on my pizza from getting crispy?
January 2, 2022 8:02 AM   Subscribe

I regularly make pizza using this recipe. However, when I cook it, the cheese tends to get crispy. I kind of like that, but the 8-year-old in the house does not. Is there anything I can do to stop the cheese from crisping?

I bake the pizza in a cast-iron pan at 450 for 18-20 minutes. (My oven does not reliably get higher than 450, according to my oven thermometer.) I can pull it out early and the cheese won't be crispy, but then the dough might not be full baked.

I usually use typical grocery store mozzarella that comes in a brick. I will often by the pre-shredded stuff to save time, and have tried both part-skim and regular-fat mozzarella. Generally the only other topping we have is sliced pepperoni.

Is there anything I can do to keep the cheese soft and gooey?
posted by synecdoche to Food & Drink (15 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
bake the crust by itself for half the time then add the toppings
posted by noloveforned at 8:05 AM on January 2, 2022 [8 favorites]


Cover the pan with tinfoil. Or throw a baking sheet on top of it. Anything that keeps hot hot heat from coming in from the top and keeps a bit of moisture in.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:05 AM on January 2, 2022 [6 favorites]


Don't put it on the pizza until halfway (approx, ymmv) through the baking.
posted by bricoleur at 8:05 AM on January 2, 2022


Put the cheese on mid-bake.
posted by entropone at 8:05 AM on January 2, 2022


then the dough might not be full baked.
That's why you're doing this in a cast iron pan. Pull it out before the cheese becomes unacceptable, then put the pan on the burner and toast the bottom, as in step 7, here.

Using a thin spatula, loosen pizza and peek underneath. If bottom is not as crisp as desired, place pan over a burner and cook on medium heat, moving the pan around to cook evenly until it is crisp, 1 to 3 minutes.

posted by Don Pepino at 8:36 AM on January 2, 2022 [10 favorites]


Cheese under sauce, similar to Detroit style pizza?
posted by pullayup at 8:37 AM on January 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


I find that the preshredded stuff gets crispy much faster and is noticibly less tasty than grating it myself.
posted by rikschell at 9:22 AM on January 2, 2022


Put the cheese underneath the sauce and other toppings. Cheese is going to brown at 450F for 20 minutes if not protected in some manner.
Avoid low-fat cheese, which tends to brown faster.
Put it on a lower rack in the oven, so the bottom cooks faster that the top.
Cook it at 400F (I make a similar pizza and find the dough is fully cooked through in 20 minutes at 400F, but you can always leave it a couple extra minutes if needed).
Make the dough thinner (bigger pan or less dough) so that it cooks faster, if you can't get it fully cooked without browning the cheese.
posted by ssg at 9:42 AM on January 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


I don’t think that recipe is preheating the cast iron, yeah? If that’s the case, the cheese is melting and starting to crisp up while the massive heat sink of a cast iron pan is trying to warm up, so the cheese is getting a huge head start on the crust.

I don’t think it would be easy to transfer your dough into a hot cast iron skillet, have you considered switching over to a pizza stone or pizza steel?
posted by hwyengr at 11:14 AM on January 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Either put the cheese on halfway through baking or cover it with aluminum foil, then take it off a few minutes before the time is up.
posted by ananci at 11:47 AM on January 2, 2022


Can you put the pizza on a lower rack? I put my pizza on a high rack to maximize crispy cheese/ingredients so I imagine the opposite would work. Turning the temp down by 25 degrees or so might also make a difference; it's won't need that much more time but there'd be less surface browning.
posted by tchemgrrl at 12:46 PM on January 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


I find that the preshredded stuff gets crispy much faster and is noticibly less tasty than grating it myself.

I agree with this EXCEPT the Tillamook product marketed as farmer’s or home style shreds, which are thicker and seem to have less anti-caking stuff on them than all the other options. So maybe try those instead if you are using the pre-shredded stuff for convenience?
posted by charmedimsure at 2:17 PM on January 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Seconding that for finishing a pan pizza like this, you'll likely have better results if you pull it when the cheese is where you want it to be and then cook it over the direct heat of a burner if the crust is underdone. You could probably also give the crust and the rest of the ingredients a head-start before adding the cheese and/or cover it with foil for some of the cooking time to help keep it from browning, failing anything else.

For pan pizza I wouldn't recommend switching to a pizza stone, as the dough is likely wetter and stickier if it's like the other pan pizza doughs I've tried, and aside from being really difficult to work off of a peel, you wouldn't get the slightly fried crust that is pan pizza's trademark. Lowering the temp probably won't give the same texture to the crust either; not that it'll be terrible, but it will affect its texture and density.
posted by Aleyn at 11:03 PM on January 2, 2022


You've gotten lots of examples upthread that will probably work. In addition to those, add some cheese after the pizza is baked in order to make Ohio Valley Style Pizza.
posted by mmascolino at 5:44 AM on January 3, 2022


I agree with shredding your own. Also Kenji freezes the grated cheese for 15 minutes before cooking (and while prepping the dough and such so it really isn't an extra step).
posted by RoadScholar at 7:48 AM on January 3, 2022


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