The Big Mistake That's Making Your Pizza Crust Rock Hard

Crust is the unsung hero of pizza. It provides an appealing textural contrast to the gooey cheese, rich sauce, and toothsome toppings of your favorite pie. The best crusts are delightfully crunchy on the outside but have a soft, yielding interior. Because nothing will ruin a homemade Neapolitan pizza recipe faster than a hard, chewy crust, Mashed turned to Nicole Bean, owner and operator of Pizaro's Pizza Napoletana, a family-run pizzeria with two locations in Houston, Texas, to understand why this occurs and how to avoid it. According to Bean's exclusive answers, improper kneading and lack of moisture are the most likely culprits.

As the pizza shop owner explains, "The biggest mistake that occurs and renders 'hard' dough is overworking the dough when mixing or kneading." Homemade pizza dough requires patience to ensure that the yeast has plenty of time to do its thing, but your kneading technique is also crucial to the finished recipe. Overworking pizza dough causes a greater number of gluten strands to develop, which results in a chewy texture. To ensure your dough can hold its shape without becoming too tough, hand-knead the dough for no longer than 10 minutes. You can also try letting the dough rest for about 20 minutes before working it, after which you should knead it for a maximum of three minutes.

"Another reason [for hard pizza crust] could be that the dough does not have enough hydration, meaning not enough water was added to the recipe to create a tender dough," Nicole Bean explains. As you can imagine, insufficient moisture in your dough will produce a dry crust, but it can also prevent a sufficient amount of steam from generating as the crust bakes, which is key for developing a light, fluffy texture. Pizza dough recipes vary greatly, but as a general rule, you'll need at least 1 cup of water for every 2 cups of flour your recipe calls for.

If your recipe still doesn't yield the results you desire, learning about bakers' percentages might be beneficial for finding your ideal ratio for the perfect pizza crust. The formula is as follows: Divide the weight of the ingredient (in this case, water) by the weight of the flour in the recipe, and multiply that figure by 100. For example, adding 750 grams of water to 1,000 grams of flour equals a bakers' percentage of 75%. When it comes to pizza dough, aim for at least 65% hydration to avoid creating a crust that's too chewy to truly enjoy. Along with Bean's helpful tips, adding honey to your pizza dough will also keep it moist and pliable.