Gumline
Characteristics
Layer of raw dough in between the crust and the toppings.
Causes
- Moisture is trapped between the cheese and the crust.
- Moisture released by toppings.
- Sauce from refrigerator.
- Excessive amount of sauce.
- Pizza pre-stretched and pre-sauced.
- Low yeast activity.
- Natural separation of the sauce when water is added to it.
How To Fix It:
- Sauce should not be thinned with water. Reduce the moisture in whole tomatoes using a strainer. Blend with other tomatoes with less moisture (ground tomatoes, tomato paste).
- It is good practice to sautee the vegetables before using them of pizza.
- Avoid covering the vegetables with cheese.
- Sauce should not be used straight from refrigerator to pizza.
- The amount of sauce should be adequate to the size of the pizza with an acceptable increase of 10% when extra is requested.
- Avoid assembling the pizza in advance before baking it. The toppings will start soaking the dough.
- When there is not enough yeast activity into the dough it won’t rise properly in the oven collapsing and preventing the ingredients to cook properly.
- Stir the sauce before adding it to each pizza.
Need Troubleshooting Help?
Ask Felice Colucci, Grande’s Culinary Expert
Felice Colucci is a self-described pizza fanatic from Puglia, Italy. At 27, he became a professional baker and one the youngest instructors at Pizza University. Since then, he has honed his craft, getting into the finer details of how ingredients work together; especially dough and cheese.
