Of all the prepared frozen foods available at the grocery store, frozen pizza is my absolute favorite. It’s cheesy, salty, savory, and even better when I dip it in blue cheese dressing. But I’ve actually found that this supermarket convenience can be surprisingly tricky to cook. In pursuit of a crisp, crunchy crust, I either overbake it or slice into it only to find that the middle is still wet and soggy.
So, I decided to ask an expert at a leading frozen-pizza company about the number one mistake home cooks make, and his answer was exactly what I needed to know.
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The Top Mistake You’re Making With Frozen Pizza
According to Fred Scarpulla, Amy’s Kitchen chief culinary officer, the most common blunder he sees home cooks make when reheating frozen pizza is “leaving [it] in the oven too long because you’re waiting for the top to look a certain way.”
When frozen pizza is baked too long, the final result can suffer. “By that point, the crust can become overly dry or hard, and the cheese can start to lose that ideal melted texture,” Scarpulla adds.
Thankfully, there are ways to avoid this. “Use the package cook time as your starting point, but begin checking the pizza toward the earlier end of the recommended range. Every oven runs a little differently, so visual cues matter. You want the crust to be crisp and golden, the cheese fully melted and the center heated through,” explains Scarpulla.
He advises not exceeding the recommended cooking time by much—even if you don’t have the amount of browning you want. “Resist the temptation to keep baking just because you want more browning. If you want extra color on top, a very brief finish under the broiler can work, as long as the pizza and packaging instructions allow for it and you watch it closely.”
For the best eating experience, Scarpulla also recommends resting your pie before enjoying it. “Give the pizza a minute or two to rest before cutting into it. That brief rest helps everything set, so the cheese and toppings are less likely to slide off with the first bite,” he says.
The next time I heat up a frozen pizza, I’ll definitely give his broiler trick a try.
Read the original article on Simply Recipes