Making your pizza crust at home from a boxed mix is not exactly what I consider home made. It’s not “from scratch” but not too far off.
I decided to test the Jiffy Pizza Crust boxed mix that is available in many grocery stores.
Jiffy is a Michigan company and they make a variety of these convenience mixes. We always had their cornbread mix at home.
Jiffy Crust Benefits
- Convenience. One box makes a crust about 10 by 14 inches, or a number of smaller crusts. You could take this camping if you want pizza, just bring some flour for kneading, along with the sauce and other ingredients you will need
- Rises quickly due to a combination of yeast and baking soda
- Easy to make. You just need water and some extra flour to briefly knead the dough
The other side
- Fluffier texture than I generally like due to the combination of yeast and baking soda. My homemade pizza crust recipe has only yeast as the leavening agent
- With only a little more time, I can make a crust from scratch using my own choice of flour
The Jiffy mix calls for prebaking the crust at 425 degrees. In my 30+ years of making pizza at home, I have never prebaked a crust. I consider it unnecessary.
Why bake before topping the pizza? I think the advocates of this method believe that it makes the crust crispier and/or keeps it becoming soggy due to the sauce and other ingredients.
I did not prebake my test crust, added my normal ingredients, and baked the pizza at 500 degrees. It came out fine.
Your pizza crust will be crisp if you use a good quality pizza sauce (no corn syrup or other fillers) that is thick, and bake it a hot, preheated oven.
Tips for a crisp pizza crust
- Knead your crust until it has a dull sheen and won’t take in any more flour. It won’t stick easily to your hands, but is not so full of flour that the crust doesn’t hang together as a smooth ball. Better to use less flour at first, then add more a little at a time, vs. adding too much too early.
- Use good quality bread flour
- Stretch the crust out so that is relatively thin
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees
- Assemble the pizza right before baking
I have more of the Jiffy crust mix, and I will use it when I want convenience. I’ll knead it according to the directions, adding my own flour.
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