Whats wrong with my pizza base ? advice please guys

[stee41]

I've got an authentic Sicilian pizza base recipe from a friend, the problem I have is my base never appears cooked through in the centre but the rest of it is fine, I'm assuming (but could be wrong) this is a temperature problem of some kind...my wood fired oven gets up to 400 degrees and holds the heat well, the pizzas appear cooked to the eye but are soggy in the centre, I keep my tomato sauce quite thick due to this and have tried to reduce the moisture content of the toppings.

if I cook just a base by itself or with garlic on it turns out absolutely fine and is cooked right through, I'm now confused

does anyone have advice for me please ?

Thanks

[clanny]

Sounds like your topping is the cause somewhere. Can you part cook the base and then add the topping? Handy tip for doing pizzas in normal oven that.

[albacore]

Here's what I found concerning that style, which I understand is quite thick: Sicilian Pizza

In summary:

" I can make Sicilian pizza in just about any style of oven — conveyor, deck, rotating. The exception would be a woodfired oven (the extended baking time, because of the thickness of the crust, makes it nearly impossible to use a wood-fired oven)".

Maybe you would be better sticking to Pizza Napolitana in your WFO?

Lance

[downunderdave]

The thicker the base the lower your temperature needs to be. Simply cook them at a lower temperature. The beauty of the WFO is that it can cook at a very high temperature. This is why thin bases suit it better. Likewise sparse toppings work better for the short intense cooking time. This all means of course less dough used, less toppings used, faster turn out, which all means better profit. Nothing to stop you cooking at a lower temperature though.