Quality Improvement of Pizza Crust for Chilled Transport and Storage: Effect of Pre-baking on the Physical Strength and Texture

Abstract

Pizza dough baked at mild thermal conditions (pre-baked pizza crust) can be shipped and stored under refrigerated conditions, and enables a quick serving of pizza. Pre-baked pizza crust, however, easily collapses due to loading weight during shipping and storage. In addition, the texture of re-baked pizza crust becomes essentially harder due to the further reduction of water. The purpose of this study was to improve the physical strength of pre-baked pizza crust and the texture of re-baked pizza crust. The water content decreased and initial elasticity increased with increase in pre-baking time. Samples pre-baked for 15 and 20 min tended to have a lower deformation ratio than that pre-baked for 5 min. The rounded, thicker rim of the pizza crust became flattened, but the internal porous structure was maintained in samples that were pre-baked for 15 min. To control the texture of the re-baked pizza crust, rehydration was performed before the re-baking. The water content of the rehydrated pizza crust was almost equivalent to that of conventional (not pre-baked) pizza crust dough, and the rheological and sensory softness of the re baked pizza crust were significantly improved.