Frozen pizza is such a convenient meal to keep in your freezer for those busy weeknights when you don’t have time to cook dinner or for when the kids want something to nibble on after school.
They’re especially useful if you keep a stash of different sized ones – small “snacky” ones and big family-meal-sized ones. Frozen pizzas are much cheaper than ordering in from the pizza place and you can add extra toppings before popping them into the oven.
However, sometimes you may run into an issue of the frozen pizza not being cooked through to the middle or the base still being a little soggy. This definitely ruins the enjoyment so we’re here to tell you how to prevent and fix the problem.
Solutions for Frozen Pizza Not Cooked in the Middle
The first thing to keep in mind is that there isn’t actually much you can do for a pizza which has already been cooked but not in the middle. Trying to heat the pizza further will probably result in it burning and not being great for eating anyway.
One thing we can suggest is to lower the oven temperature, drop your oven rack down a notch or two, and cook the pizza for another five minutes. Keep a close eye on it so it doesn’t burn.
Instead of trying to salvage undercooked doughy pizza, the solutions which we’re about to mention will help you avoid this common issue from now on, so make sure to try them all out if your frozen pizza tends to not cook in the middle.
- Use Higher Temperatures
The first recommended solution is to try preparing the frozen pizza at a higher temperature compared to what you usually try to prepare it at. Pizza needs to be cooked at the hottest temperature your oven will reach.
Remember, those wood-burning pizza ovens that give you a deliciously crispy base reach 850-900 degrees Fahrenheit! So, don’t be afraid to crank up the heat. Make sure the oven has reached the desired temperature before putting the pizza in.
- Adjust the Pizza’s Positioning
Another thing that we recommend trying out which tends to help the pizza to cook all the way through to the middle is changing the position of the pizza inside the oven.
Some people just throw the pizza in there without trying to set the rack up properly and this results in uneven cooking, leaving the middle undercooked.
From now on, consider taking a minute to properly place the oven rack in the center position right in the middle of the oven. This will allow heat to penetrate from all around, cooking the pizza more evenly.
If you are cooking a thick based pizza, it’s better to cook it at a slightly lower temperature and place the rack a notch below the middle. That will allow you to cook the pizza for a few minutes longer without burning the top.
- Preheat the Surface
Another thing that tends to help a lot is preheating the oven tray before putting the pizza onto it. Just put the tray or pizza tile into the oven when you switch it on to preheat. Once the oven is up to temperature, slide the frozen pizza carefully onto it.
This provides heating from the bottom as well, resulting in a crispy base and a pizza that’s cooked all the way through. We hope this has solved your pizza problem. Try all three of these solutions together and let us know if they worked for you.