Eggplant and Mushroom Pizza with Yummy, Crispy Crust

Thanks to Jessie from The Hungry Mouse and Reeni of CinnamonSpiceAndEverythingNice, I was able to solve the problems I encountered when I tried to make Homemade Eggplant Pizza the first time. See that post here.

When I made pizza the last time, the crust never fully baked and therefore the pizza was soggy and the dough was downright raw in the middle.

They recommended that I prebake the pizza crust just a little and they also recommended that I cook the pizza for longer than 12 minutes – more like 18 – 22 minutes in a very hot oven. I particularly liked Reeni’s advice to preheat the oven to 500˚F and then turn it back to 450˚F once I put the pizza in the oven. My oven tends to trend a little low anyway and opening the door always knocks the temperature down, so preheating a little high was a great idea.

I forgot to prick the pizza dough before I put it in the oven to pre-bake so I was startled by this puffing up of the dough. But that can easily be avoided by pricking the dough with a fork to let the air escape. I was able to flatten it back out after removing it from the oven, so it wasn’t a huge disaster.

I used this pizza baking pan that has holes in it to allow air to circulate and I set my oven to “convection.” Circulating the air with the convection setting helps things brown better.

Other steps I took this time included sautéeing the eggplant first (with mushrooms and tomatoes) to get more water out (of all the vegetables). I also let the salted eggplant pieces sit in a strainer for longer and squeezed out the water harder.

Now that I know how to make homemade pizza that isn’t soggy, be on the lookout for more pizza creations.