The key to making frozen pizza in the Air Fyer Oven is to keep the top from burning before the bottom and middle have time to get crispy. This can be tricky if you just place the pizza straight into the oven even after converting the time and temperature. Here are some tips to get perfect pizza with a cheesy top and crispy crust.
Here is a video tutorial on how to cook the prefect frozen pizza in your air fryer oven:
Frozen Pizza in the Omni/Omni Plus
(INSTRUCTIONS COMING SOON!)
Hi Lana,
Here are all my notes on the pizza stone and fresh dough crust testing that I did.
PIZZA STONE with FRESH DOUGH CHEESE PIZZA
COOKED in a SMALL FORMAT AIR FRYER OVEN
Base Recipe and Procedure
I started with a base recipe for all the tests in order to keep the results relative to one another. The recipe was 6 ounces of fresh Pizza Dough from a larger batch that I made in my bread machine. I divided the large dough ball into 6 ounce portions which were each rolled out very thin to a diameter of 8 inches. I stored the rolled dough between paper in a bag in the refrigerator until use; bringing it up to room temp prior to baking. The dough was lightly floured on both sides prior to use and the excess brushed off.
I used a topping of 2 tablespoons of Jarred Spaghetti Sauce (Signature Select: Traditional Basil Tomato Pasta Sauce) and 3 ounces of cheese (Lucerne Dairy: Low Moisture – Part Skim Pre-shredded Mozzarella Cheese).
I blind baked the crust alone. Following the blind bake, I misted the top of the crust with oil, flipped the crust over so that the cooked side was touching on the stone, and then I added the sauce and cheese while it was still on the stone. After baking each pizza, I removed it from the stone to a cutting board, sprayed it with a mist of olive oil and sliced it.
The oven is a cube type air fryer oven and has a maximum temperature setting of 400F. It has 3 rack positions: upper, middle, and lower. The catch tray sits at the very bottom as there are no heat elements under the food.
Observations
The air fryer is very good at browning the tops of foods quickly. In the case of a pizza, this can be a problem. Because I am using a fresh dough crust, the heat needed to cook the crust becomes too much for the surface toppings. Why use a stone at all? The preheated stone used with a fresh dough crust doesn’t really do much in the way of cooking the dough in a 400F oven. That’s why a regular pizza oven is fired to several hundred degrees hotter. It does however help to evaporate moisture from the bottom of the pizza during the initial part of the bake. This, along with the airflow is a good reason to use one. Why not just put the pizza on a rack directly? The fresh dough crust would droop through the small gaps between the wires and then harden during the bake. It would be impossible to remove the pizza.
The Best Method
1) Lowering the final bake temperature to 325F took longer to brown the toppings and thus gave the crust more time to cook.
2) Cook further away from the heat source. While preheating the stone and blind baking the crust benefited from using the upper rack, the topped pizza would have been burned pretty quickly. So all cooking after toppings are added is done at the lower rack position.
3) Blind bake the crust prior to adding the toppings at 400F for 5 minutes on the preheated stone placed in the upper rack position. This definitely cooked the top side of the crust just right. After 5 minutes, mist the top with olive oil, flip and add the toppings.
Recipe and Procedure
Ingredients:
1 – 6 ounce Fresh Dough Crust rolled out to 8 inches
Fruity Olive Oil, Mist or Brushed On
2 Tablespoons – Jar Pasta Sauce
3 Ounces – Shredded Cheese
Basil Shreds & Grated Parmesan for Garnish
Equipment:
Air Fryer Oven
Pizza Stone sized to the oven
Pizza Peel
Total Prep & Cook Time:
30 minutes
Instructions:
1. Preheat the pizza stone on an inverted upper rack at 400F for 15 minutes.
2. Dock the dough with a fork to make small holes throughout the surface.
3. Place the dough on the preheated stone and blind bake at 400F for 5 minutes on the upper rack.
4. Mist, or brush the crust with olive oil, flip the crust over and replace it back onto the stone.
5. Top the uncooked side with the sauce and the cheese.
6. Bake the pizza at 325F for 10 minutes on the inverted lower rack.
7. Remove from the stone to a cutting board, mist or brush the edges of the crust with olive oil, garnish with basil shreds, grated parmesan & slice.
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That sounds really great Richard! I can’t wait to try it and thanks so much for sharing. For some reason your comment went into a file I didn’t see until now. SOrry it took so long.
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I love your videos. Learned a lot. Pizza trick is the best!! Ive never liked frozen pizza. No more delivery!! It’s degioro crescent for me.
Have you ever tried an angel food cake is the Omni Plus? Tyi.
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Thank you so much! Those tricks help get the most out of your oven. I use my Omni to bake all the time. and cakes come out really well. I think they come out fluffier and lighter. Use the same trick with tray to keep the top from over browning and use foil on the sides to help get more rise.
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