No oven spring — the fix
Oven spring is the dough's last act: trapped gas expands in the first moments of the bake and the rim balloons. When the pizza goes in lively and comes out flat, either the gas was already spent, the dough was too cold to stretch, or the oven never gave it the kick.
The dough was past its peak
How to tell — It went in slack and blistered with surface bubbles, and a poke before baking left a dent that stayed.
Fix it now — Bake the rest of the batch now, before they fall further — a pizza slightly over its peak still eats well, it just won't puff.
Next time — Shorten the ferment or run it colder so the dough peaks when the oven is hot, not hours before. the cold ferment guide goes deeper.
The dough never reached its peak
How to tell — It went in dense and tight — cold from the fridge, or simply not risen enough — and baked dense too.
Fix it now — Give the remaining balls time somewhere warm until they look pillowy and take a gentle fingerprint.
Next time — Match the yeast dose to your real schedule so the dough is at its liveliest at bake time, not after dinner. the yeast guide goes deeper.
No real heat from above
How to tell — The dough was lively but set slowly and pale — the rim dried out before it could expand.
Fix it now — Preheat harder and put the surface high in the oven; spring happens in the first moments, so the heat has to be there when the pizza lands.
Next time — Oven spring is mostly an oven problem wearing a dough costume — the oven guide has the setup per style. the oven & baking guide goes deeper.
The rim got flattened at the bench
How to tell — The dough was perfect and the oven roaring, but the cornicione you pressed thin while stretching never came back.
Fix it now — Nothing to fix mid-bake — flat rim in, flat rim out. Slice, enjoy, adjust the hands next round.
Next time — Stretch from the center outward and leave the outer band untouched — that ring of trapped gas is the oven spring. the pizza size guide goes deeper.
Start from a good recipe
Most dough problems are planned away, not fixed at the bench. Set your real schedule in the calculator and it weighs the dough and writes the timing for you.
The clock is a suggestion. The dough is the boss. In bocca al lupo!
Impasto is a free pizza dough calculator for Neapolitan, New York, Roman, Sicilian, Detroit, thin crust and focaccia doughs — flour, water, salt and yeast weighed in baker's percentages, with the fermentation schedule written for you.