Pizza crust dough forming die assembly

A dough forming die assembly for the manufacture of pizza crusts in cooperation with a size mated pizza pan of the conventional configuration having a central recess surrounded by upwardly sloping walls and a substantially horizontally extending, planar rim joined by a curved edge;

• said die assembly comprising
• (a) a vertically reciprocating base movable between a raised position and a lowered dough forming position;
• (b) a dough forming die face plate fixed to and movable with said base and provided with a generally planar face portion and a recessed rim surrounding said planar face portion for receiving formed dough at a height greater than the height of said horizontally extending planar rim of said pizza pan, said recessed rim having an outer wall terminating in a bottom edge provided with a convex curved surface defining a downwardly extending inwardly tapered lip;
• c) a hollow sealing member having a configuration generally conforming to the configuration of said base and said die face plate and mounted on said base for limited slidable movement relative to said base and said die face plate, said sealing member including an inner wall terminating in a bottom edge provided with a convex curved surface forming a downwardly extending outwardly tapered lip, said outwardly tapered lip of said sealing member including an inner wall portion slideably and sealingly engageable with an outer wall portion of said inwardly tapered lip formed on said recessed rim of said die face plate, said bottom edge of said sealing member including said outwardly tapered lip conformed to engage a portion of said sloping walls, said curved edge and said planar rim of said pizza pan in sealing relationship when said base is disposed in said lowered dough forming position.