How I Make the Perfect Homemade Pizza Every Time
Although I was an absolute pizza hater as a kid, I’ve become an adult—perhaps a step too far. This is one of my favorite things to make at home. I use pizza as a way to use up leftovers and as a way to save money on lunch . Through years of pizza testing, I’ve collected a few foolproof tricks for making the best homemade pizza. From flavorful crusts to balanced toppings to even browning, you don’t have to have a home kitchen equipped with a giant stone oven to achieve pizza perfection. But you need to know a few things.
Leaven the dough
When you have a meal with just three ingredients, you want each one to bring great flavor to the table. The crust may be modest, but it doesn’t have to be bland. The surest way to ensure crust flavor is to create a cold fermentation period of 24 to 72 hours. Like good sourdough bread, the aromas developed during fermentation give the dough its distinctive flavor.
Read more about refrigerating dough here . This simple cold fermentation method is the easiest way to achieve a bubbly, chewy crust with bold flavor.
Season the edges of the crust.
The most neglected element of pizza is the outer crust, and there is nothing sadder than seeing a plate with a pile of bald, gnawed bread. But for all the flavor in the middle of the pie, no one can be accused of avoiding bland, dry carbs. Instead, make the crust the attraction.
Since the outer crust ring is essentially a giant breadstick, think about the tastiest breadstick you’ve ever tasted and get inspired. Brush the crust with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and find it in your spice cabinet. Read here to learn more about the crust , such as using garlic powder, sesame seeds, garam masala, or a thin layer of mayonnaise around the edges. Heck, you can even try this method and stuff the crust with hot dogs . However, avoid dried herbs as they may burn in the oven at high temperatures.
Replace the pan with a pizza stone or steel.
There’s a reason you see pizza advertised as “brick oven” and “wood oven.” Texture and flavor are best when cooked at high temperatures where moisture doesn’t have a chance. The most essential tool in your pizza making toolbox is a pizza stone or steel. Using either of these will work significantly better than squeezing 72 hour fermented dough into a thin metal mold.
Using one of these surfaces is ideal for pizza (and bread) as they can withstand extremely high temperatures and maintain even heat throughout the cooking time. Both surfaces will evaporate the moisture, leaving you with that coveted crispy, charred bottom.
While it’s entirely a matter of preference, stone and steel each have several unique qualities, and one may suit you better than the other. Read here to find out more about both and which one is better for your needs. I’ve used both on pizza and have never been disappointed.
Heat the pan thoroughly
To get as close to a brick wood stove as possible, make sure your home oven and steel, stone or cast iron skillet have had enough time to heat up. Preheat the oven with a frying pan or stone inside for at least 20 minutes. These baking surfaces are thicker and denser than baking sheets, so they take longer to heat up. After they spend enough time in a 450 to 500℉ oven, the material will retain heat even after you place a cold pizza on it. Keeping the oven surface as hot as the rest of the oven will ensure a crispy bottom crust and generous rise.
Use pizza peel
You can make the most delicious dough and top it with high-quality toppings, but if you can’t safely place the pizza on the baking stone without it rolling into a heap, then you’ve only set yourself up for a disappointing plate of dinner. Just as a baseball player wouldn’t throw a broom into a fight, you shouldn’t throw pies using the wrong equipment. Take a pizza peel. A pizza peel is a wooden or metal thing that you’ve probably seen in pizzerias to get the pie in and out of the oven.
Conceptually simple, a pizza peel is just a thin, flat, wide surface with a handle. You’ll need a peel wide enough to accommodate the largest pizza you plan to make (you can always make a smaller pizza, but you can’t make a larger one). The handle makes peeling easier and protects your hands from the heat of the oven. For a home oven, choose an oven with a shorter handle, about 9 to 12 inches; These extended handles are designed for deeper industrial ovens. They can be made from different materials, such as wood or metal, but function the same, so the choice is up to the tester. Be sure to transfer the finished pizza to a cutting board for slicing to ensure longevity of the peel.
Be careful with toppings
The best slices strike balance, highlighting each ingredient without overwhelming the crust. Seems simple enough, but when you’re at home and see a naked circle of dough, it’s easy to get excited and pass out. Once you finally come to your senses, Rao is drowning in four cups of mushrooms and a stack of bacon. Where did the dough go anyway?
It’s normal to be a toppings enthusiast: you want to make sure every bite has all the ingredients. Unfortunately, overloading a test can lead to disaster. First, it may become too heavy for the yeast crust to reach its potential. Large amounts of toppings, especially sauces, increase moisture and can result in a soggy crust. In the worst case scenario, heavy toppings with a lot of liquid can cause the crust to stick to the peel, causing the pizza to tear on the way to the oven.
The best solution is to use a light hand. A modest dab of sauce goes a long way, scatter the toppings carefully and be sure to season the outer crust. You’ll be surprised how these small variations add up to a perfectly balanced pie.
Use quality ingredients
Whether you’re dining out or cooking at home, pizza should be fun and approachable. I’m all for cooking on a budget, but it’s not the same as cooking with low-quality ingredients.
To make the best pizza, you need to use ingredients that taste amazing because once the heat in the oven evaporates the water, the flavor becomes more concentrated. When considering cost, keep in mind that we don’t pay much attention to toppings, so whatever ingredients you buy will likely last for several meals. A fancy jar of sauce can be used for today’s pizza, tomorrow’s pasta, and Saturday morning shakshuka breakfast.
Eat cornmeal
The first few times I had homemade pizza, it turned into misshapen, broken mounds of cheese and sauce that burned on my baking stone. Error: Not enough cornmeal.
Although many people don’t consider this ingredient when thinking about pizza, it is one of the most important. Coarsely ground cornmeal creates a barrier between the sticky pizza dough and the pizza peel, acting like scattered balls on the ground: whatever is on top will simply roll off, creating a smooth transfer of the pizza from the peel to the hot baking surface. (If you’re not using a cast iron skillet, you can spread the bottom of the crust with frico cheese instead.)
Although several different ingredients can be used for this purpose, cornmeal is the most widely used. Before stretching the dough, sprinkle a generous layer of cornmeal onto the pizza peel. Once you have stretched it to the desired size, place it on top of the cornmeal coated peel, grab the handle and shake it vigorously in a horizontal direction. The dough should slide freely. If it doesn’t, gently lift the dough, maybe use a bench scraper if it’s really stuck, and sprinkle some more cornmeal in there. Start applying the filling and stop and shake occasionally as you go to make sure you don’t get stuck.
Steam cook vegetables and meat
Partially cooking certain toppings is what separates “good” homemade pizza from “you should open a pizzeria” homemade pizza. Oh, and it may also prevent you from eating undercooked meat.
Not all ingredients need to be pre-cooked (cheese), but if you’re a fan of chopped vegetables, consider what would happen if you put them in raw. In a 475℉ oven, peppers, onions, mushrooms and many other vegetables will become dried out, shriveled and chewy. Some vegetables, such as tomatoes or zucchini, contain excess moisture and form a large puddle on the cake.
Briefly frying the watery vegetables with oil and salt while the dough is proofing will release excess moisture, and coating with oil will prevent other ingredients from drying out. Meat, on the other hand, does not risk drying out in the oven, but it releases excess water and fat during cooking. Pre-cooking the bacon or sausage will allow you to control the amount of fat that ends up on the pizza and also ensure thicker slices are cooked through.