Any tips for making homemade pizza?

[Claire]

Dh made it tonight for dinner. His tomato sauce was delicious, but he had a problem with the crust baking correct. He lined a pizza pan (aluminum kind with holes in bottom) with aluminum foil. I think that was a big mistake. We have a stone, but he said it was too small. Is a stone the only way to bake homemade pizza so the crust comes out good?

[Lynn in WI]

We use a stone sprinkled with cornmeal and a very hot oven--450.

 

If you're using a metal pan with holes, I would try it again without the foil.

 

Or get a bigger stone. :)

[Debbie in OR]

Exactly what Lynn said....:iagree:

[Didache Academy]

What kind of crust are you making? We like a thin, crispy crust. I will prebake the crust on the aluminum pan (no foil), make sure the crust breaks loose from the pan before adding the toppings, then put it on the stone to bake.

[sweetbaby]

We use a regular cookie sheet type pizza pan without the holes. We have a rectangle and a round one. I simply lightly flour our pans. I add a small bit of oil to our crust also.

[Alice]

We have one pan with holes and one without. I find both work ok. We put cornmeal on the pan. Also, sometimes we've slightly baked the crust first and then added the sauce and toppings. That helps with the crust not getting soggy, if that was the issue.

[Call Me Cordelia]

Here's my tip: don't forget to buy the flour. It is essential. The pepperoni is not worth a third trip to the store, but would have been nice.

 

Sigh.

[Camy-7 boybarians 1 lady]

Google "Peter Reinhart Pizza Napoletana" for the best pizza crust recipe and method.

 

Yummy!

 

Blessings :o)

[mooooom]

and then put toppings on and slide it off the cookie sheet right onto the oven rack. Makes a nice crispy crust.

[Georgie]

I use a stone with the oven set at 500. Depending on the thickness of the crust you can par bake the crust a bit first, add toppings and finish baking to get a crisper crust. Pizza bakes in 5-10 minutes depending how many toppings.

[In The Great White North]

If I put my pizza (regular cookie sheet, no foil) on the upper racks, the cheese burns before the crust cooks. If I put it on the bottom and don't preheat, the crust cooks too. I also use whole milk mozzarello; the low fat stuff browns too fast (probably extra whey to make up for the fat).

 

Of course, the BEST is in the bread oven of the fireplace but I don't fire that up too often. It takes too much planning ahead and I like to bake bread at the same time, once it's hot, so it's an all-day effort.

[Vita Passiva]

Hi! Usually when we make pizza I have found the pizza stone to be the best, but also found that it was a bit small for some occasions. I usually will double my recipe and roll one crust ahead of time and let it sit on a floured kitchen towel. When the first pizza is done, we slide it off onto a cookie sheet and then just quickly assemble the second pizza on the stone.

[Shay]

I also use a stone and preheat it for at least 30 minutes at 500 degrees. I really need another stone, but for now, I rotate each pizza onto the stone.

 

I roll out my crusts onto parchment paper and slide the pizza onto the stone to cook (parchment and all).........so when the 1st pizza is done, I simply slide it off the stone and slide a new one onto the stone. Each pizza cooks in about 10 minutes (thin crisp crust). ~Shay

[asta]

2 tsp yeast

1 tbl sugar

1 cup warm water

2 tbl olive oil

 

whisk and wait for yeast to proof (5-10 minutes)

 

1 cup of flour

 

whisk

 

1 tsp salt

1 cup of flour

 

whisk

 

flour until it's a slightly sticky dough (if it is a "smooth" dough, it will end up too rubbery)

 

knead into some semblance of a ball, dump back into bowl, cover with cleanest kitchen towel available, and place somewhere near oven (which is being preheated to 450 with the stone inside). Don't make mistake of actually placing bowl on back burner (oh, yum, pre-cooked bread ball...).

 

Discover you have no cheese. Go to store and have hissy fit that cheese is up to .35 an ounce. Buy it anyway. It's Friday. Friday is pizza night. It's easier to overpay for cheese than argue with quirky teenager.

 

It's been over 1/2 hour, dough is raised. Punch down and scrape from sides. Plop on counter in some flour. Let sit for 5 minutes. Search for something else to put on pizza.

 

Defrost leftover ham from freezer and drain can of pineapple. Pull can of spaghetti sauce out of fridge. Roll crust out in flour (it doesn't bounce back as much now that it had time to rest).

 

Pull stone out of oven. Wrestle crust around broken corner of stone. Smear spaghetti sauce on with rubber spatula. Attempt artful placement of unartfully hacked ham. Fill in gaps with pineapple. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Bake for 15 minutes.

 

DINNER!

[Janna]

We use a stone sprinkled with cornmeal and a very hot oven--450.

 

If you're using a metal pan with holes, I would try it again without the foil.

 

Or get a bigger stone. :)

 

I didn't read all of the other replies because what Lynn said is what I do as well. The only other thing I do is preheat my stone for about 15-20 min. That way, when I put the crust on it, it is already baking as I put the toppings on. The cornmeal is must as well, imo.

 

I've never tried a metal pan with holes, so my suggestion would be to buy a larger stone, ;).

[3littlekeets]

This may sound odd, but it did to me at first too! I was told by a Chicago pizza chef to add 1/2 cup of cornmeal to the dough itself (when using approx. 3 c. flour). And, to leave the dough a bit wetter than you'd expect with pizza dough, and then work in the extra flour as you roll it out -- at least two times, with a rest in between. It is a tad more effort, but ohhhhh so worth it~~

[Doran]

I always used a pan with holes on which I'd rubbed a little olive oil first. Cornmeal didn't seem to work so well w/ the holes, but maybe I was missing something about technique on that.

 

Preheat oven to 425°. Stretch pizza dough and set it onto pan. Don't overdo the sauce/toppings or the crust may get soggy.

 

I used to make pizzas every Friday night -- until dd1 had to be restricted from wheat and dairy. Sigh...I miss those days.

 

Another little tip for those too busy or too forgetful to make their own dough: If you have a little pizzeria in your town like we do, you can go there and buy "naked" dough. Our guy sold me two large dough wads for $3.50 each. Saved me time, and the quality was dead on every time. Great little trick! :)

[Carol in Cal.]

A young man invited me to dinner once during my single days. He said that we would have pizza because it was the only thing that he knew how to cook. And he forgot to change the oven to bake! So the toppings were overdone, and the pizza dough was a lovely, gooey white. Poor guy, he was so embarrassed!

[GailV]

After making pizza every Friday night for 15 years, going through many crust permutations, I just bake the crust for 12 minutes naked (the crust, not me), take it out, cool it, then put on the ingredients.