Nine Tips for making Pizza
9 Tips for making great pizza
1.) Use Top Quality Ingredients: When you make pizza, you want to showcase your efforts by only using the best ingredients. If possible use locally sourced produce, if available. Everything you use should be the absolute best.
2.) Preparation is the key. Before you start, make sure you have taken the time by having everything ready for you. That is do all your cutting, slicing, and dicing ahead of time. Everything should be prepared and ready to go before you form your pizza dough.
3.) Make your dough the day before. You can also make your dough several days before. The extra time you give your dough will impart great flavor into the finished pizza.
4.) Use a pizza stone or better yet, invest in a Baking Steel. My pizzas have greatly improved since I started using a Baking Steel. And remember: put your pizza stone or Baking Steel inside your oven, before you turn it on! That is a critical STEP!
5.) Pre-heat your oven at least 500 degrees F. (or 260 C.), or hotter, for at least an hour. Crank that baby up! Your oven needs to be hot, hot, hot, hot. You want your pizza to cook quickly and evenly. Give your oven time to heat up as much as possible. Your pizza will cook much better in a hot oven.
6.) Use the flour you like to make your pizza. Different flours will make different types of pizza. You can certainly use all-purpose flour, or bread flour. You can even use a mixture of 50 / 50 bread and all purpose. Experiment a bit. Use the flour that gives you the taste you like best. I like King Arthur Bread Flour, Gold Medal Better for Bread and my favorite (when I can get it) is Caputo Americana. But your taste is your taste. Use the flour that makes the pizza that you like.
7.) When making pizza (and in life) remember, less is more! Use your topping sparingly. Don’t pile lots of stuff on your pizza. Allow the taste of the crust to shine through. If you put to many toppings on, your pizza will not cook the way it should. Memorize these words: when making pizza, and in life…less is more!
8.) Grande’s Pizza Postulate: “While making pizza, all mistakes are inevitable.” Listen, if you are making pizza, you are going to make mistakes. Not every pizza is going to turn out perfect every time. Learn from your mistakes. Grow with your mistakes. Trust me, over time our pizzas will get better and better…
9.) Finally: have fun. Share you pizza making with friends and family. Watch magic happen. Discover the enjoyment and share the love of making pizza for and with other people. You life may never be the same.
Do you have any great pizza tips? Or perhaps you want to share a comment about some of these Pizza Tips. Please comment and share your own pizza insights. You will be adding to the knowledge of pizza.
Please share your pizza thoughts below…and please subscribe to my channel Pizza Therapy…
Pizza on Earth, Good Will to All!
Here is the video:
Why do you consider a Baking Steel better than a Pizza stone ???
Great question:
1) The baking steel conducts the heat better
2) The crust cooked on a baking steel is cooked to perfection
3) The baking steel is indestructible.
http://amzn.to/2vX0pJ3
Albert, thank you for all you do!! How about some more reprints of old cook books.
When I am going to use my baking steel for pizza, I preheat the oven like you do, but then 5 to 10 minutes before, I switch my electric oven to hi broil, then just before I am ready to load my pizza, I put the oven back to bake mode. It gives me a good bake on the crust. You would have to play with the times for your oven. Let me know if this works for you. I would NOT do this with an industrial baking stone..
Excellent tip David. Thanks so much for your pizza insights. I have used the broil tip and it seems to really help the crust cook quicker Keep your great tips coming..
Hi Everyone,
I have always said, “you can put the best ingredients on a pizza but if it isn’t cooked properly the pizza fails”. The pizza must reach “The Magic Moment”. That’s when the marriage of flavors from carmelization happens. So, if your ready to pull out a pizza from oven and can leave it cooking for any more time even 30 seconds or 1-3 more minutes without burning it then for heavens sake let it keep cooking. Pizza has become too rushed in business. The old I gotta get this pie to the customer in 10 seconds doesn’t do anything for great pizza. Your either in the great pizza business or the crap pizza business. You should never rush a pizza, “NEVER”. Also, do not overload center of pizza it is the last part to cook. In fact you can make center area sparse, having all your toppings pushed out towards crust edge and when you cut pizza your always pushing ingredients back into center. This will help the crust to cook in center and prevent that mushy wet under cooked first bite. “Enjoy”…
Your Friend In Pizza
Dino Ciccone
World Pizza Champion
Thanks very much Dino. You are a pizza professional and I greatly appreciate your pizza tips. Keep making great pizza.
I cook my pizza in my Big Green Egg using 100 percent lump charcoal on a stone at 600 degrees. Can I use a baking steel
in the Egg and will it make a difference in my final product?
Yes I think you would see a difference. The baking steel conducts heat better than a stone. If you are currently using a pizza stone, you can use a baking steel with better results. The Baking Steel is also indestructible. I have gone through many pizza stones over the years due to cracking. Check out the baking steel, here http://amzn.to/2vX0pJ3
Just got this from Joey:
“Albert
I thought you would like to see this
My oldest daughter is now married and lives in Charlotte NC
We were making pizza and She was laughing and telling friends, while we were
cooking, about how much she looked making pizza and how she had done it since she
was 10 years old….meanwhile, my other two were saying how they don’t cook pizza
they only eat it…like always
My point is…..my family and I are still cooking your pizza…thought you’d like to
hear you were the topic of a family talk ..while again….making pizza
And my new son in law copied the recipe…..
We have had a lot of fun making pizza for the last 15 years !!!! That’s when you
sent me that
We are still going!!!! The best dollar I ever spent!!!!
Thanks !!!!! Merry Christmas
And thanks for the gift of pizza!!!
And all the family fun we have had and still going!!!!!!!!”
Totally awesome Joey! Thanks so much for all of your positive pizza energy…and thanks for reminding why I do what I do!
pizza on earth,
albert
I love how you pointed out that less is more when it comes to making pizza. My husband loves a lot of toppings on his pizza, but I like very few. These are great tips for every pizza lover to remember. Thanks for sharing them.
Thanks Monica for the positive pizza comments about my video! Less is more is my mantra… pizza on earth!