How to make homemade pizza

Making pizza at home is one of those things that scares people purely out of ignorance. Making homemade pizza isn't as difficult as you might imagine if you keep in mind a few points that we will tell you about in this article. And the result is fantastic.

Making an excellent pizza at home requires paying attention to two aspects: the tools and the method. And for both we will recommend the best options.

The ideal ingredients for pizza dough

Pizza dough, like any simple bread, contains only a few ingredients: flour, water, salt and baker's yeast; some people like to add a bit of olive oil as well. Despite what others say, use strong flour: it gives the dough a strength that allows you to stretch it without tearing and makes it possible for it to become airy when baked.

Neither water nor salt admit much variation and as for the yeast, it can be fresh or dried, but always baker's yeast, never baking powder like Royal, be careful. Some people get confused.

Basic pizza recipe

For 4 small pizzas:

• 300gr of strong flour
• 200gr of water
• 5gr of freeze-dried baker's yeast (15 g of fresh yeast)
• 6gr of salt
• 20gr of good olive oil (optional)

Kneading

I have good news for you: kneading is not essential to achieve a good pizza. And I'm not the only one who says it; master Ibán Yarza says so in his book Pan Casero, where you can find the complete no-knead pizza recipe.

That said, making pizza without kneading requires a bit of patience or planning or both, because we'll have to combine the ingredients and let the dough rest in the fridge for up to two days.

Of course we can always knead by hand with patience and dedication, but a fairly hydrated dough like this one and with lots of gluten is challenging, I won't deny that. For hand kneading I also recommend kneading in 2-3 minute intervals with intermediate rests of 10 minutes. Rests work wonders.

On the other hand, if what we want is to have a kneaded dough ready to ferment quickly, remember that you can always use a bread machine or a dough mixer with a dough hook.

A good kneading, or a prolonged rest in its place, is essential for the dough to have structure, for the crumb to turn out perfect and for the crust to be crispy.

After kneading or resting you must divide the dough into as many portions as you want and stretch them, which we can do by hand or with a rolling pin. We let the dough rest once stretched and all that's left is to spread it with a good tomato sauce or passata, add the cheese and a few other little things that tempt us.

The best tools for baking homemade pizza

We've already talked about ingredients and kneading, so let's move on to the method and the tools for baking a pizza. Because now that we've prepared an excellent dough we can't ruin it with mediocre baking.

The key to achieving a well-risen pizza with a crispy base is to put the oven on full blast (at least to 250º if your oven reaches that) and then use a pizza base that conducts heat well.

Isa pizza base essential? Unless you have a super-mega-death oven, which is not usually the case with domestic ovens, using a good base makes a difference.

A nonstick pizza pan with perforations like Le Creuset's allows hot air to reach the pizza base perfectly and gives very good results. ceramic bases like Emile Henry's transmit heat wonderfully and you get an extraordinary crust by preheating this base in the oven while you prepare the pizza to put in. They also serve to present the pizza at the table because they retain heat and don't scratch if you cut on them.

Finishing: herbs and a good pizza oil

Personally I like to add herbs, especially if they're fresh, toward the end of cooking or directly when taking the pizza out of the oven, so they don't burn. It's also a very good idea to add a spicy touch with a special olive oil for pizza or you can create your own flavored oils with the Luigi Bormioli condiment oilers.

And now all that's left is to slice our homemade pizza with a good cutter and... enjoy.

La Tourangelle spicy oil for pizza, Luigi Bormioli condiment oilers, T&G rustic pizza paddle and WMF pizza cutter

Recipes to inspire you

You can find other recipes to inspire you on our blog:

• Pizza with griddle-cooked eggplant, ham, mozzarella, and pesto sauce
• Homemade caprese pizza
• Cheese, bacon and arugula pizza
• Carbonara pizza
• Mushroom, tomato and blue cheese calzone

Post updated in July 2018