Thinking about what to make when the guests or friends are coming over? Well, the answer is pizza. Who does not like it? Pizza is one of the best and most delicious common foods that almost everyone loves.
Served with a glass of wine or a chilled beer, pizza can be the best solution for a great treat. How about making pizzas at home? Yes, you can make homemade pizza and it can taste as good as the pizza shops.
All you will need is the right way to make pizza and a great recipe for it. Some people have the traditional homemade pizza recipes that are passed on to them through generations. And some can learn now and impress friends later!
Of course, you can order pizza. But, homemade pizza tastes different than commercial.
If you are looking for some of the best ways that can help you to make tasty and scrumptious homemade pizzas, then you are at the right place.
In this blog post, we will walk through the ideas that you can implement for making pizza at home easily and efficiently.
From the different ways to make pizza to all the step-by-step explanations, we will provide everything. Read on to learn all the details.
Best ways to make homemade pizza
You must have already tried the pizzas that are available in the pizza shops and restaurants. Aren’t they taste delicious? Of course, you will like to try them at home too.
But pizzas need baking and you have to make sure that you know the best ways that can help to make the homemade pizzas. Generally, there are 3 different ways to make pizzas at home for starters.
Let us reveal all the three ways here along with their benefits and drawbacks. You can try the one that seems to be more convenient and better for you. The three ways of making pizza at home are:
1. Making Homemade Pizza in Kitchen Oven
This is one of the best ways to make pizzas right at your home. It is also the most common and convenient option as it is easily accessible to most people.
Almost everyone has a kitchen oven at their home and this method simply cannot be more convenient.
Kitchen ovens are generally made for baking and cooking almost any type of dish. They can be used for different purposes and pizza is one of them.
They are mainly available in the form of electrical ovens that can be preheated for baking the pizza dough along with the cheese and then baking with the toppings.
If you have a kitchen stove with an oven at your house, then this can be the best option to consider for making delicious pizzas at home.
2. Making Homemade Pizza in Cooking Pan
You do not have an oven at your home? Do not worry! It is still possible to make a no-oven pizza at home. All you need is at least a 22 cm (8.66 inches) frying pan for that. You can easily purchase it if you do not have it yet.
Opt for better quality vs. price because you can use it for making many various meals in the future.
If you already have that or any pan of at least medium size, you can make the pizza right away.
You must roll out the dough on the pan and then press it properly.
The pizza can be cooked in a pan over medium heat with added toppings on it.
The time can differ from 8 to 12 minutes depending on how thick the dough of your pizza is.
This can be a different way to make pizza at home but a legit and easy one for sure. So, if you do not have an oven, you can try it out this way. Hey, you can even use it in the dormitory. I am sure your roommates will be impressed.
3. Making Homemade Pizza in Pizza Oven
Well, this is different from that of the kitchen ovens that are mentioned above. Pizza ovens are specialized ovens that are designed especially for making pizzas. This is surely one of the most effective and best ways to make homemade pizza.
Many people believe that these pizza ovens are only for commercial purposes. No! They are also available for domestic uses and you can purchase one for yourself if you plan to make homemade pizza more often. The pizza ovens can be of three different types based on the way they are used. These are:
- Electric pizza oven: This is the most common type of pizza oven that you can use for making pizzas. They are specially designed for making pizzas because these ovens use two different temperatures at the top and the bottom. Even the operation is quite easy as everything can be controlled with the buttons and knobs. Hence, it can help you to make restaurant-style pizzas at home easily and conveniently.
- Gas pizza oven: You can also make your pizzas at home with the help of gas pizza ovens. They are fully automatic. Similar to the electric oven, you will get to control the temperature of the top and bottom with the help of a digital thermostat. But instead of electricity, this oven uses natural gas to run.
- Brick or concrete pizza oven: Although increasingly rare, this is probably the best way to make pizza at home when you have your own house. The brick or the concrete ovens are traditionally used and they can be dated decades back. The woods are used here to fire up the oven and to bake the pizzas. Though nowadays you will see brick ovens and concrete ovens are mostly used for commercial purposes, they can be used in houses too. The wood fire can provide a very authentic flavor to the pizzas which taste quite scrumptious.
So, from these above 3 best ways, you can choose one way to make some great pizzas at home. It depends completely on your choices and preferences.
How to make homemade pizza step by step?
After you have decided on the ideal way to make pizza, we will discuss all the step by step instructions about how you can make pizza at home.
Though you can keep the style of making pizza similar, you can always experiment with new ingredients as your toppings. Depending on whether you like veg pizza or a non-veg one, you can choose varieties of toppings. That we will discuss later.
But now, here are the steps that you must follow to make the pizza.
Step 1: Preparation of the dough
The base of the pizza is the most important thing. If the base is not perfect, then everything can fail. So, you must be very conscious about how you make the dough of the pizza. Note you can buy ready-made pizza dough, but many cooks opt for making it themselves.
There are two ways of getting dough for pizza: the easy shortcut, and the chef’s way.
- Purchasing Pizza Dough
The easy way is to purchase dough instead of making it yourself. Many places sell dough – from grocery stores to bakeries or pizza joints.
Grocery stores often have frozen or refrigerated dough for sale. This is not quite the same as preparing fresh dough yourself, but it is a shortcut for complete newbies who do not want to mess with making the dough.
On the other hand, some local bakeries or pizza shops may sell their fresh dough. Seriously, check and ask around for good bread dough, or Italian pizza dough – someone will know.
Even pizza places may sell specifically pizza dough. Small shop places are more likely to sell you their dough fresh because they are making just enough. And it may be fresher than one from the grocery store.
I checked forums and people say that Pizza Hut does not have it, but Papa Johns may sell fresh dough.
If you purchase a frozen or fridge one, then put it on the table and let it warm for at least 30-60 minutes. Once it is unfrozen and ready – read on in the next section what to do with the dough.
An approximate measure is to have 1 ounce of dough per inch of diameter of pizza 10-16 inches.
But the freshest way is to prepare it yourself. My grandma was good at it – she was baking all the time.
- Making Pizza Dough Yourself Quick Description
More complicated way, but worth learning. Let’s try to make it as simple as possible.
Get ready:
2-4 cups of good quality bread flour
1 teaspoon sugar
Instant dry yeast
2 teaspoons of the sea or kosher salt
1 – 1.5 cups of water, noticeably warm
Olive oil – plenty
Mix with mixer and hands, cover well, and let it stand and raise for 1/5-2 hours.
Once you have prepared the dough for your pizza, you will need to cover it with the plastic cover and put it in the refrigerator, and let it sit for about 24 hours. You could use the fresh dough right away, but putting it in the fridge for a day can help to enhance the flavor of the crust.
Now, take the dough out of the refrigerator and remove the plastic cover from the dough.
Put some flour on your hand and push the dough down. Divide it into two halves.
Detailed way of making your own dough for homemade pizza
Before you start mixing ingredients for pizza dough you should decide what type of pizza you are going to make. Thus, Neapolitan pizza is made with a hardcore crisp crust. Don’t worry if you haven’t decided yet. Here, you’ll find universal rules that anyone who makes dough for homemade pizza should follow.
Before mixing dough
- Scale ingredients
How are you going to measure ingredients for your dough? The majority of problems you may have with making your own dough comes down to incorrectly measuring ingredients, especially flour. Why is this? Flour is compressible. You can measure it by cups or ounces. It is better to use a scale and you’ll see that one cup may contain four or even six ounces of different types of flour. That’s a difference!
- Choose the right flour
As you know, flour is the main ingredient for your pizza dough. Of course, any flour works well but you’d better choose the right one for your sort of pizza. Different types of flour give different structures to your pizza crust.
All-purpose flour is often used by beginners and experienced chefs and works well. If you need very structured dough allowing for stretching and rising, you’d better find some high protein bread flour. There is also special pizza flour if you want to go all the way in.
Another way to make your own dough for pizza
The classic recipe is simple. You need no more than 10 minutes to prepare. Luckily, you may use a food processor for a perfect result. It’s ok if you don’t have one.
Ingredients
1 cup (8.5 ounces) warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 cups (10.5 ounces / 300 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Step by step recipe
- Start by combining warm water with your yeast and teaspoon of sugar. Wait for a few minutes until it starts to froth up and form a sort of foam or bubbles up, as some say. If it does not, toss it and start again. If it does – it is active, and you can add flour now. You can use hand or stand mixer to speed things up. I would set it on low setting at this stage. Some recommend to use wooden spoon for more authentic way of making pizza dough.
- Add flour and salt to the mixture in the bowl. You can pour both cups, or our one cup and little latter add another cup. Even better, just make a kind of syphon hole in the flour, add some salt, and pour the yeast liquid to the center. You should work with your fingers, mixing liquids and dry components. Whichever way works for you.
- You can add a teaspoon of olive oil if you want.
- Stir gently but well. If you use hand or stand mixer, set the speed to medium.
- Stir until a soft dough ball mass appears. Dough ball must be soft but hold together strongly enough for you to be able to grab with your hands to put on the kitchen surface without dripping all over.
- Put flour on the kitchen surface you use to make dough. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for a few minutes to prevent sticking to avoid it becoming stiff.
- Oil a bowl with your olive oil and place your soft dough ball in it. Some recommend rolling it in the bowl to get covered with olive oil.
- Cover it well with a clean cloth, kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for about 1/2 to 2 hours in a warm and dry place. It must rise to about double of what it was originally.
- You can also put it to rise overnight in the refrigerator to rise. If did not rise enough, then take it out and keep it for 30-60 minutes at room temperature to speed up rising.
- Once it rises, remove it and knead a little – a few times – to push out any air from it.
- You may use the dough immediately or cut and refrigerate it. It’s a little easier to roll out when it’s not super cold, but straight from the fridge still works. Otherwise, place the pizza dough in an airtight bag and freeze.
- Now you can knead the pizza dough – this is important step and we have devoted whole article just for that.
This recipe should make two thin-crust pizzas.
Note
What’s the secret? The secret is in how much flour you add to the dough. People fail and end up with dry, dense dough because they are adding too much flour. Always do the ingredients by weight!
Step 2: Flattening of the dough
Short description:
Choose one of the halves and make it round with your hands.
Now, keep it on the countertop and press it with your hand to flatten it.
Make sure to lightly flour the countertop before you start this.
While flattening the dough, start from the center and gradually work outwards using your fingers.
Press the dough like this until it is about half an inch thick. It is better to achieve a diameter of about at least 10 to 16 inches for your pizza with a thickness of 1/2 inch.
Brush the crust top lightly with some olive oil. This can help to prevent your crust from becoming soggy due to the toppings. Keep it like that for about 15 minutes.
Long description:
Use olive oil to prepare your working places to prevent the dough from sticking to surfaces (bowl in which you will mix the dough AND surface on which you will knead the dough, like cutting board).
We have a separate article on this blog about how to knead pizza dough. It will help your pizza-making process. But here is a short overview.
You now have room-temperature pizza dough covered with few tablespoons of oil.
Wash your hands and dry them well.
Press with the palm of your hand gradually on the dough to flatten it into a circle or disc (unless it is sold already flattened).
The rough disc must be round, 6 to 16 inches across, and ½-1 inches thick for this article. I suggest starting with smaller sizes for your first homemade pizza.
If the disc shrinks back, let it rest for 15 minutes and repeat this process. You can repeat this 2-3 times until the disc keeps its shape (that is why it should be room temperature – frozen or cold one will not hold the shape).
Then you should stretch the dough a little more to a round shape. You can just hold it in your hands, carefully moving slowly from spot to spot around while down is hanging straight down over the surface. It will pull down by itself a little bit.
Just make it as round as you can.
Now your pizza dough disc should be anywhere from 10 to 25 inches across, 1/3-1/2 inches thick.
Note, if you will use a frying pan or baking tool to cook a pizza – also one way to make homemade pizza – then you may want to prepare the dough in the corresponding shape – it could be square, for example.
Step 3: Transfer to the pizza peel
A pizza peel is a tool that looks like a shovel to slide the pizza into the oven on a pizza stone, baking sheet, or pan if you use a pan. A pizza peel is an essential and mandatory tool for making pizza. Well, you can use the regular peel. Whatever.
Before you place the pizza dough over peel it is better to sprinkle some cornmeal lightly on the peel. This will help to easily transfer the pizza from the peel to the oven or on anything for baking the pizza.
This step is essential or else the dough can get stuck to the peel making it difficult to transfer.
Step 4: Prepare the sauce and toppings
Now, it is just about the time to start preparing whatever goes to the top of the crust. You should have the pizza sauce ready with you along with the cheese and all the ingredients that you want to use as the topping.
With the help of the spoon spread the pasta sauce evenly and properly over the crust. Make every inch of the crust top is covered with the sauce.
Now, sprinkle cheese all over the pizza. Here you can choose how much you want. Once the cheese is sprinkled, now spread the toppings such as onions, meat, mushroom, corn, bell peppers, etc.
Do not overload the pizza with a lot of toppings on it as it can make the pizza quite soggy.
Step 5: Prepare the pizza stone or baking sheet
For baking the pizza in the oven, you will either need a baking stone or a baking sheet. A baking stone is a way better and authentic thing to use for making homemade or commercial pizza. Read on below more about what is baking stone. But beginners can use a regular baking sheet.
Whatever you choose, lightly sprinkle some of the cornmeal on it. Now, transfer the pizza from the peel to the stone or sheet whatever you have.
Be gentle while transferring. Give a gentle shake to transfer the pizza and do not do it in a hurry. Now, slide the pizza into the oven and let it bake. Read on below for temperature settings and time for baking a pizza.
Important tips for making pizza at home
These are the steps that you must follow to make homemade pizza. Here are some more details that you should know about making pizzas at home:
· What do you bake pizza on?
As mentioned above, you can bake the pizza either on a baking stone or on a baking sheet.
Baking stones are the solid and heavy portable baking surfaces that can be used in the oven from baking pizzas. They can absorb the additional moisture into it to ensure that the crust of the pizza is crispy and crunchy.
The baking sheets are the baking tray that can be used for baking different foods including pizza.
If you compare these two, the baking stones are better than the baking sheets as they can hold heat much more evenly.
The stones are also porous that can draw out the moisture preventing the dough from getting soggy.
Remember, that pizza stones are designed scientifically specifically to make pizzas. Makes sense?
· How long do the pizzas take to cook in the oven?
Though the preparation time of the pizza can vary depending on the type of dough you are making and the toppings you are choosing, it does not take too much time to cook it in the oven.
As mentioned above, if you preheat the oven at 245 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes, then it will take about 10 to 15 minutes for the pizza to cook in the oven.
Below I posted a detailed table for temperature settings and corresponding baking time. Note, if your pizza or kitchen oven is an older one, baking time may take longer and small deforming of the old oven may lead to a small loss of heat while baking.
Times are always approximate – it depends on your oven and the size of the pizza and how many toppings you put on top of it. Surely, larger pizza will take a longer time to bake.
Make sure to check if pizza is ready before removing it from the oven (see next section about how to know if pizza is ready).
· Which oven setting is best for making pizza?
It is always the best idea to preheat the oven before you put the pizza into it.
Keep the baking stone in the oven and preheat it for about 220 to 245 degrees Celsius (C), which is 430 to 475 Fahrenheit (F).
The hotter the oven, the better it is for baking the pizza. Hence, the best setting is 245 degrees Celsius i.e. 475 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.
Preheat the oven for at least 30 minutes and then put the pizza into it and let it bake at the same temperature.
The setting can also vary from one oven to another. So, it is better to check the instructions provided with the oven (if it is possible).
The most common timeframe for home ovens to make pizza is about 5-20 minutes, depending on the heat setting.
NOTE: You can bake pizza on as high as you can. In fact, the higher the better – the sooner pizza will be ready. Overall, the general opinion is that you should cook on high to bake pizza in a short time as possible for the best result.
The average home oven heats up to 350 C or 600 F degrees. Remember those special pizza ovens, or stone or concrete ovens, that we mentioned earlier? They can go as high as 500-550 C or 900-1000 F degrees.
The most common temperature setting for baking homemade pizza is that 250 C or 482 F (250-275 C or 450-550 F range is fine). That is about 9-10 on the gas oven setting. Some people report fine results with 200 degrees C or 390-400 F (about 6 gas oven mark setting).
So, I reviewed forums and noted that many people have good results anywhere within the range of 450-550 F degrees.
This is a table for how long to cook homemade pizza at a certain temperature (all times are approximate, for the size of 1/2 inch thick, nor more than 16-18 inches in diameter):
Temperature & Time (in minutes):
190 C (375 F) – 15-25 minutes
220°C (430°F) – 10-20 minutes
250-260°C (482-500°F) – 10-15 minutes
280°C (550°F) – 7-12 minutes
300°C (570°F) – 7-10 minutes
350°C (600°F) – 5-10 minutes
600 and 620°F – 3-5 minutes
Large thick pizzas may need a lower temperature setting to cook thoroughly without burning crust – 200 C or 400 F. The larger the pizza – the longer time it needs to cook (45 minutes of baking is not unheard of).
Note, that these timeframes do not include time for pre-heating pizza stone or baking sheet, where pizza stone may take up to an hour to heat well, and baking sheet usually takes less time to heat up.
· How do you know the pizza is done?
Ovens come with a transparent door and you can see the pizza cooking in your oven. So, when you notice that the crust has turned well-brownish in color and crisp texture along with the cheese turning golden and sizzling, then you will know that the pizza is done.
The crust becomes crispy in the last 1 or 2 minutes of the entire 10 to 15 minutes of baking. Also, the cheese gets completely melted.
When you notice all these indicators, it will be an indication that the pizza is done, and you can take it out of the oven. At least, open and look.
Beware of the hot air coming out of the oven!
Eventually, you may learn to check pizza readiness by looks and by smell.
Best homemade pizza recipe
Hopefully, it is quite clear to you how you can make pizzas at home. The process of preparation may seem to be a lot in the beginning.
But once you start and do a few of them, the process gets simpler and easier for you. As you now have a complete idea about the basics of how to make the pizza right in your kitchen or backyard, it is time for you to get to know about a sample recipe.
If you are here, we can assume that you want to make pizza at home for the first time or have little experience in it. Here is a quite simple yet scrumptious pizza recipe that you can try today at home.
The recipe is for making chicken mushroom pizza. If you do not like chicken or mushrooms, you can replace that with any other ingredients.
For this, you will need some of the basic ingredients like:
- Cornmeal for dusting and sprinkling
- Pizza dough (homemade or store-bought)
- Pizza sauce or mushroom sauce
- Onions
- Mushroom (sliced)
- Salt and black pepper
- Basil leaves and parsley (chopped)
- Fully cooked chicken breast (shredded)
- Mozzarella cheese (grated)
Directions:
As directed above, you purchase or prepare the dough and transfer than to the pizza peel. Spread the pizza sauce all over the dough right away.
You can also use the mushroom sauce instead of the red pizza sauce. It is completely your choice.
Now, take the grated mozzarella and spread it all over the dough. Make sure to keep it as a thin layer.
Now, put the sliced mushroom and shredded chicken breast over the cheese. Do not put too many toppings and keep it light.
Sprinkle again some grated cheese over the chicken and mushroom.
Transfer the pizza to the preheated baking stone or baking sheet in the oven. Let it cook for about 10 to 15 minutes until you know the pizza is done.
Take the pizza out and enjoy the delicious cheese mushroom chicken pizza with your family. It surely will taste heavenly.
Best tips for making delicious homemade pizza
With all these step by step explanations, it is quite evident that you now know everything about how you can make the best homemade pizzas.
But with some beneficial tips below can level up your game. So, here are some of the important tips that you must always keep in your mind while making pizza at home:
- Don’t ever forget to preheat the oven as well as the baking stone before you put the pizza on the stone
- Do not roll the dough ever. Instead of that, it is recommended to stretch it with your fingertips and palms
- Add a very thin layer of pizza sauce and don’t overdo it as too much sauce can make the pizza soggy
- Make sure to cover the pizza tightly if you are making it on the pan and not in the oven
- Whoever says more the merrier for toppings is wrong. Keep it less but enough of the pizza
- Don’t overcook the pizza as that can make the crust too dry and hard
Conclusion
Pizza being an exceedingly popular dish all over the world, many people love to have it for sure. But the homemade pizzas are safer to have and cheaper too than buying them from outside.
Also, you can customize the pizzas according to your needs, as mentioned above.
As you now know about the best ways to make homemade pizza, you can try it at home with the right toppings that you will love to add. You can even choose the size of the pizzas according to your preferences.
Now, if your guests are coming over or you want to enjoy pizza with your family, forget the online delivery services. You can make the pizzas at home the way you want. Try it out today!