10 Secrets for making Pizzeria Quality Pizza at Home

I know, I know... you can't make pizzeria quality pizzas in your humble home oven, right?

Wrong, you can.

Look, no soggy bottom crust here. Oh yeah baby!

You want to make some, don't you? Uh huh, you know you do.
Okay, wipe the drool off your keyboard and pay attention. I'm going to share some of my pizza making secrets with you.

You can thank me later :).

Secret #1
Start by placing a baking stone on the 2nd lowest rack position in your oven and preheat it at 475F for an entire hour. I know that sounds like a long time, but trust me, you won't be disappointed.

A note on baking stones, aka pizza stones - this particular one is sold by Pampered Chef, but I have others that were purchased in department stores. They start off very light in color and darken with use. The darker they get, the more "seasoned" they become; developing a non-stick patina - like a cast iron pan. These stones are great for baking bread and cookies too. I highly recommend one for every kitchen.

Secret #2
I take my blob of risen pizza dough (recipe below) and press it into a 12-inch circle on a piece of parchment paper. This eliminates the need for cornmeal or flour on the bottom of your crust (which I find very icky).

Secret #3
Use a pizza peel to easily transfer the wet, sticky dough to the searing hot baking stone. To easily remove the crust from the oven, just grab a corner of the parchment and pull off the oven shelf, back onto your peel.

Secret #4
I "dock" my dough to keep from developing big air bubbles during the baking process. I use a fork to do this - poking holes all over the portion of the dough that will hold the toppings.

Secret #5
I prebake the naked crust for 7-10 minutes. Note how the undocked edges rose during baking, while the docked center did not.

Secret #6
I brush the edges of the crust with olive oil (I used garlic oil here).

Add your favorite jarred or homemade San Marzano Tomato Sauce and toppings. You'll add whichever toppings you like, but I'm a purist - plain ole cheese pizza for me. I do, however, have to doctor it a little bit to mimic the nyc pizzeria pies of my childhood (which just so happens to be my next secret).

Secret #7
I sprinkle a good healthy dose of dried oregano on top of that cheese. Again, trust me, this takes the pizza to an entirely new level. Now back into the 475F oven for another 7-10 minutes.

Secret #8
Oops, I forgot to get a picture of this step, but when you take your finished pizza out of the oven, brush the edges with a little more olive oil and a light sprinkling of garlic salt. In this particular case, I used garlic flavored olive oil and a sprinkling of Jane's Crazy Mixed Up Salt (great stuff). Don't worry, the crust will absorb the oil so your fingers won't get too greasy, and it helps to keep the edges from being too dry.

Hubby and the kids are pepperoni pizza fans. If hubby had his way, there would be 2 or 3 times more pepperoni on this pizza.
;)


Secret #9
A while back I shared a tip about cutting brownies - you remember, use a plastic knife because the brownies won't stick to it? Well, apparently the Oxo people realized this works for pizza cutters too. Nothing worse than using a cutter that pulls all the stringy melted cheese off your pizza, so I purchased this cutter the second I saw it at the store. It works perfectly and leaves all that wonderful cheese in place.


Secret #10
(last one)
If you don't have a pizza peel to transfer your pizza to and from the oven, you can use a flat cookie sheet or an upside down sheet pan like the one I used above.  A splatter screen works well too.

I hope you'll give try some of my secrets the next time you make homemade pizza. Enjoy!

ButterYum's Pizza Dough
makes one 12-inch pie

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoons dry active yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoons tepid water, if using a bread machine to make the dough (use 110-115F water if using a stand mixer)

To make dough in a bread machine:
Add the ingredients to your bread machine following your manufacture's instructions. Mine says to add the water first, then olive oil, half of the flour, sugar, salt, remaining flour, and finally the yeast. Set the machine for the Pizza Dough cycle (about an hour in my machine).

To make dough in a stand mixer:
Heat water to between 110-115F; add sugar, and yeast. Proof yeast mixture for 5 minutes. Put dry ingredient into mixer fitted with a dough hook; add yeast mixture and olive oil. Mix on low until ingredients are moistened. Increase to speed 2 and knead for 5 -10 minutes.

To make dough in a food processor:
Add dry ingredients, yeast mixture, and olive oil to the work bowl fitted with either the dough blade or metal chopping blade. Mix until a ball forms, turn out onto a floured work surface and knead for 5 -10 minutes.

To make dough by hand:
Combine ingredients in a bowl until a ball forms, turn out onto a floured work surface and knead for 10-15 minutes.

To let dough rise: (this is a good time to preheat your oven to 475F) Place dough in a large oiled bowl and allow it to double in size; 30-60 minutes. Place risen dough onto parchment paper and press it into a 12-inch circle. Dock dough with fork. Prebake 7-10 minutes. Brush edges with oil; add toppings. Return to oven to bake an additional 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and brush edges with oil again; sprinkle with garlic salt (lightly).

Notes:
You can substitute garlic oil/salt for olive oil/garlic salt.

My 2-pound bread machine can make a quadruple batch of dough. Alternately, my stand mixer can make consecutive double batches.

The unbaked dough will stick nicely to the parchment, but the prebaked dough might slide off, in which case you don't really need it anymore, so don't worry about it.

Enjoy!