Make the BEST Pizza Ever!

With a few simple tricks you too can improve your pizza game…

Make sure that you measure your flour correctly. 

The absolute best way to do this is to weigh it with a scale.  Why you ask?  Because flour compacts, so every time you measure with a measuring cup, depending on how much it’s packed, you will get a different amount of flour.  Using a measuring cup, your recipe has the potential to come out differently every time. If you don’t have a scale, fluff the flour with a spoon before adding it to your measuring cup to keep it from being compacted.

Use the right kind of flour.

It’s your main ingredient, so it’s going to make a difference in the final product.  If you like a chewier crust, you definitely want to go with bread flour.  It has more protein than all-purpose flour.  More protein means more gas bubbles in the dough, and more gas bubbles means a bread that is tender and chewy versus solid and biscuit like.

Crank up the heat.

The higher the better!  Your local pizzeria cooks their pizza in an oven that’s 700 to 1000 degrees F.  So crank yours up to 550F if you can!  The high heat helps the dough to expand quickly creating airy pockets in the dough.

Use a pizza stone.

This is a small investment for a large return.  A good stone, once preheated will hold  a lot of heat energy that it will quickly release into the pizza making for a more restaurant style crispy crust.  Allow the stone to preheat for at least 30 minutes.

Use your hands to stretch out the dough.

As much as you want to get out the rolling pin and make quick work of this pizza, the mere act of rolling that dough actually flattens a lot of those bubbles that you have tried so hard to develop to create that airy, chewy crust.   Use your hands to pull and stretch the dough.  If it keeps springing back and won’t hold its shape, give it a 15 minute rest to allow the gluten to relax and try again.

Put it on parchment paper.

It makes it really easy to move around by being able to slide it from a flat baking sheet or peel directly onto the pizza stone, parchment paper and all.  It also makes for easy clean up of both your counter and your pizza stone.  It is perfectly ok if it gets a little charred in the oven.  Just pull it gently when removing the pizza from the oven.

Let it REST! Seriously rest if you’ve got the time to spare.

Why not make the dough the day before for easy prep the night you plan on eating the pizza?  You can actually give it up to 5 days of rest (with every day improving the dough that much more), but I’ve found that even a 24 hour refrigerated rest results in a more flavorful and better textured dough.   It’s got to do with slowing down the yeast’s activity and carbon dioxide production…plus a bunch of other cool science.  Here is a full explanation if you are still curious!

Now let’s get started with some Easy Pizza Dough!!