The Art of Pie-fection: A Saucy Guide to Pizza Do's and Don'ts
Ah, pizza—the culinary equivalent of a warm hug, a high-five, and a victorious fist pump all rolled into one. However, making pizza comes with its own set of challenges, and I've made my fair share of mistakes along the way. To help you avoid the same pitfalls, I've compiled this list of do's and don'ts for your pizza-making journey.
Do's
Avoid pizza Armageddon
Hosting a pizza party can feel like herding cats, especially with a smorgasbord of toppings and pizza varieties on the menu. To dodge a kitchen catastrophe, prep your toppings ahead of time, ideally the day before. This will save you time and allow you to mingle with guests, rather than becoming a prisoner in your own kitchen.
Almost everything can be prepared the day before, grate the cheese, make the tomato sauce, slice sausages, and chop the onions. Use plastic containers, masking tape, and a Sharpie as your organizational sidekicks.
Steel Your Resolve (and Your Pizza)
The pizza steel is a far superior choice to the pizza stone. The pizza stone just doesn't cut it when making a pizza in a home oven. The pizza steel offers superb heat retention, ensuring a crispy, golden-brown crust that'll have guests swooning.
You can read more tips on how to perfect baking a pizza in your home oven in my guide here.
Oven lovin' requires preheatin'
Baking pizza is a high-stakes game of heat. Using a home oven? Preheat it for at least an hour, not less. Trust me, I've done that mistake.
Let's say it together now: one hour, 60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds.
Pre-bake to avoid heartache
For optimal results in a home oven, pre-bake your pizza. First, stretch out the dough and add the tomato sauce before placing it in the oven for half the total baking time. Then, remove the pizza, add the toppings, and return it to the oven for the remaining time. This method ensures your cheese doesn't overcook and resemble an oily crime scene.
You can read more tips on how to perfect baking a pizza in your home oven in my guide here.
Embrace the gram
Baking demands precision, unlike casual cooking where you can freestyle like a culinary jazz musician. Measuring by volume (cups or deciliters) is a recipe for inconsistency.
Conduct a little experiment: weigh a cup or deciliter of flour multiple times and you'll see really fluctuating results. To achieve the oh so important consistency in your bakes, invest in a kitchen scale—preferably one with 0.1g precision. Accuracy is the name of the game.
Dont's
Overload the center
Picture this: you've crafted the perfect pizza, only to overburden the center with an avalanche of toppings. When you slice that masterpiece, the floppy tip of the slice betrays you, causing a messy and frustrating eating experience. Remember, moderation is key—even for pizza toppings!
Turn your pizza into a saucy swamp
Mise en place is le shit, but assembling a lineup of sauce-loaded pizzas before baking is a recipe for disaster. The longer your saucy pizza waits on the kitchen counter, the soggier the crust becomes which makes the dreaded peel-sticking phenomenon more likely. Keep it fresh and make your pizzas to order.
Fear the heat
A pizza with a pale, undercooked crust is a gastronomic tragedy. Fear not the golden-brown hues of a well-baked crust! Dough is tougher than you think, so give it some extra time to achieve that satisfying, crispy crunch.
Proof time panic
Don't stress about proof times when making pizza. Unlike its fickle cousin, bread dough, pizza dough is far more forgiving. An extra hour of proofing won't spell disaster for pizza party.