Before giving you all the tips on how to bake pizza at home, let’s refresh your mind with the ingredients of the dough and its preparation.
When baking pizza in the home oven, it is very important to distinguish between a static or ventilated oven.
In fact, the type of cooking changes depending on the model.
Let’s look together at all the steps to have a perfect pizza.
Dough Ingredients :
O 500 g of Type 2 flour (or 0)
Or 1 teaspoon of sugar
O 335 ml water
Or 15 g of fine salt
O 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
O 15 g of fresh brewer’s yeast
1) PIZZA PREPARATION
For the pizza recipe, start by making the dough base: mix 15 grams of crumbled brewer’s yeast with 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and in a cup add 2 dl of warm water.
Next, add in the diluted yeast 250 grams of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar.
Knead until soft.
Add remaining 250 g flour, 15 g fine salt, 2 tbsp oil and a scant dl of lukewarm water; continue kneading dough.
When finished, let stand in the bowl for 15 minutes, covering with a dishcloth.
Transfer the resulting dough to a pastry board and shape the dough into a loaf. Once it is shaped, place it in a container and let it rise for 24 hours away from any source of heat.
After 24 hours have passed, lay the risen dough on a floured work surface. Divide it into 3/4 pieces and form into loaves.
Normally a pizza requires a dough of 230 g.
Using a small spatula, cut the dough and weigh it.
Having obtained the portions, start forming the balls.
Once you have prepared the balls arrange them on the work surface spaced apart from each other. This is because as they rise again they will increase in volume and risk touching each other.
Cover them with plastic wrap and let them rise for another 2 hours.
The film is essential because leaving them in the air could create a skin that could be very annoying when rolling out the pizza.
NB: If the container is airtight, better, otherwise seal it with several rounds of plastic wrap.
Put the container in the refrigerator and let it rest.
It is not wrong to let the dough rise in the refrigerator, usually pizza is allowed to rise in the refrigerator when the dough is very moist.
If you don’t have that much time, however, store the dough in a large, well-oiled glass container, cover it with a clean tea towel and place it in the unlit oven.
After the rising time has passed, you can roll out the balls and season to taste.
Remember that for the pizza to bake well, rolling out the dough is very important.
Roll it out with your hands, no rolling pin!
2) HOW TO BAKE PIZZA IN THE HOME OVEN
First, if your kitchen oven is static, the advice is to bake it on the bottom, for the first five minutes, then place it in the middle of the oven.
Instead, if your oven is ventilated, bake it in the center.
This is because, with the ventilated oven you have to take into account that the heat will be more violent and the baking time shorter. In this case, the pizza should be put in half.
Also important is the choice of baking pan
An additional tip, is to get yourself a slab of refractory stone to make sure that the pizza cooks in an even way both underneath and on top, and faster, giving you a pizza as fragrant and crispy as in a pizzeria.
You can use the refractory stone at the bottom of the oven.
This way you can keep the temperatures high even when you open the oven.
If you are trying your hand at pan pizza instead, remember to always bake it for the first six to seven minutes in the lower part of the oven and then (usually after you put the mozzarella cheese on) in the center of the oven.
The best temperatures for getting a good pizza
Usually the best temperatures for getting a good pizza range from 300 to 350 degrees for electric or gas oven, and around 380-450 degrees for wood-fired oven, as far as professional ovens are concerned.
With classic, gas-fired cooking ovens that do not exceed the maximum temperature of 250°, it is precisely recommended to use techniques such as those mentioned above.
3) COOKING TIME HOMEMADE PIZZA
In a professional wood-fired or gas oven, pizza takes about 2 to 5 minutes to cook.
While a classic electric oven takes about 15 to 25 minutes.
The pizza is ready when the edges begin to caramelize, showing a golden appearance.
A wood-fired oven that works every day takes an average of 45 minutes before it is ready at temperature, but if the wood-burning oven is turned on infrequently, it will take more than an hour before it is ready to bake pizza.
A wood-fired oven at the right temperature cooks a flatbread pizza in less than a minute, about 45 seconds; the pizza must be turned over constantly because it darkens quickly on the flame side.
More Tips for a perfect pizza:
1. Use the right flour. Long rising requires the use of a strong flour.
2. Never put yeast in contact with salt. Salt is a disinfectant and sterilizes the action of yeast.
3. Water temperature. The water you use to warm the yeast should never be too hot. The heat sterilizes the yeast. If in doubt, better to use it cold.
4. The right container. Spread the pizza on an appropriate container; do not use the oven tray because it has too thick a bottom that makes it difficult for the bottom to bake.
5. No rolling pin. Pizza is rolled out with your hands; the rolling pin crushes the rising bubbles that make the dough light and crumbly.
6. A good oven to bake a perfect pizza.
Did you get a craving for pizza? Discover the best ovens for making pizza at home.
