How to cook pizza at home

Cooking pizza in the electric home oven: it’s important to distinguish between static and ventilated ovens.

In fact, the type of cooking changes depending on the model.
Here are the steps to bake the perfect pizza.

Dough ingredients :
O 500 g of semi-whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
O 1 teaspoon of sugar
O 335 ml of water 
O 15 g of fine salt
O 2 two spoonfulls of extra virgin olive oil
O 15 g of fresh brewer’s yeast

1) PIZZA PREPARATION

Let’s start working on the basis of the dough: 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 250 grams of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to the diluted yeast.

Knead until soft.
Add the remaining 250 g of flour, 15 g of fine salt, 2 tablespoons of oil and about a dl of warm water; continue kneading the dough.

When finished, let rest in the bowl for 15 minutes covering with a dish towel.

Transfer the dough on a pastry board and give the dough the shape of a loaf of bread. Once you’ve gotten the dough into shape, put it in a container and let it rise for 24 hours away from any heat source.

After 24 hours, lay the risen dough on a floured work surface. Divide it into 3/4 pieces and form into loaves.
Normally a pizza requires 230g of dough.
With a small spatula, you can cut the dough and weigh it.

Start shaping the portions into small balls.

Once the balls are ready place them on the work surface: spaced it out one from the other. The reason is because they will increase in volume and risk touching each other.

Cover them with plastic wrap and let them rise for another 2 hours.
The foil is essential because leaving them in contact with the air could create a film that could be very annoying.

Please note: the best container is airtight! otherwise you can seal it with several rounds of plastic wrap.
Put the container in the refrigerator and let it sit.

It’s not wrong to let the dough rise in the fridge. Let’s the pizza rise in the fridge when the dough is very moist.

Don’t have much time? You can store the dough in a large well-oiled glass container and cover it with a clean tea towel. Place it in the oven (the oven must be switched off). Once the rising time has passed, you can roll out the dough balls and season as you wish.

It is very important to roll the dough out.

Roll it out with your hands. No rolling pin!

2) HOW TO COOK PIZZA

Do you have a static oven? You cook it on the bottom, for the first five minutes. Then place it in the middle of the oven.

Is your oven ventilated? Cook pizza in the center.

With a ventilated oven you have to consider that the heat will be stronger and the cooking time shorter. In this case the pizza should be placed in the middle.

The choice of baking pan is also important.

An additional tip is to get yourself a slab of firestone. The pizza is cooked in a homogeneous way, faster and giving you a fragrant and crispy taste.

You can place the firestone on the bottom of the oven.

With the firestone you can keep the temperatures high even when you open the oven.

Do you cook pizza in a pan? Remember: cook pizza the first six minutes in the lower part of the oven and then (after putting mozzarella) in the center of the oven.

The best temperatures to cook a perfect pizza.

The best temperatures usually range from 300 to 350 degrees for an electric or gas oven, and around 380-450°C for a wood oven (for the professional ovens).

With the electric ovens the maximum temperature is 250°. To raise the temperature you can use the refractory stone.

3) HOMEMADE PIZZA COOKING TIME

In a professional wood or gas oven pizza cooks in 2/3 minutes.

With an 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 reaches the right temperature, but if the wood oven is rarely turned on, it will take over an hour before it is ready to bake the pizza.

A wood fired oven at the right temperature will cook a flatbread pizza in less than a minute, about 45 seconds, the pizza must be turned over and over because it will darken quickly on the flame side.

More tips for the perfect pizza:

1. Use the right kind of flour. A long leavening requires the use of a strong flour.

2. Do not expose yeast to salt. Salt is a disinfectant and sterilizes the yeast’s effect.

3. Water temperature. The water you use to dissolve the yeast should never be too hot. Heat sterilizes the yeast. If in doubt, best to use cold water.

4. The right container. Spread the pizza out in an appropriate container, don’t use the oven tray because its bottom is too thick for a good baking.

5. Say no to the rolling pin. The pizza is rolled out with the hands, the rolling pin crushes the bubbles that make the dough light and crumbly.

6. A good oven to cook the perfect pizza.

Are you hungry for pizza now? Discover the best ovens for making pizza at home.