our Artisanal bread series explores the world of professional bread baking and brings you more resources and guidance on how to improve your skills in real handmade bread. You'll find the tools, inspiration, and confidence to experiment with and master what is perhaps the simplest and most complex of baking genres: artisan bread.
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Homemade pizza often disappoints compared to restaurant pizza, although it doesn't have to be. It is possible to turn out restaurant-caliber pies from a simple home oven, but you have to adapt your approach to the environment. Some of the common pitfalls on the road to great pizza are the same whether you bake in a wood-fired oven or a home oven, while others are oven-specific. But none is impossible to overcome!
First we need to define what we mean by “great” pizza. For starters, we'll limit this discussion to round, thin-crust styles baked directly on a surface like baking stone. (Pizzas with thicker pans such as Sicilian OR Detroit style are generally more forgiving than free-form pizzas for a number of reasons, starting with the fact that they typically don't bake at temperatures beyond what most home ovens can achieve.)
The most important hallmarks of a great thin-crust pizza are a crisp, soft crust, well-toasted (both on the bottom and on the raised rim) and a soft, moist crumb inside. (Taste is important too, of course, but the shortcomings of a less-than-tasty crust can be made up for with great toppings, while those with a less-than-perfect texture are insurmountable.) There are two main elements of the crust to zoom in on here: softness and contrast.
Both the crust and the crumb should be soft and not hard; this is true if we are talking about one chewy, New York-style slice or a softer one “artisanal” pie.. (Chew and firmness are related but not identical concepts: Chewiness in pizza is generally related to the amount of gluten a pizza dough contains, while firmness has more to do with how that gluten has been handled along the way.)
There should also be contrast between inside and outside: the crust should be crisp and well-done, while the inner crumb should be moist and even. touch undercooked inside.
Most of the secrets to making great pizza (at home or otherwise) revolve around achieving one or both of these goals. Getting a soft crust involves knowing how to handle the dough after it's been mixed, which anyone with the right skills can pull off.
And achieving the contrast of the pizza crust usually means baking it as quickly as possible, since the faster the pizza crust browns, the less chance of overcooking the inside crumb. This is where professional hot pizza ovens have a distinct advantage over simple home ranges, which rarely reach 550˚F. But there are ways to overcome the limitations of a home oven.
Start with a strong formula
Behind every great pizza is a great dough recipe. Pizza doughs contain only a few ingredients: flour, water, salt and (usually) oil, along with yeast and/or a yeast culture.
Your choice of flour has a big effect on the texture of the pizza crust, but you can achieve a soft pie using a wide variety of different flours.
Higher gluten flour are best for things like New York-style pizzas, which need a basic chew, while flour with less protein give the pizza crust a softer texture. The oil adds even more softness, as it lubricates the gluten networks, making them more flexible.
The amount of water in the dough has a big impact on the structure of the resulting crust. In general, more water gives a smoother result, as the water softens the gluten.
But there is a limit to the amount of water a dough can handle, especially when baking in a home oven. This is because in order for the outside of the crust to brown and become crisp, the water in it must first be removed. In a super hot oven this isn't a problem, but at the maximum temperatures a home oven can reach, a moist dough usually translates to a long baking time and, as a result, an overcooked interior crumb. For best results, the hydration of the dough must be adapted to the temperature at which the pizza will be baked.
Suppress fermentation
The way a dough is fermented has a strong influence on how the pizza crust turns out.
Fermentation does two main things: it creates gases in the dough, opening the crumb to make it light and airy, and it develops flavor. In my experience, many of the best pizza doughs are fermented – partially or entirely – at cold temperatures (ie, in the fridge). Doing so extends the fermentation, which allows more complex flavors to develop in the dough. It also reduces the production of carbon dioxide. Less carbon dioxide means smaller alveoli (holes in the crumb structure), which is especially useful for creating a thin-crust pizza with an even, flat edge-to-edge profile, compared to a swollen and uneven.
Finally—and perhaps most importantly for those in search of the perfect pizza—a long, cold fermentation period increases the stretchiness of the dough, making it easier to stretch (and less likely to fight and harden).
Handle the dough with care
Once this stretch is achieved, you should make the most of it. Even the most relaxed pizza dough will tighten up if used by hand, so it's important to handle the dough carefully after it's been thoroughly mixed, or risk hardening after baking. For this reason, I prefer to form my dough into individual balls forward fermentation begins, rather than breaking down AFTER bulk fermentation (initial growth). In this way they relax as they testify, and stay that way until ripening.
Similarly, I like to proof my dough balls in individual containers, which makes it easy to move them around without having to put my hands on the dough ahead of time. (Round stackable, lightweight plastic containers are perfect for this.) Once it's time to bake, the container can be gently rolled to release the ball of dough onto a floured counter to roll out. At that point it's up to you to gently push the dough to its final dimensions, which isn't hard to do with a little practice.
Bake with purpose
Finally, we come to the moment of truth: baking. As I've said, hotter is generally better when it comes to pizza, in order to encourage the ideal contrast between a moist interior and a crisp exterior. Since home ovens generally don't go higher than 550˚F, once we've turned the oven knobs all the way down, we have to find other strategies to speed up the baking.
The first way to maximize heat production is to bake the pizza on a surface with a lot of thermal mass, such as baking stone. The stone absorbs the heat of the oven and then pumps it to the bottom of the pie, where it's needed more to bake the crust quickly.
Better yet is one baking steel: a metal plate that functions like a stone, but has the added benefit of being more conductive, so that heat moves faster into the pie. (Upgrading from a stone to a steel can cut the cooldown time by a third or more!)
Whether you use a stone or a steel, you want to preheat the baking surface for at least an hour if using a stone, and at least 30 minutes for a steel.
Of course, pizza has a top and a bottom, and it's important to make sure the top is evenly baked, or the pie will likely overcook while you wait for the cheese and toppings to brown. To maximize the heat reaching the top of the pizza, place the stone or griddle as high up in the oven as possible so it's exposed to reflected heat bouncing off the oven roof. (You still want to leave room to get the pizza in and out of the oven easily, so whether you put it on the first or second rack depends on the dimensions of your particular oven.)
Finally, there are some “experimental” approaches to consider trying. You can rotate your broiler, either, to help saturate the grilling surface with heat forward putting the pizza in the oven, or to apply more heat to the top of the pie as it bakes. Or you can do both. If you use the broiler after the pizza is loaded, keep a close eye on the pie to avoid burning it.
Using the convection setting on your oven can also speed up the baking time of your pizza, but how evenly it does this depends on your oven. (I tend to use it on mine, but I also have to rotate the pie so it browns evenly.)
Finally, don't let all my advice scare you into thinking that making great pizza at home is hard and not worth trying. Above all, pizza should be fun, both to make and to eat. There can be a lot to consider when looking to up your at-home pizza game, but none of the individual elements are all that difficult to implement. The more of these ideas and approaches you start applying to your pies, the better your pizza will be.
For more tips on artisan bread, find our next section Artisanal Bread Series here.
