7 Tips for making the best pizza
Preparing pizza at home may seem like a very daunting task to many. The overwhelming red sauce and different toppings, too, cause people to shy away from giving this Italian masterpiece a try making. However, the truth is that making the best pizza should not be complicated, it should be fun and fulfilling.
Whether you are a beginner or not, the list of 7 tips below is helpful in cooking restaurant-quality pizza. Let us get a closer look at each one of them:
1. Take time to proof the dough in the fridge
The crust is one of the contributing factors of great pizzas. Some prefer thick crusts while others like them thin. Slowly proofing your dough is the most crucial part of creating the best pizza. This step slows down the fermentation process and allows the dough to develop the right flavour and texture. It involves lowering the temperature without over-proofing. During this process, the yeast in the dough will break down more starches, improving the texture and flavour of the crust.
2. Stretching Cold Dough Is Not Necessary
Once out of the fridge, do not directly knead the dough. The cold temperature makes the gluten contract, which tightens the dough. As a result, your dough will be hard to roll out. Aside from that, cooking cold dough in your oven does not make the best pizza you imagine. In doing so, the crust will double its size. However, this move is beneficial to those who prefer thick crusts.
3. Invest in a High-Quality Pizza Stone
Unfortunately, the bad news is that the common ovens in your kitchen are not designed to cook pizza because they are either not hot enough or do not have a hot surface to cook pizza on. The best way around this is investing in a pizza stone, and it is the closest you could get when it comes to cooking pizza in a traditional way. A pizza stone has a surface hot enough to cook pizza on. It draws the moisture out of the crust, making it crispy and flavourful.
4. Give Enough Time for Your Pizza to be Cooked
Many people cooking pizza for the first time become worried that their pizza has been inside the oven for too long. Because of this misconception, they take it out too early. If you take a good bite into it, you will find out that the pizza crust is still doughy in the middle. This is the last thing every pizza lover would want to happen. To avoid this from happening, leave your pizza a bit longer inside the oven before taking it out. It is fine as long as the toppings and crust are not burned. Lower the temperature to ensure that your pizza does not get too little or too much heat. Extra cooking will leave your crust extra crispy and more delectable.
5. Proper Portions of Ingredients Yield the Best Results
Many pizza recipes claim to be the best, which makes selecting the right one a lot harder than expected. But there is no right or wrong in making your pizza dough. After all, it is only made up of four ingredients: flour, water, yeast, and salt. Some cookbooks would instruct adding some sugar and oil.
Knowing the right portions of the basic ingredients for your pizza dough makes the difference. For every 100% of flour, there should be 65% of water, 2% salt, and 1% yeast. If you master this concept, you will be able to compare recipes from many sources. What is remarkable is that you can come up with your own way of cooking pizza.
6. Over Kneading Will Make Bread-Like Dough
Light and airy crusts are a good sign, and these should be your goal if you are attempting to make the best pizza. If you over-knead the pizza dough, you will come up with a bread-like crust which should be avoided. Pizza and bread might be delicious together, but they are not the same thing. To avoid an over-kneaded dough, work on your dough for at least two and a maximum of six minutes.
7. Be patient
At the end of the day, the best pizza does not happen overnight. It is actually a product of hard work, dedication, and passion for what you do. Additionally, your willingness to create an excellent product will pay off when you find the right footings to build the foundation of the best pizza.