Pizza Making Tips

Sometimes I take for granted that when I make a pizza dough it’s going to rise in the time I expect it to (or at all). But recently I was forced to diagnose this issue when my dough suddenly decided not to rise. Pizza dough doesn’t rise when the yeast is dead or hasn’t been…

Traditionally, pizza dough has only four ingredients – flour, water, yeast and salt. However, lots of recipes call for adding sugar and oil as well. So, is using sugar and oil just a matter of personal preference and why should they be added in at all? Yes, sugar and oil should be added to pizza…

The core ingredients of pizza dough are water, flour, salt and yeast. In most cases, this is the perfect combination as the flour and water create gluten while the yeast feeds on the flour to create gas. This gas and gluten is what gives pizza crust the characteristically chewy and fluffy texture that we all…

Making pizza dough is a time consuming process. Finding a recipe takes time, mixing the ingredients takes time and letting it rise for hours takes time as well. It’s safe to say that pizza isn’t usually something that can be whipped up at the last minute, in fact it usually takes hours or more of…

If you’ve ever made homemade pizza, you’ve likely dealt with some unwanted mishaps. One of the most common of these mishaps is a soggy crust, especially in the middle. But what causes it? Your pizza crust is soggy because there’s too much moisture trapped in the crust. There are several reasons why moisture gets trapped…

You might think pizza is pizza, but it varies quite a bit from place to place. When I moved from NYC to a small town, I was surprised to see the pizza toppings placed under the cheese. This was very different from what I grew up seeing and it got me thinking about why we…

Aside from using a good recipe and kneading adequately, the most important step in making pizza dough is the rising process. Most recipes call for a room temperature rising, but not all rooms are the same temperature. So what’s the best temperature for pizza dough to rise? In most cases, the ideal temperature for pizza…

Almost every time I see someone making a pizza on TV or in a movie, someone somewhere is using a rolling pin. It makes sense, after all. You’re trying to make a round ball of dough flat, so why not use a rolling pin rather than stretch it out by hand? In most cases, rolling…

There are so many pizza recipes out there and so few of them discuss hydration levels. Maybe that’s the reason why I receive so many questions asking me how hydration relates to pizza dough and which is the best one to use for a home oven. When preparing pizza dough for use in a home…

When you’re following a recipe for pizza dough online, it often seems like it’s going to be an easy task. You envision yourself twirling the dough above your head like on TV or slapping it out like a Neapolitan pizza pro. But when get your hands on the dough, it’s hard, tears or won’t stretch…