Tips for the Home Pizza Maker

The internet, specialty shops, and farmers markets have introduced high-quality imported cheeses, local vegetables, and artisan for use at home in your pizza making. With practice you can create delicious pizzeria pizzas like Greek-Style with Grilled Chicken, Kalamata Olives and Fontina Cheese; Sicilian-Style Seared Tuna with Fresh Basil; Italian Sausage with Spinach; Pizza Alla Napoletana; or Vegetarian Supreme.

Pizzerias employ ovens specifically made for pizza baking and they utilize specialized tools and equipment including dough kneading machines, pizza stones, proof boxes and heavy duty commercial bakeware. They enjoy ovens that achieve temperatures 2 to 3 times that of home ovens, an environment that is perfect for dough ingredients as the extreme heat forces them to immediately begin to work together to create an ideal crust texture. Giant mixing machines produce soft pizza dough that bakes consistently and evenly. Heavy duty commercial bakeware, pizza stones, and hot ovens provide consistent high heat and moisture elimination that is essential through the baking process, as the dough turns into a crust.

High gluten flour is the professional flour of choice. Found in bags or containers of 25 pounds or more, the special flour simply cannot be beat for producing high quality pizza dough. Regular simply cannot produce the same the taste, texture and appearance of high gluten flour. Gluten is the protein in the flour that provides toughness and elasticity, required for stretching dough and creating small air pockets in the crust as it bakes.

For the home pizza maker who wants to achieve pizzeria quality pizza, you have to have the proper instruction, recipes and tools. I recommend purchasing a pizza stone. Place the stone on the very bottom of an extremely oven, and preheated for 15-20 minutes. This assures the stone possesses the heat required to begin cooking the dough immediately, helping to produce the ideal crust. Locate and purchase high gluten flour. You cannot go wrong. The flour is perfect for a variety of dough recipes, making it possible for you to create thick or thin crust classic or try a recipe with a contemporary taste like Grilled Brie, Virginia Ham and Spinach; Mozzarella and Basil; Chicago Deep-Dish with Mushrooms, Peppers, and Onions; Bacon and Grilled Chicken Alfredo; or Curried Crab with Fresh Tomato and Basil Pesto.