The right way to Avoid Cooking Low-quality Pizzas at Home

Excellent homemade pizza is the non plus ultra for lots of home cooks. It’s a lot more difficult than it sounds to actually get it). (There are people out there who have gone to all kinds of lengths to get the correct taste, from buying flour specially from Italy to modifying their electric ovens to cook at the temperatures you expect to have out of a traditional wood-fired oven. The truth is, however, that you don’t need to do all that much to have tasty pizza at home. Just bear a few things in mind, and make sure that you are using a high-quality cooking method. You will never get a great crust at 300 degrees, all things considered.

Try to stick with a high-gluten flour, and allow it to rise properly, to avoid soft, bready crusts. Because of how they’re made, quick crusts, mixes that include yeast but no baking powder, and pizza crust in a can are all liable to produce a poor result. If you do not use a pretty strong flour, and give the yeast time to work, you are going to end up with some pretty low-quality pizza. Don’t take shortcuts if you want a great pie.

Generally, too, avoid low quality ingredients. Sure, you might get a bargain on cheap cheeses and sauces, but the taste will be noticable. Low quality sauces may include too many fillers, or taste too sweet, and many low-cost cheeses won’t melt quite correctly. You probably already know how to identify a great pizza. It could be the quality of your ingredients that’s the issue, if things do not seem quite right. After all, no pizza can be better than what you put into it.

Use the correct recipe, and think about what you are trying to make. From thin New York style pizza to crispy, cracker-like Neapolitan, heavy Chicago deep-dish, and many more, there are all kinds of pizzas out there. You are not going to end up with anything great, if you are using a recipe intended to make one style, but you are trying to produce another. Think about what you love in a pizza before you start cooking. It’ll help you end up with tasty pies, time and time again.

Last, but not least – bake the pizza correctly. Don’t expect a pre-baked freezer pizza to be a great one, and never use a low-temperature oven to produce anything else. High baking temperatures give pizza its typical flavor and texture. Does that mean you have to rig your oven to bake at 900 degrees? Not at all! Use the highest setting on your oven (ideally a wood or gas oven), or buy a Presto Pizza Cooker that will produce the perfect temperature and texture each and every time. These devices may take up a bit of space, but they are consistent in making delicious pizza, and often produce excellent pizza in much less time.

You do not have to go overboard, but it may take some effort to make good pizza at home. Just use the correct ingredients, a good recipe, and the correct baking method. You will never be stuck with low-quality homemade pizza again!