Making Your Own Perfect Pizzas At Home
Making pizzeria style pizza is not really as difficult as you might first think provided you have the right tools and ingredients along with some helpful hints to make the process even simpler. Forget having to order take out and make your own personal pizza exactly the way you want it the next time you and your family crave this delicious dish.
Although many people enjoy pizza in general, the way it is made including the toppings used can have a great effect on its taste, which makes it possible to create countless types of pizzas. The absolute best pizzerias take great pains to make hearty, filling pizzas topped with the freshest of ingredients and you too can duplicate this process right at home even without expensive equipment.
The best of pizzas will begin with the best dough for creating an excellent crust. Pizza crusts play an incredibly important role in the final product and using different types of flour as well as various herbs and seasonings will also affect the taste of the pizza. Nevertheless, whatever flour or seasonings you prefer, if you are looking for a crispy crust be sure to use a preheated pizza stone instead of an ordinary baking sheet.
Although the stores are full of frozen and premade dough there is nothing quite like the taste of homemade pizza dough made from scratch. Choose your favorite pizza dough recipe and although most are relatively the same, variations in the type of flour used as well as the different seasonings will affect the final product. Naturally, yeast is necessary when it comes to making pizza dough, as it will need to rise before you are able to roll it out.
Coating the dough with oils and seasonings is an important step in creating delicious pizzeria style pizzas. Spreading a thin layer of seasoned oil, usually extra virgin olive oil, on top of pizza dough before adding sauce or the toppings and baking will help to create nice golden crust. While tomatoes are usually the ingredient of choice for making pizza sauce you can omit the fruit totally, use only oils, or create your own sauce from other ingredients if you do not care for tomatoes.
If at all possible, use toppings that are in season in your area to ensure freshness, or even better, grow your own ingredients to use on your homemade pizzeria style pizzas. Although you may want to load your pizza with all of your favorite toppings, less is more in this case as using too many will more than likely result in a wet, soggy crust.
For the cheese, mozzarella is by far the most popular choice but many other types can be used as well. Try blends of parmesan or parmigiano, ricotta, romano, or scamorza. Cheeses are usually grated and added to the pizza after the sauce and then sprinkled again over the toppings before baking.
The oven’s temperature is another primary factor in making the best tasting pizzas. You will find that most recipes call for baking pizzas in ovens heated to an average of 450 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and the baking time will depend on the size of the pizza as well as the type and amount of toppings. Always cut pizzas with a sharp pizza cutter using a back and forth sawing motion to keep the toppings and cheeses in place.
Perhaps the best thing about recreating your own pizzeria style pizzas at home is that you have complete control over the ingredients used including not just the toppings but the type of dough and sauce you use as well.
If you want a simple recipe, try looking at some vegetable pizza with crescent rolls recipes. These are simple enough for children to make. Simply use the crescent rolls as the crust. Mix up the easy sauce and spread it on top. Add some chopped vegetables and shredded cheese.
