For lots of home chefs, great homemade pizza is the non plus ultra. It’s a lot more challenging than it seems to actually get it). (There are people around who’ve gone to all kinds of lengths to get the proper taste, from purchasing flour specially from Italy to modifying their electric ovens to cook at the temperatures you expect out of a traditional wood-fired oven. To have delicious pizza at home, however, it isn’t necessary to do all that much. Just make sure that you are using a high quality cooking method, and pay attention to a few things. When all is said and done, at 300 degrees, you’ll never get a great crust.
Try to stick with a high-gluten flour, and let it rise sufficiently, to avoid soft, ‘bready’ crusts. Because of how they’re made, quick crusts, mixes that include baking powder but no yeast, and pizza crust in a can are all liable to produce a ho-hum result. If you do not use a fairly strong flour, and give the yeast time to work, you are going to end up getting some fairly poor-quality pizza. If you want a great pie, don’t take shortcuts.
Generally, too, avoid low-quality ingredients. Sure, you might get a bargain on cheap cheeses and sauces, but the flavor will be noticable. Many cheap cheeses won’t melt quite correctly, and poor quality sauces may include too many fillers, or taste too sweet. You probably already know how to tell a great pizza. It could be the quality of your ingredients that is the cause, if things don’t seem quite right. No pizza can be better than what you put into it, after all.
Think about what you’re attempting to make, and use the right recipe. From thin New York style pizza to crispy, cracker-like Neapolitan, heavy Chicago deep-dish, and many more, there are all sorts of pizzas out there. If you’re using a recipe intended to make one style, but you’re trying to produce another, you are not going to end up with anything great. Consider what you love in a pizza, before you start cooking. Time and time again, it’ll help you end up with tasty pies.
Bake the pizza correctly, last, but not least. 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 usual flavor and texture. Does that mean you have to rig your oven to bake at 900 degrees? No! Use the highest setting on your oven (ideally a wood or gas oven), or buy a countertop pizza oven that’ll produce the ideal temperature and texture each and every time. These devices are consistent in making great tasting pizza, and often make delicious pizza in much less time even if they take up a bit of space.
You do not have to go overboard, but it may take some work to make great pizza at home. Just get the right ingredients, a good recipe, and the proper baking method. You will never be stuck with poor-quality homemade pizza again!