6 Top Homemade Pizza Making Tips
Are you a pizza lover? Does the idea of stretchy cheese, tomato bases, pepperoni slices, chopped garlic and an assortment of delicious toppings make your mouth water?
If the answer is ‘yes’ then this is the article for you!
Buying pizza is one thing, but being able to make your own pizza at a whim – that’s the dream. These five top pizza-making tips will help you to make your own homemade pizzas with all different kinds of interesting and exciting topping combinations.
Be sure to share your delicious pizza-creations on any of our social media platforms!
1. Choose the Correct Flour
The quality of the ingredients determines the quality of the final product. That been said – your pizza will only taste as good as the ingredients that you use to make it.
Since the main ingredient in your pizza base is flour, make sure to use the best type of flour possible. While all-purpose flour is suitable for pizza dough, it is not the best choice.
High protein bread flour produces a firmer and better-tasting pizza base. Not to mention that the higher amount of gluten and protein in bread flour results in a crispier and chewier base. Who doesn’t love a crispy base?
2. Chill your Dough
It is tried and tested that chilled dough is better dough. If you have a hankering for pizza prepare your dough, shape it and place it in a zip-lock bag in the fridge for approximately three days (if you can wait that long)!
By storing your dough in the fridge, you improve the flavour and browning ability of the dough.
Before you begin stretching and baking your dough, allow it to reach room temperature. This will help you to form the perfect pizza base.
3. Turn Up the Heat
No we are not talking about adding chillies to your pizza – but that is also a good idea!
If you’ve ever wondered why restaurant-bought pizza tastes better than your homemade pizza, it’s simply because of one thing: their ovens are a whole lot hotter than yours.
Hotter ovens allow more air and vapour to build up inside the dough. This fast-heating allows the dough to rapidly expand and filled with holes. Because of this, the exterior of the pizza will be crispier and the interior will be perfectly soft.
When baking pizzas at home, you should preheat your oven to as hot as it can go – at least 300 degrees Celsius.
4. Think Outside the Box
This is for all of those who believe that pineapple does not belong on pizza – anything that you feel would work as a pizza topping is fair game.
We all have different tastes, appeals and pizza topping preferences. While some people hate pineapple, others dislike seafood pizzas. But that doesn’t mean that you have to follow suit!
Want to replace your tomato base with salsa sauce? Sounds like a hot idea. What about some pesto? Delicious!
The selection of toppings is only limited by your imagination. Just be careful with tomatoes and similar food types: if there is too much liquid in your toppings, you can make your pizza base soggy.
5. Don’t Skimp on the Garlic
There is no such thing as too much garlic! Garlic is not only healthy but adds a ton of flavour to your cooking. Don’t worry about the bad breath – every bite will be worth it!
Before putting toppings on your base, be sure to brush it with an olive oil and garlic blend. This will really improve the flavour of your pizza.
And, if you’re a major garlic-lover, then you can’t go wrong by throwing some extra garlic on the top.
6. Hold Back – Just a Little
Yes, it is important to use your full creative freedom when adding toppings to your pizza. But it has to be done within reason.
Firstly, if you over-top your pizza then you will struggle to get your base perfectly crispy the way you like it.
Secondly, while flavours are important it is also important not to overdo the flavouring. You want to taste the delicious flavours of your new topping combination – you do not want to overwhelm the tongue.
Trial and error leads to a great-tasting pizza!
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A world without pizza would be a sad one indeed. But, thankfully, you should have the know-how to try out your homemade pizza making skills!
What pizza-making tips do you have? What topping combinations do you love? Please share your pizza-loving tips with us on the Kerrygold Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.
