How to cook pizza

Homemade Pizza & Pizza Dough

Make perfect pizza at home with this classic homemade pizza recipe, including a pizza dough recipe, topping suggestions, and step-by-step instructions with photos.

Simply Recipes / Annika Panikker

What to do when your 8-year old nephew comes to visit? Make pizza, of course!

Well, not of course, actually. I didn’t think of it until we exhausted Sorry, Monopoly, and gin rummy. But it did turn out to be a brilliant idea as my father had just received a baking stone for Christmas, and my nephew loves pizza.

I told him if he helped me make it I would talk about him on my website and he would be famous. That seemed to get his attention. He thought the dough was «slimy and gross» but he loved picking his own toppings, and the finished product was «awesome».

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Simply Recipes / Annika Panikker

My Favorite Pizza Dough Recipe

The following method I patched together from recipes in both Joy of Cooking and Cook’s Illustrated’s The Best Recipe. The pizza dough recipe makes enough dough for two 10 to 12 inch pizzas.

Next time I’ll be a bit more patient with stretching out the dough so I can get it even thinner.

The Best Flour for Homemade Pizza Dough

Bread flour is the best flour for homemade pizza dough. You can use all-purpose flour instead of the bread flour called for in the recipe, but bread flour is higher in gluten than all-purpose flour and will make a crispier crust for your pizza.

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Simply Recipes / Annika Panikker

How To Make Sure Your Yeast Is Active

Pizza dough is a yeasted dough that requires active dry yeast. Make sure the check the expiration date on the yeast package! Yeast that is too old may be dead and won’t work.

Also, if the yeast does not begin to foam or bloom within 10 minutes of being added to the water in Step 1 of Making the Pizza Dough, it is probably dead. You’ll need to start over with new, active yeast.

How To Measure Flour for This Pizza Dough Recipe

Cup measurements can vary depending on how you are scooping the flour (we fluff the flour, lightly scoop it, and level with a knife). So I recommend using a kitchen scale to measure out the flour amounts by weight. This is the only way you’ll get a consistently accurate measurement.

Homemade Pizza

Is It Better To Let the Dough Rise Overnight?

You don’t have to let your pizza dough rise overnight – or up to 48 hours – in the refrigerator, but if you do, it will develop more flavor and air bubbles that will puff up when the pizza is cooked. (Some people fight over the slices with air bubbles.) Make sure to take the dough out of the refrigerator an hour before using it to bring it to room temperature.

Pizzas With Raw Ingredients

There are some toppings that should be cooked first before topping a pizza because they won’t cook fully before the pizza is done cooking. Raw meat should be fully cooked before adding it as a topping. Any vegetables that you don’t want to be raw on the cooked pizza such as onions, peppers, broccoli, or mushrooms should be sautéed first.

Make-Ahead and Freezing Instructions For Dough

After the pizza dough has risen, you can freeze it to use later. Divide the dough in half (or the portion sizes you will be using to make your pizzas). Place on parchment paper or a lightly floured dish and place, uncovered, in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes. Then remove from the freezer, and place in individual freezer bags, removing as much air as you can from the bags. Return to the freezer and store for up to 3 months.

Thaw the pizza dough in the refrigerator overnight or for 5 to 6 hours. Then let the dough sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before stretching it out in the next steps.

How To Make Awesome Pizza at Home

Pizza is a regular visitor to our house — only it doesn’t usually come from a delivery person. Making homemade pizza from prepared dough is a quick and easy dinner any night of the week. Even making your own dough only really adds a few minutes to the prep time! Pile on your favorite toppings and get ready to chow down.

3 Steps for Awesome Pizza at Home

1. Make your own pizza dough.

Yes, you can buy pretty decent pizza dough from the bakery counter at your grocery store, but why bother when you can easily mix up a batch at home for pennies? Use any one of our pizza dough recipes to get started.

While the rise time on most of these is relative short (one to two hours), you can mix the dough the night or morning before and let the dough rise slowly all day. Be sure to bring the dough to room temperature for an hour before shaping.

My favorite method for shaping the pizza is to roll the dough onto a piece of parchment paper. The dough sticks to the parchment, making it easier to work with and easier to transfer into the oven. The pizza will release from the parchment during cooking and the parchment can be removed halfway through cooking. The parchment darkens in the oven, but doesn’t burn or catch fire.

2. Keep the sauce and toppings simple.

When it comes to red sauce, trust us when we say a simple, no-cook blender sauce is best. Pesto or rich ricotta are wonderful substitutes as well.

There are also no rules about the kinds of toppings you put on your pizza. Choose ones you love. They will cook a little in the oven, but if it isn’t something you like to eat raw, like sausage or mushrooms, cook them ahead of time. If you’d like fresh greens or herbs (like arugula or basil) on your pizza, sprinkle them over the pizza right when it comes out of the oven. The residual heat from the pizza will wilt the greens just slightly and bring out their flavor.

It’s best, though, to keep the toppings to just a handful at most. If you load homemade pizza down with a ton of toppings, it may take too long for the crust to cook.

3. Bake it hot.

Don’t be afraid to really crank the heat up to its highest setting. The high heat will help make a crunchier and more flavorful crust. Let the oven heat for at least half an hour before baking your pizzas. If you have a baking stone or steel, place it in the lower-middle of your oven. (Or you can invert a baking sheet in the oven as a sort of pseudo pizza stone.)

Baking on parchment paper will make loading and unloading the pizza from the oven easier, but you can also use flour or cornmeal to keep the pizza from sticking to a pizza peel or additional inverted baking sheet for building the pizza on.

How To Make Pizza at Home

Ingredients

pizza dough, at room temperature for at least 1 hour

other toppings: sautéed onions, sautéed mushrooms, pepperoni, cooked sausage, cooked bacon, diced peppers, leftover veggies, or any other favorite toppings

shredded or sliced cheese (4 to 8 ounces) such as mozzarella, Monterey Jack, provolone, fontina, or any other favorite

Cornmeal or all-purpose flour (optional)

Equipment

Pizza stone or baking sheet

Pizza peel or baking sheet

Parchment paper (optional)

Instructions

Heat the oven to 550°F or higher. Arrange a rack in the lower-middle part of the oven (if you have a baking stone, place it on the rack) and heat the oven to 550°F or higher. Don’t be afraid to really crank the heat up to its highest setting, as the high heat will help make a crunchier and more flavorful crust. Let the oven heat for at least 30 minutes.

Divide the dough in half. One pound of dough makes 2 (10-inch) pizzas. Divide the dough in half and cover one half with an upside-down bowl or a clean kitchen towel while you prepare the first pizza.

Roll out the dough.
Method #1: Pizza Baked on Parchment: Tear off a large piece of parchment paper roughly 12 inches long. Working with one piece of the dough at a time, form it into a large disk with your hands and place it on the parchment. Use your hands or a rolling pin to flatten the dough until it is 1/4-inch thick or less. If the dough starts to shrink back, let it rest for 5 minutes and then continue rolling.

Method #2: Pizza with Cornmeal or Flour and a Baking Stone: Sprinkle a handful of cornmeal or flour on a pizza peel or on an upside-down rimmed baking sheet. Working with one piece of the dough at a time, form it into a large disk with your hands and place it on the peel. Use your hands or a rolling pin to flatten the dough until it is 1/4-inch thick or less. Shake the peel or baking sheet frequently as you shape to make sure the dough isn’t sticking. If the dough starts to shrink back, let it rest for 5 minutes and then continue rolling.

Method #3: Pizza Baked on a Baking Sheet: Brush a thin film of olive oil on a baking sheet. Working with one piece of the dough at a time, form it into a large disk with your hands and place it on the baking sheet. Use your hands or a rolling pin to flatten the dough until it is 1/4-inch thick or less. If the dough starts to shrink back, let it rest for 5 minutes and then continue rolling.

Top the pizza. Spoon half of the sauce onto the center of the pizza and use the back of the spoon to spread it out to the edges. Pile on half of the toppings and half of the cheese.

Bake the pizza. Using a pizza peel or the back side of a baking sheet, slide your pizza (with the parchment or with the cornmeal) onto the baking stone. If you don’t have a baking stone, bake the pizza right on the baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, then rotate the pizza. If using parchment, slide it out from under the pizza and discard. Bake until the crust is golden-brown and the cheese is melted and browned in spots, 3 to 5 minutes more.

Slice and serve. Transfer the pizza to a cooling rack and let cool slightly, just until you’re able to handle it. Transfer to a cutting board, slice into pieces, and serve. Repeat making a second pizza with the remaining dough, cheese, and toppings.

Recipe Notes

How To Make Pizza on the Grill: Great for a smoky flavor and extra-crispy crust.

Pizza on the Stovetop: Try this method when you don’t want to heat up the kitchen.

Storage: Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat slices on the stovetop with this method.

How to Make Pizza at Home That’s Better Than Takeout

Pizza is a crowd-pleasing choice for busy weeknights and fun weekend dinners alike. But you don’t have to rely on restaurants or takeout for top-notch pizza. Read on for tips on how to make your own pizza at home. We’ll walk you through how to make pizza crust, how to top a pizza, pizza baking temperature, and how long to bake pizza. Plus, we’ll share some of our favorite homemade pizza recipes to try.

How to Make Homemade Pizza

Pizza Crust

Let’s start with the base, the crispy crust that holds it all together. With the crust, you can go a few ways: You can make homemade pizza with store-bought dough; use pre-baked crusts (such as Boboli) or even English muffins and pita bread for personal pizzas; or make your own pizza dough.

Here’s how Chef John makes simple no-knead pizza dough. (He also makes a pretty mean Cauliflower Pizza Crust.) Watch the video to see exactly how the pizza dough should look before setting it aside to rise. You’ll also see Chef John’s patented «rotate, stretch, and tuck» move for forming the dough.

Pizza Sauces

Now for the sauce. There are loads of delicious pre-made marinara sauces for pizza sauce. We have oodles of homemade pizza sauce recipes, too. Beyond red pizza sauces, don’t forget pesto sauces, white sauces, or even a simple olive oil and garlic sauce. They will expand your pizza potential by almost infinite proportions.

Pizza Toppings

There’s almost no limit to the toppings you can pile on a pizza. Tomato sauce and pepperoni you know. But apples and walnuts? For sure. Fresh figs and prosciutto? Of course! Sweet corn and peas? Well, in Europe and Japan, corn and peas are common pizza toppings. Bottom line, pizza is open to an infinite amount of creativity where toppings are concerned.

Get the Recipe: D’s Taco Pizza

Here are a few additional ideas for varying pizza sauces, toppings, and cheeses:

Once you have your toppings lined up, think about the order you’ll lay them down on the crust. It matters!

Layering the Pizza

Layer the ingredients one way, and you have pizza perfection. Arrange the same ingredients in a different order, and it’s curtains. For example, if you put the cheese down first, then layer tomatoes and basil on top, the basil burns and shrivels and the cheese doesn’t brown. Possible pizza fail.

Of course, you can put tomato slices on top of the cheese. Tomatoes have a high moisture content, so they won’t caramelize; instead, they’ll dehydrate slightly for a more concentrated tomato flavor.

Choosing Cheeses

Mozzarella, Fontina, and Parmesan cheeses all work great. These cheeses are all very low in moisture, so they’ll brown fairly quickly. Fresh mozzarella has a lot of water content and could make surrounding crust and toppings soggy.

How to Cook Pizza on a Stone

1. Heat the oven.

Generally, the hotter the oven, the better the pizza will be. The best oven temperature for pizza is between 450 and 500 degrees F (250 to 260 degrees C). Pizza ovens cook at temperatures between 800 and 900 degrees F. You can’t get that hot in your home oven, but the higher you can go, the better.

Place a pizza stone ($39; Amazon) on a lower oven rack. Preheat the oven between 450 and 500 degrees F (250 to 260 degrees C) — the stone needs heat up while the oven heats. Large, thick-crusted pizzas might need an oven temperature closer to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) so the crust can cook completely before the toppings burn.

Tip: For a crunchy crust, preheat a baking sheet or cast iron skillet in the bottom of the oven. Once you load the pizza, toss ice cubes into the hot pan to create a burst of steam.

You know another way to get a terrific crust? Put your pizza on the grill.

2. Form the pizza dough and place it on a peel dusted with a little flour or cornmeal.

If you like, lightly brush the crust with olive oil. This helps create a golden brown, crispy crust rather than a dry, dusty outer crust. See how to make and form your pizza dough.

Okay, the oven is hot, and the pizza’s all topped and ready to roll. You need to grab your pizza peel ($22; Amazon), the large shovel-like tool that easily moves pizza from counter to stone without catastrophe. Slide your pizza onto the peel. It’s time for the oven.

3. Slip the pizza onto the hot pizza stone.

Tip: Jiggle the peel to make sure the pizza isn’t sticking. You want it to slide off the peel easily. If it’s stuck, gently lift the sticky dough and dust with a wee bit more flour or cornmeal.

Place the tip of the peel on the edge of the stone at the back of the oven. With one swift motion, jerk the peel back out from under the pizza. If the pizza slides freely on the peel, it should land perfectly in the middle of the pizza stone. If the pizza sticks to the peel, your toppings will slide off the pizza onto the stone, and the kids will hear you say those words you’re not really supposed to use in front of them.

Close the oven door, and let the pizza bake.

4. After 5 minutes of baking, check the pizza.

If some spots are browning faster than others, turn the pizza; slip the peel underneath it like a giant spatula. Rotate the pizza on the peel and return it to the baking stone using the same swift motion described above.

If you like, remove the pizza from the oven halfway during baking to brush more oil on the crust. This added oil will help darken the crust and make it even tastier. For a little garlic flavor, infuse the oil with minced garlic.

5. The pizza is done when the cheese is melted to a medium-to-dark brown.

Color means flavor. Carefully remove the pizza with the peel and let it cool slightly. If you want, top it with additional fresh toppings. Slice with a pizza wheel ($15; Amazon) or chef’s knife, and serve to your adoring crowd.

How to Make Pizza at Home

An easy homemade pizza recipe from our test kitchen with tips to make it your own.

It’s hard to disappoint when it comes to homemade pizza, but it’s also hard to get just right. Dough tends to have a mind of its own, and how much sauce should you really use? In the Good Housekeeping Institute, we learned from years of testing that simple is best, especially when making pizza at home, and fewer [toppings, in this case] is more. While there are some appliances out there, like pizza ovens, that will take your pizza making skills to the next level, here’s how to make pizza at home every time with the tools you have, including tips from pizza pros.

Cornmeal for baking sheet

Flour for surface

pizza dough (thawed, if frozen)

mozzarella cheese, coarsely grated

Basil, for sprinkling

Five Steps for Delicious Pizza at Home:

1. Start with a solid pizza dough recipe.

To quote Ina Garten, “store-bought is fine,” but making pizza dough from scratch allows you to control the ingredients and ultimately the results. A lot of recipes call for “00” flour, but remember that “00” only refers to the fine grind of the flour, not a high protein content, which is often insinuated by pizza dough recipes. A finer grind requires less hydration than a typical all-purpose grind, which creates a less chewy dough, while a higher protein percentage provides more structure. When we chatted with Laura Meyer, Administrator and Instructor at the International School of Pizza and one of the presenters on Breville’s “Meet the Makers: A Virtual Pizza Tour,” and she shared that most pizzerias use a blend of flours, which contribute to a unique texture and taste. When shopping for flour, she recommends purchasing from smaller mills that offer more variety, including curated pizza dough mixes, like this one from Central Milling.

2. Make the dough.

Pizza dough can be made by hand, in a food processor, or in a stand mixer. When making a pizza dough by hand, it’s best to start by using a wooden spoon to stir together the liquid ingredients (including proofed yeast) in a large bowl with half of the dry ingredients. From there, add the remaining dry ingredients little by little, until the dough starts to form a shaggy ball and has difficulty incorporating more dry ingredients. Once the ball is firm, transfer to a floured surface and use your hands to knead until it is smooth and springs back when touched.

To make pizza dough in a food processor, add the dry ingredients to the bowl first. Pulse a few times to stir. Then, with the motor running, use the feed tube to slowly add in the liquid ingredients until the dough forms a ball and rotates around the bowl without sticking to the sides. Process for about 30 seconds.

To make pizza dough in a stand mixer, add the liquid ingredients to the bowl first and, while the mixer is running on low, add in the dry ingredients, little by little, until the dough forms a ball and doesn’t stick to the sides. Increase the speed to medium-low and allow to knead for about 5 to 6 minutes, adding in more dry ingredients as necessary. The beater or dough hook may be used.

3. Proof the dough.

Once the dough is kneaded, transfer to a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap and/or several dish towels so it can proof. As the dough proofs, it will form air bubbles, which increase the size of the dough, and develop flavor. Proofing can take place in a warm area where it will bulk up quickly, or even in the fridge over a couple of days. (If proofing in the fridge, cover loosely with plastic wrap to avoid condensation from forming.) The longer you proof dough, the more flavorful it will become; take care not to overproof because it can become sour. A general rule of thumb is to proof it until it doubles in bulk.

After the dough has proofed, divide into individual balls that can be stretched just before cooking.

4. Prepare the sauce and toppings.

Different styles of pizza use different types of sauce. Since the sauce cooks in the oven, there’s no need to cook it beforehand unless you’re looking for an extra deep tomato flavor. For a Neapolitan style, try whole canned tomatoes that you break up with your hands, or for New York style, try crushed tomatoes seasoned with dried Italian seasoning.

When adding the sauce to the dough, add less than you think you’ll need and use the bottom of a ladle to even it out as much as possible. Pools of sauce slow down the cooking process and cause wet spots.

Almost anything can be used as pizza topping, but keep in mind that you want to try to balance the flavors as much as possible. If you like a lot of sauce and it’s very flavorful, stick to simple flavors that won’t compete, like cheese and simply seasoned vegetables. If you have toppings you want to show off, like a creamy burrata or a special meat like prosciutto, let those ingredients be the star by using a scant amount of sauce or other overpowering additions.

Toppings can be added to pizza raw or cooked, before or after cooking the pizza. When deciding how to use, think of the flavors you want to achieve; cooking them before will create deeper flavors, while cooking them during will create more simple ones. Pre-cooking meat, like sausage, on the other hand, will make it drier, while cooking it on the pizza will make it more tender and juicy.

5. Shape the dough.

When ready to form the pizza, Anthony Falco, International Pizza Consultant and the first instructor on Breville’s “Meet the Makers: A Virtual Pizza Series,” recommends doing so on a wooden peel that can be used to transfer the pizza to the oven. Flour the peel generously and often to make sure the dough doesn’t stick. All purpose flour can be used, or some people like semolina or cornmeal; both are granular and don’t clump.

To shape the dough, Meyer recommends using your hands versus a rolling pin, which can deflate the dough and make it less airy. Push it down in the middle first, and then form the crust a little so it can stay intact while the rest of the dough is shaped. When done, Falco uses his fingertips to dimple the center, which he says leaves air in there and is also good for toppings.

6. Bake the pizza.

Now, for the fun part. Pizza can be baked many ways: in the oven, in a toaster oven, in a skillet and then finished under the broiler, in a sheet pan, or on a grill. To bake pizza in an oven, Meyer highly recommends a baking steel, which retains heat even better than a baking stone. She also recommends investing in two, particularly if you plan on making more than one pizza at a time. To use, position the baking steel or stone on the top rack of your oven (instead of the bottom, which is often recommended!) while your oven heats up to 500ºF or the highest temperature. If you don’t have a baking steel or stone, you may also use a sheet pan flipped upside down.

When heated, use a wooden or perforated peel to transfer the pizza to the baking steel or stone on the upper rack. Monitor it until the cheese is melted, the crust is browned and the bottom is fully cooked. The pizza may be transferred to the middle rack toward the end of cooking to finish.

Toaster ovens are a great option to make pizza because they get very hot in a short amount of time. Many are big enough to fit a 12-inch pie and can be used with a stone. Use the highest temperature on convection mode and the bottom rack.

Cast iron skillets are a popular way to make pizza. They can be used to start the cooking process on the stovetop for a very crispy bottom, or completely in the oven for a saucy, deep dish. When using a cast iron, apply a generous amount of oil to the bottom of the pan, and stretch your dough directly in the pan. Top with ingredients, and either heat over medium high until the crust forms and finish in a hot oven, like this method, or under a broiler, or transfer skillet with uncooked pizza to the middle rack of a preheated oven until fully cooked.

Sheet pans may also be used to make Grandma or Sicilian style pizza. Just like when using a cast iron skillet, generously coat the bottom of the pan with oil before spreading out the dough. Bake on the bottom rack of a very hot oven until browned and crispy.

To make pizza on a grill, heat until the temperature reaches about 700ºF. Shape the dough, brush one side with oil and cook, oil-side down, over medium-high with the lid closed until firm. Add more oil to the top, flip and then add the toppings. Reduce the heat to medium, close the lid, and cook until the cheese is melted and bottom is golden brown.

7. Cool the pizza.

Once your pizza is cooked, Falco recommends using a metal pizza peel to remove it from the oven. He also suggests transferring it to a wired rack before serving, where it can stay crisp and not soak up any possible condensation.

How to cook Pizza at Home

Ever thought about making pizza on your own, from scratch? Of course you have, but it’s easier said than done, especially if you’ve never tried and don’t have a pizzaiolo at hand to teach you the tricks of the trade. Picking up the right ingredients can be a challenge, even though the mantra “keep it simple, keep it fresh” usually works wonders: really you can’t go wrong with it!

Read on to learn how to make pizza at home, the way we make it and rest assured, it’ll always be a success!

For the perfect pizza, the freshest and simplest the ingredients the better (Yoshihide Nomura/Flickr)

Pizza dough (same as bread dough):

Prepare the dough by mixing together (with the aid of a bread machine, a mixer or by hand, the good old-fashioned way; the important thing is that you must work it a lot – at least half an hour by hand – to have a soft dough).

Let rise for about 6 hours and, voilà! Your dough is ready! If you need a specific recipe for a specific type of oven, check this Ooni pizza dough recipe.

How to achieve the perfect pizza crust

Most of us, alas, don’t have a stone hoven at home to make the perfect pizza! (Qwerty Antonino/Flickr)

Since I assume most of us do not have a wood firebrick oven in the house, I will say the next best thing is the use of a pizza stone in a normal oven. I have had my pizza stone for over 10 years and I use it to make nice crusty breads, as well (bread does not cook well in a bread machine).

The pizza stone will retain heat from the oven and cook the pizza fast without the need for fattening oils so, when baking your pizza, you will not need a greased pan: just put the dough on the pizza stone! The pizza stone also helps distributing the heat evenly on the pizza and, because it is made in terracotta, which is a porous material, it helps drying the moist off the crust, leaving it nice and crispy. The crust will come out dry and ‘crusty.’

I had my pizza stone specially made to fit my oven and it is larger and thicker then the one commercially available, so it really makes almost a wood-oven class pizza!

Here comes the tomato sauce

Basil and (fresh) tomatoes are a must for pizza (Aaron Epstein/Flickr)

Ok, use either good canned tomatoes (just tomatoes, not any preprepared sauces), or fresh tomatoes if they are available. You can even mix them together, if you want: just put them in a food processor and chop them. Add to them a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil and you are ready to go!

Put the mozzarella in the food processor so you will be able to spread it over the pizza.

Let’s roll and bake it

Now use the rolling pin to make a thin layer of pizza crust. What I now suggest to do sounds a little strange but it helps a lot: put the raw pizza (the pizza crust that you just rolled out) by itself in the oven for just 1 minute (reason: if the crust is too soft, it is very difficult to add tomatoes and toppings without ruining it). After 1 minute, remove the pizza dough and apply the tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil. Place the pizza in the oven for about 5/6 minutes, until all the mozzarella is nicely melted. Take it out of the oven and serve.

What is nice about this pizza is the unexpected, authentic Italian taste it delivers. Also, there are no added fats or additives to it (like powder garlic, so popular in the Italian American food tradition, but never used in Italy – so you are not allowed to use it!). Anyway, after you practice with a few pizzas I might even give you the permission to try it with different toppings 🙂

Always remember that the oven must be at the highest temperature.

Toppings

Some of my preferred toppings include rughetta (arugola) and mozzarella with cherry tomatoes, radicchio and goat cheese, radicchio and green cheese or gorgonzola, red pizza with anchovies and mozzarella.