Pizza Pizza! Part 1
Happy Monday! To remind, you can leave comments or questions on this thread. Scroll to the bottom to see where.
My family and I LOVE pizza. We love making it, ordering it, and eating it. I receive a lot of messages about making pizza at home every time I share on Instagram, so I thought I would tackle some of the common questions in the newsletter!
The Dough | Sometimes we make our own and sometimes we buy it. A little known secret is that most of your favorite, local pizzerias will sell their dough. Just ask! I much prefer pizzeria dough to supermarket or Trader Joe’s dough. If you live near an Eataly, their dough is the best I have ever worked with. If you’d like to make your own, you can try my recipe. You can also make it and freeze it.
Hack: If you can’t find pizza dough, or are in a pinch, use store-bought naan instead. It is almost like a pre-baked flatbread and makes a great swap for a pre-baked pizza crust. Plus, you don’t need to deal with pizza stones, etc.
Swap: You could also use Banza’s frozen chickpea pizza crust for a grain-free alternative.
What Else Do You Need
When making pizza in your oven, a baking steel works best on the bottom rack in a super-hot oven. I like to use the convection setting on 500 degrees, if possible. Just set your oven at the hottest temp it can manage. Baking steels are my preference, but they are crazy heavy. A pizza stone is my second choice for making pizzas in the oven.
If you’re trying to avoid turning on the oven, try making your pizza on the grill instead. It’s fun and different. It does take some tinkering to get the hang of it.
If you don’t have a grill or a pizza stone, try this cast-iron pizza recipe from King Arthur:
Ok, I saved the best for last. Hubs bought a small Ooni outdoor pizza oven when the company was called Uuni and it was offered on their Kickstarter!! I have to say, we love it but we love it more after we bought the propane attachment. It’s really easy, fast and makes great pizza. We have gifted the Ooni to a few family members too. I do not use any Ooni at my mom’s house. She has a custom, wood-burning pizza oven in her backyard. It’s beautiful and much bigger than what I have, but takes a lot of constant feeding of wood to stay hot.
Once you start making pizza regularly, it’s fun to have the accessories!
Next week, I will write about some of my favorite pizza toppings and combos! Please share your go-to pizza-making tools and hacks. I am always learning!
xxPamela
I have a pizza steel but have never used it! But now I’m going to experiment... and I also didn’t know to use it on the bottom rack of the oven on convection. Pizza scissors! I’ve never even heard of them:) what a great newsletter- looking forward to next week’s!
I bought the pizza steel and excited to use it. What do you use to transfer the pizza dough assembled onto the hot pizza steel in the oven? Thank you!