Preparing your Dough
- Many pizza places will sell you a ball of their dough for a couple of bucks.
- Alternately, you can get oven-ready dough at the supermarket
- It is not too difficult to make your own dough. CLICK HERE for several of my recipes
- Here is my good friend, Steve, that owns Grande Pizza PREPARING HIS DOUGH for an overnight rise.
- Albert Grande shows you a basic dough recipe and some of the proper techniques WITH THIS VIDEO.
- Dough that is risen without sugar will take longer, but will have a more fully developed flavor
Flattening your Pizza
- A rolling pin may seem like a good idea, but it squeezes many of the air pockets out of the dough. Your pizza will taste more like cardboard
- Use your finger tips and palms to flatten your pizza
- Turn it (flip it) often during the flattening
Toppings
- Sauce is a good thing, but too much will give you a soggy crust. Serve your pizza with a sauce side for dipping instead.
- I have a lot of recipes for RED SAUCE and for MARINARA. I really like pizza!
- Put onions and pepperoni on the top so they fully cook
- Generally speaking, try to hold your pizzas to about five toppings (not counting sauce or cheese)
Baking
- Pizzas should be cooked at high heat fairly quickly. 500º for 12 minutes is pretty good for the home oven.
- Use a baking stone if you have one. Bring it up to temperature with your oven. Never put a cold baking stone in a hot oven – it will crack.
- Never use soap to wash your baking stone.
Reheating
- Use a baking stone for reheating your left-over pizza. The microwave will make it kind of soggy.
- No baking stone? Put it on a cooling rack and slide that into your oven. Put a pan under the cooling rack to catch drips.
- Grandma and I both like different toppings, so we get an extra large cheese pizza and keep it as a base for later toppings.
- To reheat, we bake at 400º for 8-10 minutes.
