Friday evening, weekend, what could be better than a fresh pizza? I don’t know about you, but I’m regularly disappointed by delivery service pizzas.
Admittedly, homemade pizza is more time-consuming than ordering it from a delivery service, but I promise you: it’s worth it.
So what’s the best way to make the perfect homemade pizza?
The perfect pizza dough – it’s all about the flour
When choosing the flour for the perfect pizza dough, make sure that the protein content is as high as possible. We prefer to use the “red” 00 flour from Caputo* with 13g protein per 100g. However, we have also had good experiences with Friessinger flour*, which has a protein content of “only” 12g/100g.
The right processing
Once you have decided on the right flour, it’s time to process it correctly. Water and oil should always be weighed out, the measuring cup is simply too imprecise here.
The perfect pizza dough should also be kneaded for long enough to give the egg whites enough time to combine. It should be at least 5 minutes.
For the perfect consistency, the perfect pizza dough also needs time to develop. You should allow a total of 8 hours for the dough to rise. It is therefore best to simply make the dough the evening before. However, if the dough is kept in the fridge, 24 hours is also no problem.
For a particularly crispy crust, we always use corn semolina or durum wheat semolina for rolling out the dough. We have also had good experiences with durum wheat semolina from Caputo*.
The perfect pizza sauce
Of course, the perfect pizza dough also needs the perfect pizza sauce, and it can be simple. Here, too, care should be taken to choose the right ingredients. Canned tomatoes often have a more intense flavor than fresh tomatoes and can also be processed more quickly. However, you should choose tomatoes that do not contain citric acid in the list of ingredients. This often gives the sauce a sour taste.
Real Italians swear by San Marzano tomatoes*, we often use the slightly cheaper Pelati tomatoes from Mutti*.
The blender should also stay in the drawer. Simply use your hands to chop the tomatoes so that the seeds are not pureed.
The accessories
Extra pizza flour and special tomatoes and now special accessories too? If you’re serious about the perfect pizza, here’s a definite yes!
A pizza stone* ensures that the pizza base is nice and crispy. In a normal oven, this is actually the only way to replace a pizza oven. Unfortunately, as the stone needs to be heated up properly, the pizza dough cannot be placed directly on it. A pizza peel helps to get the pizza onto the pizza stone without any major accidents (and yes, we had some). With the right technique, the pizza slides easily onto the peel and then onto the pizza stone. You can often buy a pizza stone and pizza peel* as a set.
Put the flour and sugar in a mixing bowl. Crumble the yeast into the dough. Mix with the dough hook of a food processor or hand mixer. Slowly add half of the weighed water and continue to knead. Knead until the flour has combined with the water.
While continuing to knead, add the rest of the water and sprinkle the salt into the bowl. The dough should now be kneaded until all the ingredients have come together to form a slightly sticky dough that comes away cleanly from the bowl. If you are not sure, knead for 1-2 minutes longer.
Shape the dough into a ball on a lightly floured work surface. To do this, carefully fold the dough 3-4 times. Leave the finished dough to rise in the fridge for at least 6 hours.
Shape into balls 2 hours before the pizza is to be baked. To do this, divide approx. 280g from the dough and carefully shape into balls with your hands. To do this, keep tucking the bottom corners of the dough in from the bottom until a ball is formed. Now leave the dough balls to rise at room temperature.
Pluck the basil into small pieces. Place all the ingredients in a bowl. Crush the canned tomatoes with your hands and mix with the other ingredients.
Preheat the oven (+ pizza stone) to at least 250°C. Alternatively, the pizza can be baked on the grill with a pizza stone. To do this, the pizza stone should be heated on the grill for at least 20 minutes.
Sprinkle a generous amount of corn semolina (slightly larger than the dough balls) onto a work surface. Now place a ball of dough in the corn semolina. Carefully flatten the dough from the inside out with your hands, without touching the edges. Turn once and carefully flatten again. Turn one last time before “beating” the dough over your hand. To do this, first place your right hand on the pizza dough and then place it on the back of your right hand with your left hand. The right hand then carefully knocks the dough back onto the worktop and the left hand back again until the desired size is reached.
The pizza can then be topped as desired.
Now bake the topped pizza until the desired browning is achieved. Always keep an eye on the pizza, as the baking time varies depending on the baking method. In our case, the pizza takes approx. 6-7 minutes on the grill.
2 servings
- Amount per serving
- Calories667
- % Daily Value *
- Total Fat 4g6%
- Total Carbohydrate 131.6g48%
- Protein 23.3g
* The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
Ingredients
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