Home-made pizza guide to making perfect pizza at home

Dough

It all starts with the dough. Sourdough? Quick dough? There are lots of routes to take! 

Many pizza makers will point you in the direction of bread flour, but some of the quicker recipes do rely on all purpose flour. 00 is often touted as the best- it's finely ground which makes for a really smooth dough, and the gluten content (9-11%) will make for a nice chewy dough with a crispy crust. 

Slow proving times, achieved by lowing the temperature (for example putting your dough in the fridge), really help the texture. Some people will let it prove for up to 3 days to really perfect their dough- so plan ahead!

Tomato sauce

When it comes to tomato sauce, we're real advocates of less is more. An onion, smidge of garlic, sprinkling of sugar, oregano, and chopped tomatoes is all you need. Plus a REAL dose of patience. 30 minutes bubbling away on the stove once all the ingredients are added will give you the best flavour. Blitz as desired!

Toppings

We are big advocates for keeping it simple, using just a few good quality ingredients to top our pizzas. Consider if they need cooking before they're put on the pizza- always the case of meat and fish- depending on how long they usually take to cook and the texture you're hoping for.

Don't forget about those post-cooking toppings- a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of fresh basil or parmesan- to give your pizza that final touch

Cooking your pizza

It's tricky when it comes to cooking pizzas in a standard oven at home,  because it's very difficult to get your oven as hot as the firey pizza ovens you see in restaurants. Essentially, you just need to get the oven as hot as you can.

Pizza stones or steels are another great way of increasing the temperature when cooking your pizza. Dusting with a little semolina is a perfect way to ensure they slide off easily.  Pizza steels transfer heat quicker than stones, but the price point does reflect that. Both are a great way to give you that crusty pizza base though.

Finally, there are some great pizza ovens out there that, though expensive, are much less expensive than building a pizza oven into your garden!