Pizza Making Tip
This is a game changer for any of you that make your own pizza in a domestic oven. I love making homemade pizza, it brings the family together, but even with a pizza setting on the oven, the pizza is not quite restaurant quality. With this pizza making tip though, your pizza will be exactly that, restaurant quality.
Twice baked that is the tip, it works for chips so why not for pizza, here is my thinking…when you make a quiche you bake the crust blind, if you want outstanding chips you double fry or even triple fry, for a crispier end result. So I used the same principle for homemade oven cooked pizza.
First stretch or roll the bases to your desired size and bake the pizza bases, without toppings. Cook until the dough turns opaque, starts to rise and just before the bases take any colour. Remove the bases from the oven and cool, just for a few minutes otherwise the toppings will make the baked bases soggy and you will negate the benefits of the first bake. Then top your pizza as you like tomato sauce first or ingredients first, then tomatoe, however you like your pizzas topped. Re-bake the pizza as you would normally in a hot oven. The crusts will rise again and your pizza will be much crispier and in my family’s opinion this technique makes for the best pizza yet and restaurant quality.
I did try and pierce the bases when they came out of the oven from the first bake, as they puff up quite a bit, this was on another quest for the best pizza base, but this was not a good idea. Baking the pizza bases first seems to allow the dough to rise and crate a barrier layer between the base and the ingredients then when the toppings are added, they crisp up wonderfully. Piercing the bases made them taste as they did any other time. So the theory I had to allow the air out which was scientifically correct for a quiche, didn’t actually yield the result you would have thought.
So if you are looking for a fun and interactive way to get the children involved in dinner make, make a batch of your favourite pizza dough, roll and cook the dough first and then top your pizza. This takes a few more minutes than rolling and baking would, but the end result is evident in the photo, it is restaurant quality and delicious.
If you are looking for a fun pizza themed dessert to end your pizza night, try the watermelon pizza, it is light fresh and a delicious dessert after a pizza or a BBQ.