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I’ve made dozens of pizzas by now. I’ve gotten pretty good at it.

Ingredients

• Store-bought dough (312g)
• Tomato sauce (70g, low sodium)
• Mozzarella (whole milk, 100g – fresh will taste better but will also make the dough less crispy due to juices)
• 2g extra virgin olive oil (optional)
• Semolina flour

Then, for garnish:

• Oregano
• Fresh basil leaves
• A dash of salt

Steps

1. Preheat oven for 1 hour. Ends up somewhere around 450°F.
2. Preheat pizza steel for 30 min on top rack underneath broiler, reaches about 650°F.
3. In the meantime, rest dough on counter top until it reaches room temperature.
4. Grate cheese and measure tomato sauce.
5. Dust counter with semolina flour and stretch the dough. Make it thin so it gets crispy.
6. Add tomato sauce.
7. Place dough on peel.
8. Place dough on steel; still on top rack with the broiler still on.
9. Bake for 2 minutes.
10. Take out to add cheese and oregano.
11. Bake for another 1.5 minutes on top rack; again, the broiler is still on. Can turn it off halfway through if the pizza is burning on top but the center of the dough needs more time to bake.
12. Optional: take out steel and let pizza rest on steel for another minute to make the bottom crispy.
13. Optional: in the meantime, apply small amount of olive oil to the outer crust and sprinkle salt on outer crust. (Kind of overrated, not really worth the extra calories.)
14. Remove from steel and serve.

I’ve made dozens of pizzas by now. I’ve gotten pretty good at it.

Ingredients

• Store-bought dough (312g)
• Tomato sauce (70g, low sodium)
• Mozzarella (whole milk, fresh, 100g)
• 2g extra virgin olive oil (optional)
• Semolina flour

Then, for garnish:

• Oregano
• Fresh basil leaves
• A dash of salt

Steps

1. Preheat oven for 1 hour. Ends up somewhere around 450°F.
2. Preheat pizza steel for 30 min on top rack underneath broiler, reaches about 650°F.
3. In the meantime, rest dough on counter top until it reaches room temperature.
4. Grate cheese and measure tomato sauce.
5. Dust counter with semolina flour and stretch the dough.
6. Add tomato sauce.
7. Place dough on peel.
8. Place dough on steel; still on top rack with the broiler still on.
9. Bake for 2 minutes.
10. Take out to add cheese and oregano.
11. Bake for another 1.5 minutes on top rack; again, the broiler is still on. Can turn it off halfway through if the pizza is burning on top but the center of the dough needs more time to bake.
12. Optional: take out steel and let pizza rest on steel for another minute to make the bottom crispy.
13. Optional: in the meantime, apply small amount of olive oil to the outer crust and sprinkle salt on outer crust. (Kind of overrated, not really worth the extra calories.)
14. Remove from steel and serve.

Much easier to use semolina flour instead of regular flour. h/t @edwin-de-wit

I’ve tried dough from a local pizzeria and compared how their dough tastes when they prepare it vs how it tastes when I prepare it at home. The crust wasn’t as crispy at home but overall the dough didn’t taste all that different. That tells me that my oven is at least decent for making pizza.

I’ve made pizza almost every day since the last revision (around 16 pizzas). I’ve gotten pretty good at it.

Ingredients

• Store-bought dough (312g)
• Tomato sauce (90g)
• Mozzarella (part skim, home-shredded, 100g)
• 2g extra virgin olive oil

Then, for garnish:

• Oregano
• Fresh basil leaves
• A dash of salt

Steps

1. Preheat oven for 1 hour. Ends up somewhere around 450°F.
2. Preheat pizza steel for 30 min on top rack underneath broiler, reaches about 650°F.
3. In the meantime, rest dough on counter top until it reaches room temperature.
4. Grate cheese and measure tomato sauce.
5. Stretch the dough.
6. Dust peel with flour.
7. Remove excess flour from dough.
8. Place dough on peel.
9. Add tomato sauce.
10. Place dough on steel; still on top rack with the broiler still on.
11. Bake for 2 minutes.
12. Take out to add oregano and cheese.
13. Bake for another minute on top rack; again, the broiler is still on.
14. Take out steel and let pizza rest on steel for another minute to make the bottom crispy.
15. In the meantime, apply small amount of olive oil to the outer crust and sprinkle salt on outer crust.
16. Remove from steel and serve.

Their suggestion was that this approach might make the crust crispier. It did not. I’m starting to think the store-bought dough is the problem…

Dough was shaped horribly. Need to practice stretching it.

I felt like trying more sauce. Mistake. 100g is enough.

Some had suggested parbaking without any toppings. Horrible idea: the dough rose everywhere at once. Tomato sauce is required to weigh down the dough in the center.

Ingredients

• Store-bought dough (1 pound)
• Crushed tomatoes (135g)
• Mozzarella (part skim, shredded, 130g)

Then, for garnish:

• Oregano
• Fresh basil leaves
• 3g of salt

Steps

1. Preheat oven for 1 hour. Ends up somewhere around 450°F.
2. Preheat pizza steel for 30 min on top rack underneath broiler, reaches about 630°F.
3. Rest dough until it reaches room temperature.
4. Add salt to the tomato sauce.
5. Grate cheese.
6. Stretch the dough.
7. Dust peel with flour.
8. Remove excess flour from dough.
9. Place dough on peel.
10. Place dough on steel; still on top rack.
11. Bake for 2 minutes.
12. Take out and add sauce and cheese.
13. Bake for another 1.5 minutes.

Results:

• Top: https://drive.proton.me/urls/F39AZW3SW8#Z91hQA29jWxV
• Bottom: https://drive.proton.me/urls/Y8VXB0M114#zkTrWfPfo7wc

Step 11 is wrong. I didn’t add the cheese until later.

I may want to go back to #1535 or some variation thereof where I put the cheese on after a parbake. It’s the best pie I’ve made to date.

Also note that #1515 had the best crust to date.

Salt is dialed in now: 3g is perfect.

The dough ended up too spread out, too big, so I tried to ‘compress’ it a bit, which created wrinkles.

I may want to go back to #1535 or some variation thereof where I put the cheese on after a parbake.

Also note that #1515 had a crispy crust.

Crust slightly better than last time but still too doughy.

Leaving the broiler on caused the cheese to cook too fast compared to the dough. But moving the pie to the bottom didn’t bake the dough fast enough to make up for that.

The crust was nice and crispy.

Center could have been slightly thinner.

Ingredients

• Store-bought dough (1 pound)
• Crushed tomatoes (100g)
• Mozzarella (part skim, shredded, 130g)

Then, for garnish:

• Oregano
• Fresh basil leaves
• 3g of salt

Steps

1. Preheat oven for 1 hour. Ends up somewhere around 450°F.
2. Preheat pizza steel for 30 min on top rack underneath broiler, reaches about 660°F.
3. Rest dough until it reaches room temperature.
4. Add salt to the tomato sauce.
5. Grate cheese.
6. Stretch the dough.
7. Dust the pizza peel with flour.
8. Remove excess flour from dough.
9. Place dough on peel.
10. Add the tomato sauce.
11. Add cheese.
12. Place dough on steel; still on top rack.
13. Bake for 2.5 minutes.
14. Turn off broiler and set oven to 450°F.
15. Move to bottom rack.
16. Bake for another 4 minutes.

Results:

• Top: https://drive.proton.me/urls/T890QSC0D0#a05C7Vx0BH1m
• Bottom: https://drive.proton.me/urls/Y5TSN47MH4#DVT0yWyTenEV

Dough noticeably thinner than last time.

According to this site, making the crust thinner should make it crispier.

Ingredients

• Store-bought dough (1 pound)
• Crushed tomatoes (100g)
• Mozzarella (whole milk, shredded, 115g)

Then, for garnish:

• Oregano
• Fresh basil leaves
• 4g of salt

Steps

1. Preheat oven for 1 hour. Ends up somewhere around 450°F.
2. Preheat pizza steel for 30 min on top rack underneath broiler, reaches about 630°F.
3. Rest dough until it reaches room temperature.
4. Add salt to the tomato sauce.
5. Grate cheese.
6. Stretch the dough.
7. Dust the pizza peel with flour.
8. Remove excess flour from dough.
9. Place dough on peel.
10. Add the tomato sauce.
11. Add cheese.
12. Turn off broiler.
13. Place dough on steel; still on top rack.
14. Bake for 6 minutes.

Results:

• Top: https://drive.proton.me/urls/NZH3KGHFK4#Ot5GzAmPSSVY
• Bottom: https://drive.proton.me/urls/5BTWJZWAT8#1I0epT902wJZ

Not quite as good as last time. I overcompensated and the center wasn’t thin enough. The crust is my weakest skill, it tasted doughy and solid, not light and crispy.

The dough was nice and circular this time until I placed it on the pizza steel. It got kinda skewed, not sure why.

Waiting for the dough to reach room temp before stretching makes a big difference; much easier.

I got the bottom down, I usually get a nice leopard print. What I need to work on is getting the center thin enough (but not too thin) and the crust crispier.

Center could have slightly thinner.

Ingredients

• Store-bought dough (1 pound)
• Crushed tomatoes (100g)
• Mozzarella (whole milk, shredded, 114g)

Then, for garnish:

• Oregano
• Fresh basil leaves
• 4g of salt

Steps

1. Preheat oven for 1 hour. Ends up somewhere around 450°F.
2. Preheat pizza steel for 30 min on top rack underneath broiler, reaches about 630°F.
3. Rest dough until it reaches room temperature.
4. Add salt to the tomato sauce.
5. Grate cheese.
6. Stretch the dough.
7. Dust the pizza peel with flour.
8. Remove excess flour from dough.
9. Place dough on peel.
10. Add the tomato sauce.
11. Add cheese.
12. Turn off broiler.
13. Place dough on steel; still on top rack.
14. Bake for 6 minutes.

Results:

• Top: https://drive.proton.me/urls/NZH3KGHFK4#Ot5GzAmPSSVY
• Bottom: https://drive.proton.me/urls/5BTWJZWAT8#1I0epT902wJZ

Not quite as good as last time. I overcompensated and the center wasn’t thin enough. The crust is my weakest skill, it tasted doughy and solid, not light and crispy.

The dough was nice and circular this time until I placed it on the pizza steel. It got kinda skewed, not sure why.

Waiting for the dough to reach room temp before stretching makes a big difference; much easier.

I got the bottom down, I usually get a nice leopard print. What I need to work on is getting the center thin enough (but not too thin) and the crust crispier.

Ingredients

• Store-bought dough (1 pound)
• Crushed tomatoes (100g)
• Mozzarella (whole milk, shredded, 114g)

Then, for garnish:

• Oregano
• Fresh basil leaves
• 4g of salt

Steps

1. Preheat oven for 1 hour. Ends up somewhere around 450°F.
2. Preheat pizza steel for 30 min on top rack underneath broiler, reaches about 630°F.
3. Rest dough until it reaches room temperature.
4. Add salt to the tomato sauce.
5. Grate cheese.
6. Stretch the dough.
7. Dust the pizza peel with flour.
8. Remove excess flour from dough.
9. Place dough on peel.
10. Add the tomato sauce.
11. Add cheese.
12. Turn off broiler.
13. Place dough on steel; still on top rack.
14. Bake for 6 minutes.

Results:

• Top: https://drive.proton.me/urls/NZH3KGHFK4#Ot5GzAmPSSVY
• Bottom: https://drive.proton.me/urls/5BTWJZWAT8#1I0epT902wJZ

Not quite as good as last time. I overcompensated and the center wasn’t thin enough. The crust is my weakest skill, it tasted doughy and solid, not light and crispy.

The dough was nice and circular this time until I placed it on the pizza steel. It got kinda skewed, not sure why.

Place on steel more carefully so it comes out circular.