Tips for making homemade pizza

We’ve only had our pizza oven for a few months but it’s had quite a few outings. Although I don’t seem to have been around to eat one of them as it’s usually used by N when I’m out dancing/back late from the office and they need to get their own tea. We’ve worked out a few short cuts to help speed up making pizzas. Here’s my tips for making homemade pizzas (either with a pizza oven or in the oven).

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If you’re after a pizza oven, there’s no need to go for an expensive one. I only paid around £120 for ours (or less because I used vouchers I’d saved up), as well as the paddle, infrared thermometer and pellets. Then I’ve bought wood pellets from Tesco on clearance for £3 a 10kg bag. Bargain.

• Pizza Oven (the one we have)
• Pizza Peel
• Infrared thermometer

Tips for more efficient pizza making at home

Test and practice different doughs.  We’ve tried a few doughs (Ooni, your pizza dough recipes are a nightmare to follow!), and N is still trying out new ones. It’s like a scientific experiment when you first get a pizza oven, but it really is all about practice.

Have somewhere for easy set up of your pizza oven so you don’t have to spend time getting it out and putting it away all the time. We’ve got an outdoor cooking table with a shelf underneath, so in the rain it can sit under there out of the way.

Make in bulk and freeze where possible.  Whether it’s making more dough than you need or freezing tomato sauce in portions, there’s plenty you can do to prep in advance.  For dough, we cut into portion sizes, then after the second proving, we put each in a large sandwich bag to freeze. You could use reusable bags, but we haven’t got any big enough at the moment so ziplock plastic bags it is. Just defrost at room temperature for a couple of hours before using.

For really fast sauce keep a chilled tomato and basil pasta sauce tub in the fridge.  Passata with some herbs added will do the job as well.

We like homemade pizza sauce. It’s really simple with just some tinned chopped tomatoes and add some basil and/or oregano. Blitz with a hand blender but leave a little tomatoey lumps if you don’t want it totally smooth.  If you do a big batch, you can freeze portions in cake tins or ice cube trays, then put them once frozen into a tub or bag.  They can then be taken out and defrosted as needed (we do it in the microwave, but could be done at room temperature well ahead of needing it).

Don’t overload the toppings, otherwise your base won’t cook properly (and toppings will cook too fast).

Time your toppings. For something like bacon you might want to add on part cooked, or cook first and add to the pizza right near the end.

Store your wood pellets in a dry place. Ideally keep the bag closed up, or transfer to an large airtight container. Don’t leave it out in the rain or somewhere damp when it’s open. 

We only have one pizza paddle (and it’s hard enough keeping that stored). But if you really want to speed up your pizza making and not keep people waiting around for their pizza, then having 2 can be useful. You can cook one pizza while prepping and topping the other on the second paddle.

I struggled to get hold of semolina in our local supermarkets when I needed some more, but polenta is an alternative you can try.

If you’re cooking your pizza in your oven rather than a pizza oven, use a pizza stone heated up first, and keep the oven as hot as it will go. The pizza stones will probably need longer than you think to heat up.

So that’s my tips for making homemade pizzas.

Do you make pizzas yourself?  What tips do you live by for the perfect pizza?