Pro Chef Secrets to Cooking a Perfect Pizza at Home

Pizza is the ubiquitous favourite food hands down. Very rarely do you come across someone who hasn’t taken a liking to pizza and when you do, you think to yourself ‘Who is this weirdo?’ Who doesn’t like a hot pizza, melted cheese that stretches as you pull your slice, soft base, and crunchy sides, crisp veggies, or some juicy meat; a pizza is perfect for every emotion. Heartbreaks, first dates, movie nights, birthday parties, can’t think of any occasion where a pizza is unwanted. 

These days you can get that perfect pizza at home by following these pro chef secrets. Nothing is fresher and tastier than a homemade full customized pizza (where you decide the amount of cheese to sprinkle ;)) 

Here is how you can make the best ever restaurant quality pizza dough at home.

Secret 1: When making the dough ball, you need to add wet ingredients – olive oil and lukewarm water to the dry ingredients – yeast and flour. Now while following a recipe, you will be given a certain measurement of liquid to add – do not add the entire thing immediately – it could make the dough sticky. Add only 75% of the water, stir the mixture and then gauge how much you need. By doing this, you only add the amount of liquid required to clean the bowl and form the ball of dough. The recipes always have an approximate measure of liquid, since everyone’s flours differ – do not add all at one go. Sometimes you may even need more than what is mentioned.

Secret 2: The dough needs to rest from anywhere between 12 to 18 hours so make the dough the night before. Instant dough does not work as it needs to be well fermented. 

Secret 3: Turn up the oven to the highest temperature. Keep your baking tray or cast iron griddle close to the bottom shelf so it gets pre-heated with the oven’s direct heat. This will ensure that the crust is crispy and the edge is bubbly.

Secret 4: Shaping the pizza dough is very important. Add dry flour to the surface you will work on, now place the dough on it. Start by using your fingertips to form the crust around the edges. Now place the circle on your knuckles to pull the dough across your hands and stretch it gently to make it larger. Try and aim for a 10-inch circle. Pinch the holes in case any appear; don’t worry about them.

Secret 5: Sprinkle some semolina on a flat baking tray before you put your rolled-out dough on it. The semolina gives traction to the pizza so it can be slid easily into the oven. Note: Do not overload your pizza base with toppings or it may get difficult to slide off the tray.

Now slide your pizza off onto the preheated tray in the oven. A pre-heated tray gives the best crispy base. Do not keep opening the door and let the pizza cook. You can get a sneak peek through the oven door, but do not open it. 

Don’t beat yourself up if you are too lazy to make the pizza base; you can always buy pizza base mix, pizza sauce, and dried herbs from Wingreens World and cook up a storm at home. You can get some flavoured dips made with Greek yogurt online. Wingreens World has a range of flavoured Greek yogurt dips, which are perfect to dip your crusts in. Tastes heavenly!!!