Homemade pizza can be a major production. If you make your own dough, cook your own pizza sauce and grate your own cheese, pizza-making can take hours. If, however, you purchase the raw materials already prepared, but assemble them at home, you can bake a pizza that is near pizzeria-quality with no more than 10 or 15 minutes' effort. Look in your grocery store for a refrigerated bag of pizza dough, grated cheese and either a jar or a vacuum-sealed bag of pizza sauce. They are the key to a tasty, but simple, homemade pizza.
Step 1
Put the pizza stone in the oven and preheat it to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step 2
Dust the peel lightly with the corn meal.
Step 3
Flour your hands and the counter. Pat the dough out into a disc. Then pick the dough up and begin stretching it. Pass it from hand to hand, letting the weight of the dough hanging over your hands pull and stretch the dough. Stretch the dough until the pizza is the size you'd like.
Step 4
Dock the crust by pricking it with the fork. Stab the fork into the crust at 1/4-inch intervals, about 7/8 of the way through the crust, all over the surface. If you want your edges to rise higher than the center of the pizza, don't dock them.
Step 5
Spread the pizza sauce over the surface of the pizza using the back of a spoon.
Step 6
Add toppings of your choice. Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the toppings.
Step 7
Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone in the oven using the baking peel. Bake the pizza for 12 to 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown.
Step 8
Remove the pizza to a cooling rack using the baking peel. Wait at least five minutes before slicing it.
Tips and Warnings
- Taking the dough out the refrigerator a half hour before you plan to use it will make it easier to work with. It's not necessary to throw and spin the dough to stretch it, though you can if you'd like. You can stretch the dough just fine by passing it from hand to hand. Make the dough a little larger than you'd like your pizza to be, as it will shrink a little when it gets on to the peel. If you don't have time to stretch the dough, consider a store-bought crust or even several rounds of pita bread.
- Adding sausage or hamburger to your pizza greatly increases the time it takes to make it. These meats must be cooked before they can be added to the pizza. A faster option is to stick with pepperoni, canned, sliced olives or pineapple chunks, ingredients that require no chopping or cooking. If you didn't dock your pizza enough, you can get air bubbles forming while the pizza is in the oven. Check after five minutes, and stab any bubbles with the fork.
Things You'll Need
- Pizza stone
- Baking peel
- Corn meal
- Flour
- Pizza dough
- Fork
- Spoon
- Pizza sauce
- Toppings of your choice
- Grated mozzarella or Jack cheese
- Cooling rack
- Pizza cutter
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