Pizza Formulas

Making your own pizza can be a lengthy, but rewarding process. Imagine cooking the same pizzas that you have enjoyed from local pizzerias. From the thing crust pizza to New York Style pizza to the Sicilian Pizza, you can learn the formulas and recipes for these popular dishes. You can personalize your home made pizza by adding your favorite toppings that may not even be available at local pizzerias. Creating your very own pizza requires patience and some good following of directions. So take some time to learn pizza formulas and create the perfect pizza for yourself, family and guests, and serve and enjoy it with pride.

The very first step to making your own pizza is to prepare the dough. So pay attention to this important part in the formula for pizza preparation.

Any one who has ever created home made pasta knows that it shows little resemblance to the bland dried product that is sold in the supermarket. There is nothing wrong with using a prefab pizza dough base, but if you really love pizza you deserve to taste the best pizza dough. After mastering the formulas and techniques for home made pizza, you are likely never to return to the pre-made pizza market. Personal preference decides what pizza dough is perfect for you, and at the end of the day homemade pizza dough is made from flour, yeast, salt and water. However, great attention must be paid to the process for the dough to come out perfect.

Strong white flour is best candidate for pizza formulas and recipes. Although plain flour may be used as well, it does not have the same high gluten content and therefore the finished pizza dough will not be as elastic. Watching a pizza chef doing tricks with the dough is proof enough how elastic the dough should be, they throw it in the air and catch it with their fingers without it leaving a dent in the dough. This shows that the gluten has done its work and the pizza dough is strong and flexible. Although t it is technically possible to get the pizza dough to rise faster by placing the dough in a warm place, experts tend to agree that the finished pizza dough is best left to rise naturally, whatever the pizza dough recipe and formula. After kneading the dough should be left to double in size naturally. This should be a process that is monitored by the eye and not the clock. The process can take anything between 1 hour and 2 hours depending on the temperature and the amount of draught.

The kneading process eliminates excess gas produced by the yeast and actually pushes the air out of the pizza dough. Many people find the action of kneading the dough very therapeutic and chefs are often asked when the dough is kneaded sufficiently. The answer lies in the feel with your hands, as with practice you'll master this process.

Pizza dough should be kept in the refrigerator for several days and frozen pizza dough can be kept for several months. When it's time to start baking your pizza dough, you are probably using a conventional oven rather than one fired from the volcanic rocks of Vesuvius. The baking time is always intense and short and the temperature should be 220°C or 425°F. The pizza dough should always be placed on the upper shelves of the oven, and while you can cook more than one pizza base at once, they should never be placed at less than the middle shelf. The reason is because heat rises and you cannot get the most efficient heat at the bottom of an oven.

If your oven has a glass door, baking the dough becomes an easy process. If the pizza has a rim then the dough develops blisters and it is golden brown, without a rim the golden brown color of the edge indicates that the pizza is ready to be eaten. If the oven does not have a glass door it's more difficult to check if your pizza is ready. It's important to remember that every time you open the oven door, heat is lost and the chances for the pizza becoming perfect slip away.

The baking process, depending on the oven, takes between ten to fifteen minutes and it will take longer if you have more than one pizza inside. A thicker crust will also take longer to cook than a thinner crust.

The shape and size of your home made pizza depends on factors such as how many people are going to eat and how traditional you want to make the pizza. Not all Pizzas are round in shape. For example, the Sorrento region in Italy is famous for its rectangular pizza. Though in theory pizzas can be any shape, a shape such as a crescent is not practical to pick up, as the filling will hold in the center and fall of the edge. Really the only important thing you have to decide is how thick or thin you want your pizzas to come out.

For the traditionalists regarding Italian pizza dough recipes, there are two classes of thought dominated by the Romans and the Neapolitans. The Neapolitans prefer a thicker pizza with a rim. The dough should be a little over 3mm or 1/8 of an inch thick. The edges are a little thicker so that they will puff up in the cooking process. This means that this will form a natural barrier and keep the filling in the center. The Roman style pizza does not have a rim because their pizza fillings are more viscous and they tend to stay in place and not have a tendency to slide off the pizza. The pizza is never more than 3mm or 1/8 of an inch thick.

Let's take a look at the formulas for one of the most popular pizzas in the United States, the New York Style Pizza. You know it's the pizza you find across many local pizzerias, thin crust, thick crispy outer crust, with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. The New York Style Pizza is your typical plain cheese pizza that you have probably enjoyed in your lifetime. So take a moment and learn how the formula to create your very own New York Style Pizza.

No pans or baking trays are used to bake New York style pizzas, the pizza dough is placed directly on the oven shelf. This can be achieved at home by the use of a pizza stone, however they are extremely expensive for what they are and as such are not really a feasible proposition. Not to worry, there are practical alternatives to make a New York Style Pizza. Unglazed quarry tiles are perfect. The theory behind a pizza stone is that they are so hot the stone acts like a brick and sears the dough drawing out the water and making the pizza dough crisp on the outside and still soft and bread like in the center. To do this the pizza stones are heated in the oven first, but an unglazed quarry tile has exactly the same effect.

When preparing your New York Style Pizza, you will need 1 1/2 cups warm water (105F), 4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 1/2 teaspoon of granulated sugar, 2 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of yeast, and 1/2 cup cornmeal.

Here are the step by step procedures and formulas for making NY style pizza.

In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and salt in water. Add oil and flour and stir with heavy spoon for 1 minute. Turn out to a lightly floured surface and press into a circle. Sprinkle yeast evenly over dough and knead for 12 minutes. Divide dough into portions: 6 oz. for Calzones, 18 oz. for 12 inch, 25 oz. for 15 inch Roll each portion into a ball. You want a dough ball without visible seams except the bottom. Place dough balls in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to proof for 1-2 hours at room temperature to use the same day, or store in refrigerator to use the next day. Place dough ball on lightly floured surface, and lightly flour the top. Use fingertips to evenly flatten out the dough ball. Work from the edges to the center press dough into a 12" circle. Place both hands within the shell edge and stretch with fingertips and palms maintaining an even pressure. Or, use a lightly floured rolling pin to stretch to desired shape. Sprinkle cornmeal or semolina on pizza peel (a wooden paddle with a handle to slide the pizza in the oven) or a cutting board. The cornmeal allows the pizza to slide onto the stone easily. After topping the pizza and adding sauce and cheese, you are ready to cook it. Shake the peel or cutting board to make sure none of the dough is sticking. Carefully slide the pizza into the oven. Bake in a 500 degree oven for approximately 20-25 minutes, until the crust turns golden. There you go, enjoy your home made NY style pizza, and brag about it by sharing it with others.