Have you tried making pizza at home, but it doesn’t entirely turn out how you hoped? Homemade pizza mistakes are easy to make!
There is so much to think about, like the proper oven setting or what pizza cooking utensils to use. But with a bit of practice, you can soon become a famous pizza chef in your home restaurant.
Making your pizza at home is the best. You can make it both delicious and healthy. But you need to know what homemade pizza mistakes to avoid.
Keep reading this guide to find out about eight homemade pizza mistakes and how to avoid them!
- Overstretching Your Dough
Overstretching your dough is not good! Even if you love your thin crust pizza, there is such a thing as dough that is too thin.
When you overstretch your dough, it causes it to tear. And even worse, all your pizza toppings fall right off.
Using a rolling pin for your pizza dough may make it the perfect thickness, but it will become dense and tough to chew. So leave your rolling pin for those apple pies instead and never for your pizza!
- Sauce Straight From the Jar
Think about it. You’re going through all that trouble to make the perfect pizza dough from scratch. So why would you want to pour store-bought sauce from a jar all over it?
It’s all too easy to tell the difference between sauce from aisle seven and sauce you make from fresh ingredients at home. Try a homemade sauce on for size. Fresh tomato sauce, oregano, onions, and mushrooms can spice up your evening!
- Burning Your Pizza Cheese
Your pizza cheese should be white and a beautiful stretchy texture that melts in your mouth! There can be a few brown spots here and there, but your cheese shouldn’t be brown, black, and dry!
The solution is to cook your pizza in stages. For example, put your sauce on the crust first and then cook it about halfway. Then pull it out of the oven and add your toppings and cheese and cook the rest of the way. You will end up with cheese perfection!
- Overloading Your Pizza With Toppings
If you ask any pizza chef about one of the biggest mistakes people make when baking a pizza at home, they all have the same answer—using too many toppings!
First, if you load down your pizza crust, it will keep it from baking correctly. And your crust will never turn out light and fluffy. Overloading with toppings is one of those times that less is more.
What you can do is stick with three of your favorite toppings at the most. You want each bite of your pizza to be a beautiful balance of flavors. Not to mention you won’t be able to taste your homemade sauce and crust.
- Using Cheap Cheese
Take your cheese options seriously. Don’t think you can use any cheese you please, and expect your pizza to turn out tasting fabulous. So now isn’t the time to buy an enormous block of processed cheese.
Not all cheese is the same, and not all cheese should be on your pizza. And while shredded cheese from a bag serves its purpose, it’s not the best choice for your pizza.
Decadent cheese will make for a more decadent pizza. Use fresh mozzarella, gorgonzola, provolone, matured cheddar, or pecorino-romano cheese. Don’t be afraid to go bold with your pizza cheese options.
- Not Enough Oven Heat
The physics of pizza cooking is a real thing! It’s easy to forget the best-tasting pizza cooks at extremely high temperatures. Brick ovens at a pizza restaurant heat to at least 700 degrees!
Most standard ovens in your home only reach 450 to 500 degrees, so unless you have a high-powered range, you won’t get the heat you need. A cookie sheet can’t get hot enough, either.
A solution is to invest in a pizza stone. A pizza stone will get hotter than your oven and will help your pizza become crisp and delicious! Your oven may not be hot enough, but the pizza stone will bring the heat you need.
- Your Pizza Crust Is Floppy and Soggy
Sometimes pizzas are made to be floppy, like Neapolitan pizza. But if you’re making a traditional American-style pizza, then the crust needs to stay put when you pick it up.
Usually, this happens if you load too many toppings on the crust or you haven’t let your pizza cool off for long enough before diving in for the plunge.
Your solution is to try adding half the amount of toppings and pizza sauce. And go easier on the cheese too.
You also want to allow your pizza to cool on a rack for at least five minutes before you slice into it. The rack gives the steam a chance to escape through the bottom of the pizza. And no steam to reabsorb back into your crust, making it soggy.
- Peeking at Your Pizza While It’s Cooking
It’s so tempting to peek at your pizza. You want to check out how well your crust is crisping up. But take your hands off the oven door and take a step back.
Every time you open your oven door, you let the heat out and mess up your pizza baking process. You can lose almost 50 degrees of heat each time you open up that door.
Learn to step away and trust your oven temperature and timer to do the work. In no time at all, you will have the timing down to a fine art.
And don’t feel too bad if your first few homemade pizza attempts fall flat. Order a delicious pizza instead.
Homemade Pizza Mistakes
Now you know what homemade pizza mistakes not to make, you’re well on your way to becoming the pizza star of your kitchen.
With a bit of practice, your pizza will taste like you had it delivered from a professional!
If you enjoyed this guide, then check us out for more tips and fun!