Pizza Dough and Heat: The Art of Pizza at Home

Why is it that no one can re-create the taste of pizza from a restaurant at home? In this New York Times article. Oliver Strand explores just what it is that makes pizza so great. First of all, it’s those pizza ovens that fire up at 800-1,000 degrees. Impossible to re-create at home, although apparently people with self-cleaning ovens have been attempting it. Staying on the safe side of things, however, there is a way to improve the taste of homemade pizza in your own kitchen.

The key is the dough. First (and apparently, this is a secret straight from Naples, Italy), let the dough rise overnight. Yes, overnight. While most recipes recommend 3 hours, the overnight process allows the dough to gain structure, and more importantly, enables the starch to transform into "flavorful sugars." No need to add sugar or honey to a pizza dough crust. Let the natural chemistry work its magic.

Another key may be the fact that many restaurants use "00 Italian flour," which designates the milling rate (although it also has less protein than all-purpose flour). Often, too, restaurants mix flours to give the dough a more complex flavor.

The final element appears to be the "starter," or "sponge," which serves as a natural replacement for yeast and water. Strand recommends creating this with flour and unsweetened pineapple juice, and later building it by mixing in spring water. He takes his recipe from Artisan Breads Every Day and claims the process is easy.

Finally, in cooking the pizza, use toppings sparingly and bake on a pizza stone, which you have preheated for an hour in the oven before baking the pizza. Allowing the stone to gain heat improves the baking process, along with raising the temperature as high as possible. Short of owning a wood-burning pizza oven, these steps take the process as close to restaurant quality as possible.