On picky pizza-making instructions

I’ve posted several pizza recipes on my blog over the years, and two in particular have very precise equipment/method instructions.

(Those two recipes are the basic pizza crust recipe and the whole wheat pizza recipe.)

And sometimes readers are like, “Uhhh, Kristen, I think you are overcomplicating matters here.”

I know there are lots of ways to make easy, quick pizza.

But I also know that there’s lots of easy, quick, Very Not Good™ pizza out there.

And if you only know how to make forgettable/awful pizza, you are likely to opt for takeout pizza.

Or you’ll make homemade pizza that no one wants to eat, which ends up being wasteful.

Now, I know not everyone is as picky about their food as I am. Which is totally ok! As long as you’re eating what makes you happy, it’s all good.

But I posted the two detailed pizza recipes precisely because I know there are a lot of people out there who are unhappy with their homemade pizza.*

And I was one of them until I learned a thing or two about ingredients and methods.

*I actually posted the whole wheat pizza recipe because my friend Stacy messaged me letting me know that her homemade whole wheat pizza was rather awful. As in, her family didn’t want to eat it!

If you’re happy with your current pizza situation (whether it’s making an easy version or buying pizza), then just ignore all of my specific directions and carry on like the boss you are.

But if you’re feeling like your homemade pizza is meh or worse, the stuff I posted is for you because there are common pizza-making problems that are fixable.

(For instance, learning that you need to preheat your pizza stone at 500&° for an hour was a huge revelation to me, and it made my pizza so much better than the flabby stuff I was turning out before. Your pizza is only going to be so good if you bake it in a 350° oven!)

Anyway, once you get the hang of the fixes, it’s not actually all that hard.

It’s kind of like yogurt-making.   It feels SO complicated at first, but once you’ve done it a few times, you can go on auto-pilot.

Pizza Recipes

If you’re feeling inspired to give this a try, here are some recipes to get you started.

Pizza Bagels

(easy and quick; not as good as homemade pizza, but great for hot summer days)

French Bread Pizza

(same deal as pizza bagels!)

Basic Homemade Pizza

This is the regular ol’ pizza crust recipe that I use, along with lots of tips for making your pizza better.

Whole Wheat Pizza

It’s 60% whole wheat, and you get to make the dough the day before, which can be super convenient on a busy day.   And it’s pretty tasty! I was surprised at how non-offensive the whole wheat ended up being.

Geez. I am so wordy once you put me in front of a keyboard. I thought I’d write just a thing or two about pizza making and here I am, over 500 words later.

Happy (500°, baked on a stone, made with King Arthur bread flour) pizza-making, friends. 😉

P.S. In case you were wondering, I did some detailed calculations on the cost of homemade pizza vs. takeout.