The Happy Homemaking Blog

When asked what food I would eat every day if I could only have one, my go-to answer has always been: pizza. I really could eat it every day. 

Pizza is a comfort food, it’s almost always delicious, it’s very hard to mess up, and there’s so much to explore in the world of pizza! From frozen pizzas to fancy restaurant pizzas to homemade pizzas, I love it all. Although I haven’t been experimenting in the art of making homemade pizzas for very long, I thought I’d share some tips I’ve learned along the way- plus some flavor ideas if you want to get interesting with your toppings!

Here are some of the pizza-making tips I’ve learned:

1. Play around with dough recipes and find the one that works for you. 

Initially the dough is what kept me from trying to make my own pizza in the first place. Doughs are finicky and they can be intimidating if you don’t have experience in working with them. If you don’t make them correctly they might not rise or they might cook unevenly, leaving you with an uncooked, doughy center. 

But I will say, I’ve tried several different pizza dough recipes, and in my experience pizza doughs are pretty forgiving. You can work a pizza dough a lot more than you can other doughs because a pizza crust isn’t typically meant to be as airy as other doughs. 

This is the pizza dough recipe I have been using.

I really like this recipe and I now use it for most of the pizzas I make, but I have made a few alterations:

• I increase the garlic powder to a ½ teaspoon
• I add a ½ teaspoon of Italian seasoning
• I whisk the dry ingredients in a mixer bowl and then I do all the mixing in the mixer because it’s just so much easier
• I cook the pizza for considerably longer than the recipe says- probably closer to 20-30 minutes. I pretty much cook it as long as I can without making the cheese too dark, because we like gooey cheese on our pizzas. 

As a side note- If you want to take the pressure off of yourself as far as making your own dough, or if you simply need a less time-consuming option, I highly recommend using naan flatbread for your pizza crust. I make pizzas with these quite often, and my husband and I both enjoy these pizzas quite a lot.

2. Use a thick sauce for your pizza.

My husband and I love Prego spaghetti sauce. It’s our favorite brand of tomato sauces and they have so many yummy flavors to try. Originally I thought, why not just use pasta sauce on my pizza? It’s pretty much the same thing. 

But I have since learned that spaghetti sauce is typically too thin and watery to be used as pizza sauce. Tomato sauces that are actually labeled “pizza sauce” should be thicker and better for your pizza. Why? Because if you use a thin sauce your crust will get soggy, it will not cook quite right and may retain a doughy texture, and it’s likely that your sauce will spill off of your pizza and drip onto your oven, creating a mess of a pizza and an oven. 

Although, if you just can’t part with your favorite pasta sauce and you can’t find any pizza sauces you enjoy, you can always thicken your favorite pasta sauce yourself. You can do this by creating a cornstarch and water mixture and adding it to your sauce. You don’t really need measurements, just toss a couple spoonfuls of cornstarch into a mixing bowl and add some water. Add as little water as you can while still keeping that pourable consistency. If you add too little water, you’ll know because the mixture will just be hard and unworkable. Once you have this mixture, whisk it bit by bit (but vigorously) into your sauce. Start with a bit, and add more until your sauce reaches the desired thickness. This must be done while heating the sauce on the stove (at a medium-high heat), as heat is needed in the thickening process.

So if you’re like me and you like a saucy pizza, I definitely recommend a thicker sauce. That leads me into my next tip:

3. Be mindful of the moisture in your pizza.

I know, it’s very tempting to just pile every single topping you love onto your pizza, and trust me, I’ve tried. And you sure can put several different ingredients on your pizza, but just make sure you’re taking the moisture of those ingredients into consideration. 

For example, I love fresh mozzarella and you can absolutely put it on your pizza, but be aware of the fact that that particular cheese will add a lot of moisture to your pizza, so you may want to go easy on your other toppings. If you love veggies on your pizza, I would suggest partially pre-cooking them and patting them dry with paper towels before baking your pizza. Partly because this will drain some of the moisture from them, and also partly because the time it takes to cook pizza is usually not enough time to fully cook veggies through. If you’re thinking of putting raw tomatoes on your pizza (or a similarly wet topping) I would pat it down with a paper towel first.

While thinking about the moisture that your toppings bring to the pizza and trying to keep everything balanced, also try not to make your pizza too heavy with toppings. Too much moisture and too much weight from your toppings will make it very hard for your crust to cook through properly and you may end up with a gooey crust or burnt cheese.

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Now that I’ve given my pizza making tips, here are a few fun topping combos! Although truly, the possibilities are endless. 

• Pizza Bianca- white garlic pizza sauce (the recipe that I use is here), shredded mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, bacon, chicken. 
• Taco Pizza- salsa, ground beef or shredded chicken with taco seasoning, cheddar cheese (we like to use the Taco Blend when making taco inspired things), diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, sour cream, tortilla chip crumbles.
• Margherita Pizza- tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, a drizzle of olive oil. 
• Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza- ranch (if you want a delicious, homemade ranch recipe, the one I use is from this blog post), shredded mozzarella, seasoned chicken, bacon.
• Breakfast Pizza- biscuit crust, country gravy, shredded mozzarella/cheddar cheese mix, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage (pork sausage is my favorite).
• Caprese Pizza-  tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and/or spinach, drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
• Carnitas Pizza- pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, corn, black beans, salsa, seasoned pulled pork, tortilla strips.
• Tuscan Pizza- pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, grated parmesan, sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil, minced or whole garlic.
• Jalapeno Popper Pizza- pizza sauce, shredded pepper jack, shredded mozzarella, diced jalapenos, bacon, dallops of cream cheese.
• Our Personal Combo- garlic pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, thick-sliced bacon, whole garlic cloves, red pepper flakes.

Happy pizza making! Let me know what your favorite pizza toppings are in the comments. 🙂