Tips, science, and techniques for better pizza dough
Replacing some or all of the water in your pizza dough with beer is a scientifically sound way to boost flavor, improve browning, and get a crispier crust. Here's exactly how to do it.
Push your pizza dough past 70% hydration for a lighter crumb, bigger air pockets, and a crust that shatters when you bite through it. Here's everything you need to know.
Everything you need to make hot honey pizza at home - the origin story, a dough recipe with honey baked in, topping pairings beyond pepperoni, and the one rule you can't break.
Make your own hot honey in 15 minutes with three ingredients. Four variations from mild to face-melting, plus tips on dialing in the heat and storing it.
A look at Colorado style pizza - the honey wheat, braided-crust Mountain Pie born at Beau Jo's. What makes it different, where it came from, and how to make your own version at home.
Don't throw out that extra dough ball. From garlic knots and calzones to cinnamon rolls and breakfast pizza, here's how to turn leftover pizza dough into something worth making.
A pizza stone is one of the most accessible upgrades for home pizza. Here's everything you need to know - materials, preheat times, launch technique, and care.
Your grill can make better pizza than your oven. Here's how to do it on gas, charcoal, or a smoker - plus tips for frozen pizza on the grill.
Not all pizza reheats the same. This guide ranks every method - oven, air fryer, skillet, microwave, and more - and matches the best approach to your specific pizza style.
Par-baking gives your crust a head start so you get a crisp, fully-cooked bottom every time - even in a regular home oven. Here's exactly how to do it.
Everything you need to make great pizza at home - from a dead-simple same-day recipe to the upgrades that take your crust from good to extraordinary.
If you've ever had a pizza stick to your peel and dump its toppings onto a 500°F stone, you already know why dusting flour matters. Here's the complete guide to semolina for pizza - on the peel and in the dough.
A pizza steel is one of those rare upgrades you notice on the very first use. Here's everything you need to know - thickness, placement, seasoning, and the broiler trick that changes everything.
Cold fermentation is the single biggest upgrade you can make to homemade pizza. Here's a complete guide to doing it right - timing, flour, yeast, and troubleshooting.
Biga is the secret behind the best Italian pizza crust. Here's a complete guide to making this traditional pre-ferment - from mixing to integration, with troubleshooting tips.
Not all stand mixers can handle pizza dough. Here's what to look for - motor type, torque, dough hooks - plus honest comparisons of KitchenAid, Ankarsrum, Bosch, Kenwood, and dedicated spiral mixers for every pizza style.
It might be the most fought-over question in food - does pineapple belong on pizza? From its accidental Canadian origin to Gino Sorbillo serving it in Naples, here's both sides of the debate and how to make pineapple pizza that actually works.
Which yeast is actually best for pizza dough? A deep dive into instant vs. active dry vs. fresh vs. sourdough - plus how much to use, brand recommendations, and a conversion chart.
Learn how poolish, biga, and sourdough preferments give pizza dough deeper flavor, better oven spring, and a lighter crumb - with step-by-step instructions for each method.
The flour you choose affects everything about your pizza - stretch, rise, chew, and browning. This guide breaks down protein content, the W-index, and which flour to use for every style and oven type.
Hydration is the single biggest lever you have over your pizza's texture, rise, and crumb structure. This guide covers what it means, how to calculate it, what ranges work for different styles, and how to handle dough once you push past 65%.
No yeast? No waiting. Here's a reliable quick-rise pizza dough recipe using baking powder, plus the styles that actually work best without fermentation - and the tricks that make a chemical-leavened crust look and taste like it took all day.
Sticky pizza dough isn't always a problem - but when it is, the fix depends on the cause. Here are the six most common reasons and what to actually do about each one, from mixing through stretching.
Pizza dough is a living thing - and it doesn't last forever. Here's how to tell the difference between beautifully aged and genuinely spoiled, plus storage tips to get the most out of every batch.
Cold-fermented pizza dough lasts 1 to 5 days in the fridge, with days 2-3 being the sweet spot for flavor and handling. Here's what affects shelf life, how to tell when it's gone too far, and what to do with over-fermented dough.
Not all pepperoni cups - it depends on the casing, the stuffing process, and how you bake it. Here's the science behind cupping pepperoni, the brands worth buying, and the oven tricks that make it work at home.
Thawing frozen pizza dough the wrong way leads to dense, unworkable crusts. Here are three methods ranked from best to fastest, plus the one step most people skip that makes all the difference.
Freezing pizza dough lets you do the slow fermentation work once and bank it for later. But ice crystals can destroy yeast and gluten if you're not careful. Here's how to freeze, store, thaw, and bake it right.
Store-bought pizza dough isn't cheating - it's smart. Here's where to find the best fresh, frozen, and gluten-free options, plus how to handle them so your homemade pizza actually turns out great.