How to Make Pizza at Home

Before you make your first dough, let's save you months of frustration. These are the mistakes we see over and over — and they're all easy to fix.

1. Measuring flour by volume. A "cup" of flour can vary by 30% depending on how you scoop it. Use a scale. Always grams.
2. Not enough heat. Your home oven maxes at 550°F. Real pizza ovens hit 900°F+. A baking steel helps bridge the gap.
3. Fighting the dough. If it springs back when you stretch, let it rest 10-15 more minutes. Time fixes most dough problems.
4. Too many toppings. Less is more. Overloaded pizza = soggy center.
5. Skipping the preheat. Your oven (or steel/stone) needs at least 45 minutes to fully saturate with heat.

Pizza dough is just flour, water, salt, and yeast. That's it. The magic is in the ratios, and our Dough Calculator gives you exact gram measurements every time.

Start with Neapolitan style — it's the most forgiving for beginners. 65% hydration is the sweet spot: wet enough for good texture, dry enough to handle.

Mix. Knead for 5 minutes. Cover and let rise 8-24 hours in the fridge (cold fermentation develops more flavor). That's it. You just made pizza dough.

There are three types of flour you'll hear about. Here's the honest truth:

Our recommendation: Start with bread flour from the grocery store. When you're ready to level up, try Caputo "00" — it makes a noticeable difference in texture and charring.

Here's the secret most pizza blogs don't tell you: your oven is the bottleneck, not your recipe.

A home oven maxes at 500-550°F. Neapolitan pizza needs 900°F+. That's a 350° gap. You have three options:

1. Baking steel on top rack, max heat, 45-min preheat. The minimum upgrade. Gets you 80% of the way there. Check Price — Baking Steel
2. Broiler method. Steel on top rack + broiler = 700°F+ effective temp. Best results from a home oven.
3. Outdoor pizza oven. 900°F+, 60-second pizza, the real deal. See our comparison →

The day of:

1. Take dough out of fridge 1-2 hours before baking. Room temp dough stretches easier.
2. Preheat oven to max with steel/stone for 45 minutes minimum.
3. Flour your surface. Press the dough from center outward, leaving a 1" rim. Never use a rolling pin for Neapolitan.
4. Transfer to a floured pizza peel.
5. Sauce sparingly (3 tablespoons). Fresh mozzarella torn into chunks. A drizzle of olive oil.
6. Slide onto the hot steel. Bake 5-7 minutes (home oven) or 60-90 seconds (pizza oven).

You don't need much. Here's what actually matters, in order of impact:

1. Digital scale ($15) — Non-negotiable. Baking is chemistry.
2. Baking steel ($89) — The #1 upgrade for home oven pizza.
3. Pizza peel ($25) — Gets pizza in and out safely.
4. Good flour ($12) — Caputo 00 for Neapolitan, bread flour for NY.
5. Proofing containers ($15) — Way better than plastic wrap.

Total: under $160. Or check out our curated Starter Kit for under $100 →