Technique
The hand skills that make the difference: stretching without killing the crust, getting the pizza off the peel, and reading the colour while it bakes.
11 guides in this hub
A perfect dough can still end up as a bad pizza. The last few minutes – stretching, topping, launching and turning – are where most home pizzas go wrong, and they are all skills you can learn with a bit of practice.
Start with stretching the dough without pressing the air out of the rim, then learn how to launch the pizza from the peel without it sticking. If your pizzas come out burnt underneath and pale on top, there is a guide for that too.
Guides on this topic
More to read
Guide · 1 min
Leoparding – what the spots actually are
Leopard spots are not an AVPN requirement but the result of a hot dome and the right fermentation. The chemistry, and how to get them without a burnt base.
Guide · 2 min
Baking temperature and time – from 250 to 485 degrees
The same pizza needs 90 seconds in a wood-fired oven and nine minutes in a home oven. The table linking floor temperature to time, colour and dough tweaks.
Guide · 2 min
Turning in the oven – three turns in ninety seconds
In a hot oven the pizza is decided in seconds. How to turn it towards the fire, how to read the rim and how to stop the same side burning black.
Guide · 1 min
Launching – get the pizza off the peel every time
Your pizza sticks because you are too slow, not because the peel is wrong. On semola versus flour, peel angle and a rhythm that works even for beginners.
Guide · 2 min
Stretching – push the gas towards the rim, never out of it
From dough ball to 30 centimetres without flattening the rim. The hand movements step by step, plus the three mistakes behind a thin rim and a holey middle.