Perfect Homemade Pizza Every Time

Although home delivery is easy, making homemade pizza isn't as difficult or time-consuming as you think. In the time it takes you to place and receive your order you could be well on your way to more wholesome (and healthy) homemade pizza recipes.

Whatever homemade pizza recipes you may favor, there are a few basic rules to follow that always translate into a better pizza pie:

• Always use the freshest ingredients possible when creating homemade pizza. For example, grate the cheese yourself instead of buying shredded cheese. Try making your own tomato sauce or cutting up fresh veggies instead of using canned ones.
• Always scatter the toppings more toward the edges of the pizza than the middle. The middle of a pizza gets cut into the tips of each slice, so just for basic ease, you want as few toppings in that high-traffic area as possible. By sprinkling the toppings toward the edge, you also create a more even distribution of flavor.
• Buy yourself a pizza stone. Cooking the perfect pizza crust is usually the biggest problem with making your own pizza. Most people do not have an oven in their home that can reach a high enough temperature to cook the crust correctly. Pizza stones are clay tablets that you heat up and then cook the pizza on. The clay slab absorbs the heat and distributes it evenly to the crust.
• Try to bake the crust two times for the best results. A common problem with homemade pizza crust is that it can sometimes fail to cook evenly. If you don't own a pizza stone, then you want to place the pizza crust in a hot oven, usually 350 degrees, for about 8 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven, add the sauce and toppings, and bake it again as directed by the recipe.
• Avoid excess water if you're having problems with a soggy pizza. Anything with high water content that you add to the top of the pizza is going to release the water into the pizza when baked. Anything with water droplets covering it will do the same thing. Make sure to pat all veggies and meats dry after washing and/or cooking them to remove this excess moisture.
• Precook vegetables with high water content. In addition to patting dry your pizza toppings, you sometimes need to precook them as well. The high water content in some veggies, such as onions and bell peppers, can make a pizza soggy. The water needs to be reduced before the item is used as a topping. Lightly sauté the veggies, pat dry and then add them to your pizza.