Forget what you may have heard or read about it being impossible to make great pizza at home without a professional oven. It IS possible! While it doesn’t require a lot of fancy tools, there are definitely a few pieces that make your life easier and your pizzas more delicious. Here are a few of our top picks.
-
ProductMastering Pizza
If someone’s going to teach us to make pizza—real pizza—then that someone had better be stark raving mad about it. And Philadelphia chef-restaurateur Marc Vetri is. Trust him when he promises in the early pages of his new book to “help you make better pizza in whatever oven you have with whatever dough you want.” (By “whatever dough,” he means, of course, any one of the 20 obsessively perfected dough recipes from this book.) -
ProductEmile Henry Flame Pizza Stone
We're especially fond of this baking stone because it's made from flameproof glazed ceramic that can withstand temperatures up to 900°F, so you can use it both in your oven and on your grill, for year-round pizza baking. It’s also easier to clean than traditional unglazed pizza stones. -
IngredientType 00 Flour
If you have a recipe calling for 00 flour, an Italian specialty flour, it's worth seeking it out. The flour is very finely ground and powder-soft, but it also has high levels of protein and gluten, which give pizza dough a wonderful strength and elasticity. -
ProductRösle Pizza Wheel
Most pizza wheels are a textbook case of bad design: the long handle puts strain on your wrist, and the often-too-dull blade just means you need to press even harder. But with Rösle's ergonomic pizza wheel, you grip at the center of the round blade, better distributing pressure. The super-sharp blade glides easily through even the thickest crusts and it disassembles for easy cleaning. -
ProductAcacia Pizza Peel
A good pizza peel makes easy the seemingly impossible task of getting an uncooked pizza onto the hot pizza stone with its toppings intact. This peel boasts a secure handle and a slanted edge, to help the pizza slide off (a generous dusting of flour or semolina helps too). And it’s made of gorgeously-grained acacia wood, so once the pizza is baked you can take it right to the table for stylish serving. -
ProductCambro Dough Bucket
Cambro’s dough buckets are the pros’ pick for storing dough in the refrigerator while it slowly rises and develops flavor. Paired with the coordinating lid (sold separately), the rigid polycarbonate container is durable, dishwasher- and freezer-safe, and the quart markings make it easy to judge when the dough has risen enough. -
ProductDanish Dough Whisk
This may be the coolest tool in the bread- or pizza-baker’s arsenal. It looks like a piece of modern art, with its curved stiff wire jetting out of a wooden handle, but it is seriously practical. Because the whisk doesn’t have a solid surface, like a spoon, it can move through the dough with much less effort. It is the perfect tool for no-knead dough, as well as stiffer traditional doughs. -
ProductThe Elements of Pizza
You're guaranteed to pick up some new tips from this book by Portland, Oregon, baker Ken Forkish. In addition to more than a dozen dough recipes (from the I Slept in But I Want Pizza Tonight Dough to Overnight Levain Dough, made with wild yeast) he offers many tips for turning out perfect pizza, including raising the oven rack and using the broiler to make a hot oven even hotter.
