Pizza is one of the most popular dishes in the world, but also one of the most difficult to master. We've all tried making our own pizza dough without ever achieving a result comparable to our favorite pizzeria.

Should we all buy a traditional wood-fired oven imported from Italy and specialized flours? Not necessarily! A professional result is within everyone's reach; you just need to know a few rules and what your equipment will allow you to do.

Here are 3 basic rules to know in order to become an amateur pizza maker!

1. The rule of three for pizza dough: hydration, temperature, and cooking time

A professional-quality pizza is within everyone's reach, but not all dough styles can be made with the same equipment! This rule should generally guide your choices at your next pizza night!

Let's take the Neapolitan style as an example. Typically, a Neapolitan pizza will follow the following rule:

• Hydration: 65%
• Cooking time: 90 seconds
• Oven temperature: 900°F

There's a perfect balance here to achieve that typical speckled and delicious crust. The low hydration is counterbalanced by the rapid baking at an extreme temperature, which sears the dough without giving it time to dry out. Baking this type of pizza in a conventional oven will usually yield a lower-quality result, as the lower temperature and longer baking time will dry out the dough.

If you don't have a portable pizza oven , we recommend opting for an Al Taglio recipe, which typically has a hydration level of 80% and is better suited to slower cooking. Alternatively, you can achieve a similar result to a Neapolitan pizza by using a pizza pan for your conventional oven and increasing the hydration level to 70%.

You can easily get the proportions for this type of project using our easy pizza dough calculator ! Feel free to try it out and share your results with us!

2. Flours and their myths

If you talk to pizza purists, you'll undoubtedly hear all sorts of conflicting information about flour. While it's true that each flour brings its own unique character to the final result, it's wrong to believe that only 00 flour imported from Italy can produce a professional-quality pizza. This type of flour is milled as finely as possible, ensuring a soft texture. However, in our opinion, even an all-purpose flour can yield extraordinary results.

What will have the biggest impact is definitely adding too much flour at each stage of the process. Pizza dough is sticky! The more flour you add while kneading, the less sticky it will be, but the harder it will become to stretch and the more prone it will be to dry out. Remember the rule of three and the importance of hydration in the recipe. The more flour you add, the less hydrated the dough will be. Of course, you'll need to add some flour to your work surface, but always keep in mind that you're altering the recipe when you flour your work surface. So, take a few extra minutes to knead, then let it rest to get the best possible result!

3. Lifting time

We live in a world where everything happens very quickly. Pizza, on the other hand, wants to take its time. A quick web search is enough to convince you that most people would like to make their pizza dough and put it in the oven within minutes. As useful as these recipes are for a busy evening, it's important to understand that the rising time allows the dough to ferment and become flavorful!

A quick pizza dough recipe typically contains a lot of yeast and will produce a light result with minimal rising time. A traditional pizza, on the other hand, usually requires 48 hours of rising to reach its full potential. Try this at your next pizza night: prepare a traditional dough two days in advance and a quick one on the day itself, then compare the results. You won't be disappointed!

Feel free to send us your own tips and tricks and share your results on our Facebook page !