How to make pizza at home

Marko's pizza kit comes with everything you need to make one a 12" (medium) sized pizza. Your kit will include:

• 1 dough ball (255g)
• 4oz pizza sauce
• 1oz garlic oil for the crust

1: Take care of your dough

This is a cold-proofed pizza dough, so it will be good in the fridge until Sunday, Jan 22. When you are ready to make pizza, bring the dough up to room temperature – at least 20 minutes, up to 2 hours

If you won't use it before then you can freeze it in the container it's already in. You can freeze the dough, sauce, and oil for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge. Do not thaw on the counter, the yeast will grow unevenly.

2: Pre-heat your oven

• Wipe down the inside of your oven with a wet cloth to remove any oil build-up. If you skip this step your house will be a smokey mess.
• Move your oven rack to the lowest point (do this while the oven is cold).
• Pre-heat your oven to its highest bake setting, at least 30–45 minutes before baking. If you have convection, use it!

Notes: You don't need to use the broiler function. If your oven is unreliable or doesn't get very hot, use the cast iron pan or 13x9 pan method below.

3: Shape your pizza

• Toss the dough in flour (semolina flour is ideal) and then dust your counter with flour
• Place the dough on a well-floured countertop and create a rough outline of your crust. Press your fingers into the dough, rotate the dough, and continue around the full pizza. If the dough sticks to the counter, add more flour.
• Press down in the center of the dough to flatten it out.
• Use your dominant hand to hold the crust in a C-shape, and use your other hand in a fanning motion to gently stretch the dough. Rotate the dough after each stretch. If the dough sticks to the counter, add more flour.
• You can stretch the dough by using two fists to pull it. Your fists provides more surface area, using your fingers could rip the dough.
• If you’re feeling ambitious you can slap the dough, with your hands like ping-pong paddles.
• The easiest way is to hold the dough by the crust and let gravity pull it down. Keep rotating the pizza.
• If you end up with a hole in the dough that’s totally fine. Dip your finger in water, tap both sides of the hole, then fold the dough over to close the hole.
• Move the pizza dough to a baking sheet – use aluminum, stainless, or carbon steel.

4: Assembly your pizza

• Sauce your pizza – add a little bit at a time and move it around with the back of a spoon in a circular motion. You can always add more, you can’t take it away.
• Visualize your pizza as finished slices – you want to keep the toppings closer to the crust, not the middle
• Start by going around the outside of the pizza.
• Leave space between your toppings.
• You can put cheese over top of the sauce, or on top of the toppings. My favourite method is to put cubes of cheese on at the end.

5: Bake your pizza

• Place the pizza in the oven and bake for 12–14 minutes until the crust is brown. You can peak underneath to see if the bottom needs more time.
• Remove from the oven and brush the crust with garlic oil. If you don’t have a pastry brush you can spoon it on, or use it as dipping sauce.
• Move to a cutting board to slice. If you don’t have a pizza wheel use scissors! Optionally top your pizza with chili flakes, chili oil, or hot honey.

Alternate methods

Cast iron / stainless / carbon steel pan

If your oven isn’t reliable, or doesn’t get very hot – or you just like pan pizza – your best option is to use a heavy, oven-safe pan made of cast iron, carbon steel, or stainless steel. Because you are using high heat I don’t recommend using a fossil fuel-based non-stick coating like Teflon/PFAS, which will break down in the oven.

Pan measurements are for the top of the pan, not the bottom. A 12” pan has a 10” base, so adjust your dough size to fit the base of the pan. Larger dough volumes will be thicker/fluffier and may need marginally more cooking time.

• Pre-heat your oven as high as it goes.

• Pre-heat your pan on medium for a few minutes, then add 2 tbsp olive oil. It should be shimmering but not smoking. I don’t recommend using butter because it will burn and become bitter.

• Add your stretched dough into the pan – it wills start to sizzle and cook and rise quickly.

• Working quickly, add in your sauce, cheese, and other toppings.

• Move the pizza to your pre-heated over to finish cooking. Remove it when you see browning on the top of the crust and cooked toppings, another 5 minutes.

• Remove it from the pan with an offset spatula, the bottom should be very crispy, deeply golden, and lightly fried.

A 13x9 pan

You will need 2 dough balls to fill a 13x9 pan.

• Preheat the oven as high as it goes.

• Add some olive oil to the pan and rub it around the edges (you can also use butter to make it taste like Pizza Hut).

• To shape the dough, push it down with your fingers while pulling. Then pick up a corner and stretch slightly past the edge.

• Assemble your pizza. A huge benefit of using a pan is that you can put cheese right into the edges of the pan for some crispy cheese moments.

• Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the sides and top show browning.

• Allow to cool slightly before removing from the pan.

• Since the crust is thicker and fluffier, the garlic oil makes a great dipping sauce for the pizza in this instance.

Probably Worth Sharing

If you'd like to follow along with Marko's recipes at home, you can follow Marko in a few places:

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Marko recently wrote about his experience with pizza, including all of the recipes used in this kit if you want to make them at home.