Thanks, all. Next time I'll remember to use semolina or corn meal under the dough...I remember that my mom used to do that, but I thought I could get away with just using regular flour. Guess not!

I am baking the second pizza now (the dough recipe was enough for two). I had to weasel a sheet of foil under it to be able to keep it in pizza form as I transferred it to the oven.

And I"m going to have a friend who is an accomplished Italian cook show me how to make pizza properly...along with his tiramisu.

gfunkdave
I also noticed that you had green peppers and mushrooms on your pie in your first attempt, just a note that these vegetables in particular leech out a lot of moisture while cooking and can make you crust soggier than expected. I would suggest using very thinly cut slices of green pepper and perhaps pre-roasting or sauteeing your mushrooms beforehand.
I have also recently bought a pizza stone though yet to use for pizza(have baked a bit of bread on it though), but it'll help with your oven temperature issues that most home bakers run into.
Have a look at these forum's lots of good info for pizza making
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/forums/g...nd-flat-breads
http://ruhlman.com/2010/05/homemade-pizza-2.html
http://www.pizzamaking.com/
Good luck and let us know how the latest attempt turned out.

Mmmm, homemade pizza! I've been making my own for years. I used to make my own dough, but later found it easier to just buy a freshly prepared dough from an Italian grocery store. Cheating perhaps, but if you find the right dough it can save a lot of time. I like to stretch it nice and thin. I keep the sauce exceedingly simple: crushed tomatoes. Any brand imported from Italy should do, but the good ones always seem to come in jars as opposed to cans. On top of that, I add some mozzarella, then maybe a topping or two. Some of my favourites are saut�ed mushrooms, roasted red peppers, grilled aubergine and courgette, grilled chicken. I preheat my oven to 500 degrees F for at least half an hour, slide my pizza on to the hot pizza stone and cook it until it's done. Delicious!

I initially form the dough on a greased (olive oil spray works great) & cornmeal-sprinkled pizza pan, spread a thin-layer of cheese over the dough*, then cook it at 475 for 5 minutes on the pan. The pie is then removed from the oven and the sauce and toppings are added. The pizza is then slid from the pan onto the pre-heated stone in the oven and cook for another 7 or 8 minutes. Since using this method I've never had a problem with the pie sticking to either the pan or the stone.

*I learned this method from Washington, DC's old AV and Fio's ristorantes. By baking the cheese onto the crust first you avoid the hazard of having a layer of hot melted cheese slide off the slice onto your lap or chin.

All great ways to make home made pizza. I make it pretty regularly - having a food processor with a dough hook certainly makes light work of kneading dough. I make my base as thin as possible, stick it on a red hot preheated baking sheet in the hottest oven possible & bake it on its own for 2-3 minutes to dry it out before adding my toppings.

I reduce my tomato sauce until it's like jam to get rid of as much moisture as possible to stop the pizza going soggy. Loads of recipe ideas for you here on my blog

what is the proper treatment for using mozzarella di bufala (not dairy cow mozzarella) on a homemade pizza?

we just tried some & even though I used a paper towel to try & dry the cheese ball a bit before slicing and cooking, the pizza was still very 'watery'.

The issue sounds more of limited oven temperature than how wet the cheese is. Pizza cooking tempatures optimally start at 450 degrees C upwards ie they can cook a pizza in around 90 seconds or so - but anything above 300 to 350 normally is fine and so lower temperatures found in domestic ovens often result in sogginess. My indoor pizza oven is set to around 400 degrees and is about right for me.

If you don't have access to a pizza oven - even home table top pizza ovens can be relatively inexpensive and some reach very high temperatures - then a work around would be to put an upturned frying pan or the underside (flat side) of a cast iron steak griddle in an oven that has a top grill and let it heat for twenty to thirty minutes or so under full grill heat - then turn the grill off, and oven on exactly as you carefully place the pizza onto the upturned frying / griddle pan. This will ensure that the base crisps as well as the top is cooking. So the heat may dry your top.

If the temperature is still a challenge then a starting experiment point for the cheese would be to make the pieces smaller so that more surface is exposed to the heat even down to grating if all else fails. On most people's home made pizzas it's the tomato sauce and raw mushroom and raw onion that gives the most moisture problem.

Hope this helps.

thanks for the input, I'm fairly certain the issue wasn't temp as my grill (w/pizza stone) was at 550-600F, I did let the stone get to temp before placing crust on stone.

I think I might try Babaduck's suggestion about getting some moisture out of the sauce before placing on pizza, as well as slicing the cheese into thinner slices.

The sauce should really be cooked down to a thick consistency that you use very thinly - and even at 290 - 300 C (550 to 600F) it's still quite cool for a grill and for pizza hence my suggestion of using metal. Moisture simply oozes and becomes water rather than evaoparates so you might also think about frying things like mushrooms before you add them as a topping. People see raw mushroom added at pizza places but they are obviously cooking at a temperaure which can cook and evaporate off the water.

Not certain how long your grilling the stone for but you might try it for longer and if you have acces to a high speed Ray Temp or something - that would help. Also if you are using a fan / convection oven and if you can use it in "traditional" mode that will produce a dryer heat.

Good luck.

uk1 you have some amazing info in here. I've been making pizzas on a pizza pan (the kind with holes in it) for years, but I can't wait to try your biga dough on a stone... should be a dandy.

I spent all night last night making a huge vat of sauce base (I like to incorporate onions into mine, but to each their own, right?), and as soon as my stone arrives, it's pizza time!

Thanks so much .... appreciate your post

Can't recall whether I mentioned the "secret weapon" ie a touch of ouzo or other anise based drink in the sauce. It adds a sort of intense basil but with some other wonderful tones.

Hope your pizzas go well.

Remember that if you have a lovely biga dough base (keep it going in the fridge as a constant starter) that when it comes to the topping less is more. I know Amercians like it piled high ...... but you can always have two .....

Yip - stick to the "Supermodel Pizza" rule - very thin and not much on top

My pizza sauce is as thick as jam or chutney so you have to spread it rather than slop a ladleful of sauce on top of the dough.

Homemade pizza sounds like a great idea... I will have to check that out when I get back home from business

Don't do it if you are a perfectionist. It becomes an obsession to produce the perfect pizza, which of course is absolutely impossible ......

Enjoy your pizza travels and report back!

I think my first biga starter died on me. I had the yeast proofed, it bubbled up and doubled in size and all that, but when I stirred it up, it sort of collapsed, and now I have a jar of milky liquid. I guess I'll try again, but that puts off my pizza-eating activities by at least another day!