We Tested 5 Ways to Make Homemade Pizza and Found the Best Method for Pizzeria-Worthy Pie

Replicating the crisp, chewy crust and bubbly, gooey cheese of neighborhood pizzeria pie at home isn’t easy. Sure, pizzerias make pizza every day (it’s their job!), but professional pizza makers also rely on specialty high-heat ovens that produce the signature texture and char that’s difficult to achieve in a conventional oven.

The Food & Wine editorial team and recipe developers from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen wanted to find the best way to make pizza at home. To do this, we tested five popular cooking methods, including baking on a preheated baking sheet, pizza stone, and baking steel, as well as grilling over direct and indirect heat.

Each method produced a good pizza, but the differences in crust, browning, and ease of use were significant. Read on to see how each technique performed and which methods came closest to delivering pizzeria-worthy results.

A word about our method

We tested each method with a consistent recipe, using a 1 1/4-pound package of store-bought pizza dough, a bit of olive oil, store-bought pizza sauce, pre-shredded low-moisture part-skim mozzarella cheese, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and all-purpose flour and cornmeal for dusting. The dough was set on the counter at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours before cooking, which was sufficient time to make the dough pliable and heat the oven or grill. From there, the dough was stretched to a 1/2-inch-thick disk. Some methods call for assembling the pizza before cooking; others call for parcooking the dough before adding the toppings. Each method was judged on texture, taste, and ease of use.

All of the pizza methods were tested by Julia Levy Freeman.

Preheated baking sheet in oven

Active time: 25 minutes
Total time:  1 hour 40 minutes
Rating: 6.5/10

Method: Of all the methods we tested, this one requires no special equipment: You only need a baking sheet. We set the oven rack in the lower third of the oven, placed an untreated baking sheet on the rack, and preheated the oven to 500°F for at least 45 minutes. We assembled the pizza on a large sheet of parchment paper, then slid the pizza on the parchment onto the hot baking sheet. We cooked it until the crust puffed and blistered in spots, which took about 15 minutes. We also rotated the pizza during cooking for even browning. 

Results: This method might have ended up on the bottom of our list, but it’s still a great way to make pizza in your oven. While it doesn’t develop a crispy, slightly blistered crust like the other methods, it still produces appealing results. The crust gets a bit puffy, and our tasters found this the “breadiest” of all the methods — likely because a baking sheet doesn’t retain heat as well. This method had the longest cook time of all the techniques on this list. Even if it’s not the best way to make pizza at home, as one taster put it: “It’s better than nothing.” 

Pros: The preheated baking sheet helps develop a lightly browned crust. Just about everyone has access to a baking sheet, so there’s no need to invest in more expensive equipment.

Cons: The method doesn’t develop that signature pizzeria crust texture. It also took the longest to cook compared to other methods. The results were decent, but not great.

Grilled (indirect and direct heat)

Active time: 45 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Rating: 7/10

Method: This is the first method on the list to use the grill. For this technique, we preheated the grill to medium-high, about 400°F to 450°F. If using a gas grill, as we did, you’d light only one side of the grill; on a charcoal grill, push the hot coals to one side. We placed the stretched pizza dough on a cornmeal-dusted pizza peel, then gently slid it onto the oiled grill grate over direct heat. We covered and cooked until the dough puffed and developed grill marks, which took 1 to 2 minutes. We then flipped the dough with tongs and moved it to the unlit side of the grill. We brushed it with olive oil, then topped it with the sauce and cheeses. We slid the pizza back toward the lit side, but didn’t place it directly over the heat source. We covered and continued cooking until the top was bubbly and the cheese melted, about 5 minutes. 

Results: The grill can get much hotter than a conventional oven, which means it can produce better browning. In our test, the direct heat charred the dough and helped create some pleasant blisters, but it didn’t really create a crispy crust. Instead, parts of the dough charred well, while other parts were lackluster. The biggest disadvantage of this method was the uneven cooking. It was also a bit unwieldy to cook a pizza directly on the grill grates.

Pros: The grill can get super hot, making it possible for at least parts of the dough to develop a nice char. We love using the grill for hot summer days so we don’t have to turn on the oven and heat up our kitchen. 

Cons: Grilling a pizza over indirect and direct heat produces relatively uneven cooking. Some sections were nicely charred but others were overdone. Still others were underdone. It’s also easy to ruin the nice disc shape of the dough.

Grilled (direct heat only)

Active time: 45 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Rating: 8/10

Method: This method was similar to the method of grilling over indirect and direct heat, but we cranked up all the burners to 400°F to 450°F. (If cooking on a charcoal grill, you’d spread the hot coals over the entire base of the grill.) Our aim was to cook the pizza on direct heat the entire time. We grilled the dough for 1 to 2 minutes, then flipped it, brushed it with oil, and topped it with the sauce and cheeses. We then reduced the temperature to medium-low, turning down the burners on the gas grill. (On a charcoal grill, close the vents.) We continued cooking until the crust was charred and the cheese melted, 2 to 3 more minutes. 

Results: This method produced some seriously great blisters on the crust. Since the grill gets so hot, the char was reminiscent of Neapolitan-style pizza. This method had a much chewier crust, a nice char flavor, and a visually appealing appearance compared to the pizza grilled on direct and indirect heat. It still feels a bit unwieldy to cook pizza directly on a grill. It’s very easy to mess up the shape of the dough using this method.

Pros: This method yielded a very pleasant char texture and flavor, similar to Neapolitan-style pizza. It’s great to cook outside during hot weather. It also produced a more evenly cooked pizza than the other grilled method.

Cons: While this method produces good results, the crust falls short of the top-performing techniques. Flipping the dough and adding toppings directly on the grill can be challenging.

Oven with pizza stone

Active time: 25 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Rating: 9/10

Method: While the dough rested at room temperature, we placed the oven rack in the lower third of the oven and added a pizza stone directly to the rack. We then preheated the stone and oven to 500°F for at least 45 minutes. We assembled the pizza and placed it on parchment paper, then slid the parchment and pizza directly onto the stone, cooking until the dough puffed and blistered in spots, and the cheese got bubbly and golden, about 12 minutes. We rotated the pizza for even cooking. 

Results: This is the first method that felt really close to producing a pizzeria-worthy pie, as the crust developed a nice blister and a crispy edge. The crust was also pleasantly chewy, and the cheese was melty and well browned. That’s because the stone retains heat very well, mimicking a real pizza oven. The downside, however, is that the stone takes quite a while to preheat and is heavy to move around. And while we didn’t experience this during testing, stones are prone to cracking over time.

Pros: This method mimicked a pizzeria oven, producing an excellent crust with nice crispiness and browning. The cheese got bubbly and slightly blistered.

Cons: The stone takes a while to preheat and is prone to cracking over time. It’s also heavy to move in and out of the oven.

Oven with baking steel

Active time: 25 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Rating: 10/10

Method: This method is similar to the previous entry but swaps out the pizza stone for a baking steel: a relatively thin, flat piece of heavy-duty steel. It can get very hot and retains that heat exceptionally well, meaning the temperature won’t drop when you place the pizza on top of it. We placed the steel on a rack in the upper third of the oven, then — like the previous method — preheated the steel and oven to 500°F for at least 45 minutes. Once we assembled our pizza and placed it on parchment paper, we slid the parchment paper and pizza onto the steel and cooked until the crust was crispy and blistered in spots and the cheese became gooey and golden, about 8 minutes. 

Results: Our clear winner, the baking steel develops a gorgeous blistered, golden brown crust. The crust does not burn; rather, it gets perfectly crisp and delicious. We love baking steels for their intense heat retention and nearly indestructible design, meaning you can pop one under the broiler or even on a grill and it won’t break or warp. This is the closest at-home approximation of a pizzeria oven. This method also cooks remarkably quickly (under 10 minutes) and evenly. The major downside is the expense: Baking steels are not cheap. We think it’s worth the investment if you love to make homemade pizza. Since a baking steel is practically indestructible, it should last just about forever. 

Pros: The absolute best homemade pizza is made using a baking steel. The high heat makes the crust perfectly crispy and chewy and the cheese browned and slightly blistered, just like one from a pizzeria. While we found something to like about every entry on this list, the baking steel simply makes the best pizza, hands down.

Cons: Baking steels are expensive and very heavy. They can take a while to preheat, too.

Final takeaways

If you make homemade pizza regularly, a baking steel is well worth the investment. Its exceptional heat retention helps produce the crisp, chewy crust and bubbly, golden cheese that come closest to the results of a professional pizza oven, and it’s built to last. A pizza stone is also an excellent choice, while grilling over direct heat delivers flavorful, charred results. Of all the methods we tested, though, the baking steel consistently produced our favorite homemade pizza.