Can you cook pizza in a toaster oven? We share with you our recipe for success.
Pizza is the perfect food for the Internet age. All you need is a toaster oven, a pizza cutter, some flour, and a sharp knife. Virtually any piece of cooked bread will work as well, except maybe breadsticks. The cut on top should be enough to stick your pizza to the pan, but not too thin. The edges should be thin enough so that they’re crispy but also don’t crumble apart when you slide it into the oven or flip it onto its side.
But there are a few things we have to keep in mind when we cook this way:
1) You need to bake the pizza at about 425F for about 10 minutes (7 minutes for thick crust)
2) You’ll need to flip it over halfway through cooking (in other words, you don’t want your bottom edge burning while your top edge is hot and crispy)
3) As with any other type of pizza (a calzone, in particular), if your dough doesn’t form properly or isn’t cooked all the way through, you can always make bigger slices and use them instead of whole ones.
4) Always make sure that you have plenty of room around your oven so that nobody gets burned from standing on your oven flooring or sitting on it when it’s open (you get burned from standing on your stove too). If someone does get burned from standing on or sitting on an open oven flooring or stove flooring then I think you could be in trouble. Not saying that anybody gets burnt from standing on an open oven flooring or stove flooring because I wouldn’t stand on one myself… but if someone does get burnt… meh… just sayin’.
5) When you’ve finished cooking, put a sheet of wax paper underneath the tray and slide out onto another sheet of wax paper. This will prevent any food particles from sticking them together while they cool down after they bake. This is especially important if you want to use leftover pizza crusts as toppings because they tend not to stick together very well after baking if they haven’t been thoroughly cooled down first. It also keeps them nice and clean so that they don’t get all sticky between slices… which means they’re not quite as good as fresh ones anyway… haha!
The Case For: Why cooking pizza in a toaster oven can be great
I’m not a cook, but I’ll try to indicate the benefits of cooking in a toaster oven.
First and foremost, it is simply more convenient (and fun) than cooking in the oven. It also doesn’t produce any smoke—something that can be a significant problem with an open-flame oven. The only downside is that it does not heat up as nicely, so if you want to get a good crust on your pizza, you need to use it earlier than the rest of your dinner.
But there are other benefits too:
• Much smaller footprint than an open flame (which can take up to 10% of your home)
• No need for opening and closing the door every time you change out toppings or add more ingredients
• No need for messy cleanup or swearing at pots and pans
Finally, here are some tips for maximizing your cooking success:
• Prepare before you go into the oven so that everything is ready when you arrive
• For thinner crusts, use lighter sauces and toppings (but don’t overdo it)
• If using multiple colors of pizza bases, make sure they are evenly distributed with each batch (they will get darker quickly)
• It may be worth experimenting with different types of pizza (falschi works well with light colored bases)
The Case Against: Why you might not want to cook your pizza in a toaster oven
I am a big fan of pizza, and I have a few different strategies for cooking it. First, I like to use what’s called an Italian oven: a gas-fired unit that heats the oven to about 350°F (175°C). Then, I put some oil in the bottom of the oven and sprinkle a little flour on top. When it’s all done, I scrape off the crumbs so they won’t burn.
A few years ago, we bought a $150 toaster oven and found out it comes with a recipe: pizza.
The first time we cooked one in our new toaster oven, we were disappointed. It didn’t come out very crispy at all (buttered crust is key). The second time we tested our new invention on pizza dough — again with a disappointing result — I remember thinking to myself: “Huh? This isn’t what I expected from this thing! It doesn’t even come close!”
Like most people who buy something first time around, we had no idea what sort of experience would be involved in getting good results from this appliance. So why would anyone buy one when they can get exactly what they want using just an ordinary kitchen appliance?
One reason is convenience: there is no need for step-by-step instructions or specific recipes — you can just pull out an electric peel and place your dough on it while you cook. But there are other reasons too:
I think that most people would prefer to cook their food using something safe than using something dangerous like coal or gas or electricity. And this is true even if they don’t know how to cook their food normally (like we did) through the traditional methods (like the old fashioned way)
There are also some health benefits associated with cooking your food in an electric oven versus other cooking techniques — reduced risk of cancer by half and less exposure to heat-related illnesses such as heart disease as well as some age related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Using an electric oven could potentially save lives by reducing mortality rates due to heart attacks and strokes (1), but only if you aren’t doing other things with your food besides baking it into thin slices and putting it into your mouth.
And nobody wants that; nobody wants fat burning followed by death from heart attacks? The only way we can figure out whether cooking pizza in an ordinary kitchen appliance will be good or bad for us
How to cook pizza in a toaster oven so it comes out great
This is it — how to make pizza in a toaster oven, so that it comes out great and cooked just right. There are two main issues, if you are not sure how to make pizza:
1. Get your rice crispy — and cook it with a little bit of water or oil (we use olive oil)
2. Find a good cheese, for which we use Mozzarella di Baffo (but there are many other varieties you can use) You can find a detailed description of these steps here: https://medium.com/@bodhi_in_on/how-can-you-cook-pizza-in-a-toaster ovens If you enjoyed this post and want to see more like it, please consider following us on Medium and on Twitter @BodhiOnTech
5. Tips and Tricks: Some extra advice for cooking pizza in a toaster oven.
There are a lot of pizza recipes out there. There are even a lot of them for toaster ovens.
Many of them are totally useless and some of them can be dangerously dangerous.
Here’s one recipe that has been tested hundreds of times by both professional pizzamakers and a bunch of amateur home cooks in our kitchen. It works very well, so if you have the ingredients, give it a try.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup flour 2 tsp yeast 3 tbsp water 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 1/2 cup tomato sauce 1/2 cup tomato paste 2 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp garlic powder 2 tsp basil seeds 2 tsp salt + more to taste Directions: Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Form into a ball & place in a greased baking dish (preferably with a perforated bottom).
Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees F, then turn off the oven and leave the dough in there for another 15-20 minutes until it’s risen again (about 5-10 minutes more). (Here’s an app that tracks your progress.) When done, remove from oven and set aside to cool on paper towels. Then use either your favorite pizza tool or fork to slice & serve the deliciousness!
A final word on cooking pizza in a toaster oven
This is a question asked at the start of every cooking class I teach, so I decided to answer it here because it’s something I want to think about while cooking pizza in a toaster oven.
The whole reason we cook with a toaster oven is because it cooks the pizza quickly, so that’s what you’d expect. But there’s also another reason: because it cooks the pizza quickly, it helps you get the same result in less time. And that is one of the reasons why cooking in a toaster oven is so helpful:
Unlike with a conventional oven, there are no variables like convection or temperature control; everything happens at once (the pizza bakes and bakes slowly at 350°F). You can check everything in real time, letting you know if your pizza isn’t done yet by looking at its surface instead of waiting for the timer to go off. Once you have time for some side dishes and dessert, you can lift the lid, peek into your pizza and make sure everything is cooked perfectly.
So thanks for coming along on this journey with us! If you have comments or questions, please leave them here. And if you enjoyed this article, please share widely (by clicking the green “Share” button on top right corner of this page).