Old post is old, but this Craftsy class from Peter Reinhart is pretty awesome: http://www.craftsy.com/class/perfect-pizza-at-home/186

I get a very crispy crust by making pizza on a cookie sheet with a lot of olive oil (the olive oil basically fries the crust).

Anonymous wrote:I sprinkle a liberal amount of cornmeal on the baking tray, and it seems to work very well, I noticed a lot of pizzerias do this.

THIS. I use a pizza stone, heated in 475 degree oven for 20 minutes, then sprinkle cornmeal on it. (It smokes up a bit as the moisure in the cornmeal evaporates on contact with the stone, might make you cough if you're standing right over it, but that subsides quickly.) I put the stretched dough on the stone, then add sauce and cheese. Bake at 475 until crust is done, cheese is melted and browning. So crisp, so delicious.

Anonymous wrote:Preheat oven to 450.

Roll out your dough very, very thin using a rolling pin on top of parchment paper. Brush with olive oil. Go light on the toppings (if you use veggies, make sure they are sliced EXTREMELY thin).

Put pizza with parchment directly onto oven rack.

10-15 minutes later, your pizza should be done with a nice, thin, bubbly brown crust.

I do this, although I don't always brush with olive oil, and I go heavy on the toppings. I always get a nice thin crispy crust.

I should add, I have a pizza stone and have tried the methods described by others, preheating etc. but I prefer the results from parchment direct onto oven rack in preheated oven.

also, roll/stretch/pull the dough very thin. temp 500 degrees. oven rack bottom 1/3 of the oven.

Others have already pretty much bit the nail on the head, but the problem isn't your dough, it's how you are cooking it. You want a pizza stone on a rack set just below halfway up your oven. Turn the oven up to the highest temperature it has, regardless of how hot that is. Let it preheat for a long time. Hold the pizza peel in one hand and open the oven door with the other. Quickly slide the pizza onto the stone and close the door. Do not open the door again until you are virtually certain the pizza is done. That's about the best you can do at home without gerryrigging things, like filling your oven with ceramic tiles or removing the oven lock and cooking the pizza on the clean cycle.

If you think the stone is not working, you either did not preheat long enough or you do not have the oven hot enough.

If you can't get the pizza off the peel and onto the stone, here are some tips:

- Do not put the dough onto the peel until the oven is already mostly preheated. If you let a prepared pizza sit on the peel for several minutes, it will stick no matter what.

- Right before you put the rolled or stretched dough on the peel, toss some cornmeal on the peel. After you put the dough on the peel shake the peel back and forth until the dough slides about freely on the peel.

- Top the pizza with sauce, cheese, toppings. Do not overtop. Once it's topped, again shake the peel until the pizza slides back and forth freely. If it's sticking, lift the pizza a bit with one hand and toss more cornmeal under it with the other.

- Take the pizza to the oven and shake once more to make sure the pizza is still moving freely. Then open the oven door and slide the pizza in.

All of these tips are for a wooden peel. If none of them work, go to a restaurant supply store and get a thin metal peel, which is much easier to use. Top the pizza directly on the countertop, not on the peel (but still use cornmeal under the crust). Slide the peel under the pizza to pick it up and carry it to the oven.

We use a mixture of flours. A kamut flour/wheat flour mix has produced our best crust ever after much experimenting.

We pre-bake the base for 10 mins (with just the tomato sauce on) or so before adding toppings.

I would agree that you should avoid adding toppings with a lot of moisture in them, such as fresh tomatoes. This will also make your pizza soggy.

U need to use the wooden board or metal board with flour on it lightly and shake off onto stone! Works great!!

Anonymous wrote:Okay, friends - I have a pizza stone and had a horrible time trying to get my pizza from the pan to the stone. What is the trick (other than just corn meal - didn't work for me)? What am I doing wrong?

Sprinkle cornmeal onto the pizza stone.

Also want to add that you need to use the bottom oven rack, whatever your method. That's key for me.
Thanks for the parchment paper suggestion. I have the same problem as a pp, with getting the pizza onto the stone. Many frustrating attempts. Hope the parchment paper is the answer!

OP here. Thank you so much for all the suggestions! I am going to get a pizza stone and try that. I used to have one and probably got rid of it because I didn't know how to use it. We did try grilling it recently and that worked pretty well, except half the pizza was burnt. Our oven has a convection setting, not sure if that makes a difference.

Anonymous wrote:Pizza stone. Pre-heat your oven at the highest temperature it will go to for like half an hour so the stone is heated through, then adjust temperature to whatever you use for baking. We also had one of those pizza sheets with the holes but found that with the stone, it was less necessary.

Also, the more toppings you put on a pizza, the more moisture there is to seep down into/through the crust. My husband prefers to put every available topping on his, while I pick like 2-3 and stick with them. Mine are almost always crisper than his.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Effortless and had the best pizza I've ever made.

I put oil on the pan

preheat oven to 450

put pan on bottom of oven (no rack)

after the bottom gets crispy - 5-10 minutes I move to a rack in the center of the oven to finish cooking the toppings

Preheat oven to 450.

Roll out your dough very, very thin using a rolling pin on top of parchment paper. Brush with olive oil. Go light on the toppings (if you use veggies, make sure they are sliced EXTREMELY thin).

Put pizza with parchment directly onto oven rack.

10-15 minutes later, your pizza should be done with a nice, thin, bubbly brown crust.

Parchment paper, put paper down on your peeler or cutting board, put rolled out dough on paper, cover with a clean dish towel, let rest twenty minutes while oven/ grill heat up, remove towel, put your toppings on, slide paper with pizza on to stone, cook 5-6 minutes or until edge of paper are dark. Carefully, side paper and pizza on to your peeler/cutting board(the pizza will slide off the paper so be careful!)
Now if you want the thick crust like 2amies I'll tell you that trick! Dd likes it puffy!