Pizza Help Center

Neapolitan is traditional pizzeria dough, a thin base with a pillowy, airy crust. It performs best at the hottest temperature you can reach. In a true pizza oven at 700F or higher you get classic Neapolitan. On a stone or steel in a home oven you get excellent Italian and New York style pies.

Outdoor Grilling has less gluten, so it rises less and becomes thin and crispy. It is made to cook right over a hot fire, and works great on a stone or pan between 450 and 550F. It is our pick for bar pies, calzones, pizza rolls and flatbreads.

Epic Deep Dish is made for a pan between 450 and 550F. Detroit, Chicago, Grandma, Sicilian and lunch lady styles all come from this one. Make it as thick or thin as you like.

Gluten Free is our celiac friendly blend, made in a carefully inspected facility, and it actually tastes like pizza crust.

Start with our instructional videos. They walk you through every step plus tips and tricks. Every bag also has a QR code on the back that takes you straight to a video for that flavor. Keep reading here for the details, and if you are still stuck, email us. We answer.

You sure can. Each package is designed to make two pizzas, with size depending on the flavor, but you can split the dough however you like. One larger pizza or three smaller ones works just as easily.

Feeding a crowd? The 3 and 6 packs are the cheapest way to get there.

Corn starch, rice flour, sugars (sugar, dextrose), yeast (yeast, sorbitan monostearate, ascorbic acid), vegetable fibre, salt, inactive yeast, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, lactic acid, guar gum.

Plenty. Our recipe collection has everything from classic pies to stromboli, crack bread and dessert pizza.

A favorite to start with: stretch a Neapolitan crust, sauce it, pile on cupping pepperoni so the cups crisp and fill with rendered fat, then finish with a pass of Hot Honey. That is the pizza people text you about the next day.

Yes. Every bag of dough mix has a QR code that opens a detailed instructional video, and they all live on our videos page.

Follow along for every announcement. We are @UrbanSlicer on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X and YouTube, and new releases hit our email list first.

This one matters. Aim for 75 to 80 degrees. Anything over 100 will kill the yeast. Warm tap water is often hotter than it feels, so use a thermometer if you have one.

The package has full instructions plus a QR code that opens a video for that exact flavor. You can also watch every one of them on our instructional videos page.

Baking is a science, and humidity and altitude both play a part. Sticky means there is a little too much water in the mix. Add 1 teaspoon of flour at a time while mixing until it is easier to handle. Go slowly. The dough should be tacky, not dry, to perform its best.

Same science in the other direction. Dry means slightly too little water. Add 1 teaspoon of water at a time while mixing until it comes together. Take your time. Tacky is the goal.

It can. High altitude and very dry or very humid air both shift how much water the flour wants. Adjust in 1 teaspoon steps, flour if the dough is sticky, water if it is dry, until the dough is tacky and workable. Everything else in the instructions stays the same.

Our dough is made with real yeast, so it needs time to become what it is meant to be. After mixing and kneading 8 to 10 minutes, let it rise at least 2 hours at room temperature (70 to 75 degrees) until it has doubled or tripled. Also check your water. Very hard water can cause this, so try bottled or filtered water.

Dough can over rise, which means it sat too long after kneading and started to deflate. We do not recommend rising longer than 4 hours at room temperature. Very soft water can also cause this, so try bottled or filtered water.

Work slowly and gently and it will come out. Next time, oil the inside of the bowl or container before you set the dough ball in after kneading. That helps it release cleanly.

Very likely, yes. When our mixes are fresh there is plenty of yeast in the bag. Over time, sitting in a bag with other ingredients and traveling from our warehouse to your door, some live yeast can start to die off. Nothing unhealthy about it, but it can affect performance.

You can always add 1 teaspoon of yeast to a bag. Whisk it into the dry mix, then add water as the instructions state. It either fixes any yeast loss or turbo charges the rise. In fact, add 1 teaspoon of yeast and let the dough rise in your oven with only the light on, which raises the temperature about 10 degrees, and you can have dough ready in as little as 90 minutes.

Water and room temperature are usually the cause. Water should be 70 to 80 degrees, no higher. The room should be around 70 to 90. Your thermostat might say 70 while that corner of the kitchen sits at 65 or lower.

Great trick: turn on your oven light, put the dough in the oven and let it rise there. That gives you roughly a 10 degree boost. If your tap water has additives or is very hard or soft, filtered or bottled water is worth a shot.

We are sorry to hear it, and we will take care of you. Here is the honest explanation.

Our mixes are alive. There is live yeast in every package. It ships dormant, but it is still a living thing and it is sensitive to its environment. If dough will not rise, something has killed or nearly killed the yeast, and that is almost always extreme temperature. Store packages at 80 degrees or less in a cool dry place. Even a few hours above that can hurt. On rare occasions, especially in summer, a shipping trailer sits and hits 140 degrees inside, which our yeast cannot survive.

Water matters too. Use warm water around 80 degrees, never above 100.

Our guarantee: if your dough does not rise, send us a message and we will make it right.

To rescue a bag in the meantime, add about 7g of yeast (one packet, or 1 teaspoon) per pouch. Pour the mix into a bowl, whisk the yeast in, then add warm water. If the dough is already mixed, stir 1 teaspoon of yeast into a few tablespoons of warm water, wait 5 to 10 minutes until it activates, fold it in and mix only another 3 to 4 minutes so you do not overwork it.

A pizza steel, or stone, is the best choice. Put the steel or stone on the highest rack position and turn the oven as high as it goes. Preheat 30 to 45 minutes so the stone gets piping hot. Cooking up high lets the top of the oven act as radiant heat on the top of the pizza. You can also use the two stone method, one stone under the pizza and one on the rack directly above it. A pan works too.

A stone or a pizza pan both work great. Stretch or roll the dough, then dock it (poke holes with a fork) to de-gas it. Transfer to a pan, or to a peel if you are using a stone. You can par bake one side, flip, top it and finish. Or top it right away and bake longer in one go, roughly 12 to 16 minutes at 450. Either way you get a great bar pie. Par baking before topping gives you a crispier, crunchier crust.

You sure can. Most pizza ovens cook upward of 900F and many run lower too. Use the temperature suggestions on the packaging for each flavor. Every oven runs a little differently and dialing one in takes practice. If you have a question about a specific oven, ask us. We have just about every oven on the market in our test kitchen.

Start with three questions. Do you want it portable? Do you want gas, wood or both? What is your budget? Answer those and the right oven gets clear fast. Here is what we cook on and recommend.

Best portable value: Halo Versa 16. About 31 pounds, runs on propane and sells for around $500, which is a great price for a dedicated outdoor pizza oven. The rotating stone makes it very easy to use, it is ready to cook in about 15 minutes, and it handles pizzas up to 16 inches.

Our favorite for the price: Blackstone 16 inch Pizza Oven. If portability is not a priority and you have a little more to spend, this is the one. Around $1,000, incredibly easy to use with its rotating stone, gets piping hot and also handles 16 inch pizzas.

The showpiece: Alfa Forni. True Italian imported ovens and our favorite at this level. Prices run from about $1,500 to $4,000 depending on the model, so look through the lineup and pick what fits your space and budget.

Best indoor oven: Ooni Volt 2. An amazing little oven that works indoors, plugs into a standard 120V outlet and cooks incredible pizza. It is what we use in every one of our indoor trade show booths.

For pellet smoker owners: Green Mountain Grills Pizza Oven Attachment. This one is awesome. It attaches to the grill you already own, stores easily, handles 14 inch pizzas and cooks great pizza. It is made for GMG grills but also works on other pellet smokers. If yours is not a GMG, check the fit first, since it can vary. We love this oven and have done a lot of cooking and testing of our products on it.

Also worth a look: Solo Stove Pi Prime. A real cooking machine that is light, portable and turns out true Neapolitan style pizza. The tradeoff is size: it tops out at 12 inch pizzas.

Want to see them in action? We have lots of videos cooking on all of these ovens. Follow @UrbanSlicer on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X and YouTube and scroll through our videos.

There are a lot of great ovens out there, and we have just about every one currently for sale in our test kitchen. Looking at a specific oven? Ask us, we can help. Whatever you choose, Urban Slicer dough works in it, and we have already dialed in how to cook on it.

Every oven and cooking environment varies, so times will too. The key in pizza baking is that the ambient air temperature should be hotter than the stone or surface temperature. We like a 50 to 100 degree difference. If you cook a lot of pizza, an infrared thermometer is a must for dialing that in.

Our favorites come from Lloydpans.com for quality and lifespan, but they are not required. Quality cake pans, cast iron, pyrex dishes or cookie sheets all work. Use oil, grease or butter so the pizza releases after baking. Glass gives you a less crispy crust, so metal is better. Our own multi use trays double as a baking tray and a reusable cutting mat.

The packaging says two 8x10 pans or one 10x14, but there is more flexibility than that. Aim for about 81 square inches or less per pizza to get two pizzas from one pouch. So 9x9, 8x8, 8x10, a 10 inch round, or any combination in that range.

High quality, high fat cheese with no anti caking additives. Many pre shredded cheeses use cellulose, which is wood pulp. If your cheese is burning, that is usually the cellulose burning, not the cheese. Hand shred good cheese to avoid it. Whole milk mozzarella is a great default, but get creative.

Start with our sauce, then a sprinkle of Red Mojo for savory heat or White Mojo for garlic and cheese richness. Cupping pepperoni curls into crisp little cups that catch the rendered fat, and a pass of Hot Honey at the end is the move on anything spicy.

Par baking is partially baking the crust ahead of time, and it is a great way to prep for a party or a big cook. For all our dough mixes you can par bake crusts and hold them 3 to 4 days.

Prep the crusts as normal but skip the toppings. Bake in the oven, grill or pizza oven for a shorter time than usual. You want a pale crust, firm enough to handle and store without falling apart. Times vary by oven and temperature, so go by color and firmness. Wrap them in plastic or store in a container or zip bag so they do not dry out, the same way you would treat a loaf of bread. You can also freeze them for weeks or months if they are wrapped well enough to prevent freezer burn.

Our dough mixes have live yeast and are very sensitive to temperature. Never store them above 80F or in a very humid spot. Hot cars and summer garages are both bad. Keep them in a cool dry place or shelf life drops sharply and the product can fail from dead yeast. In the freezer they last a very long time. Sauces and mojos are less sensitive, but room temperature storage gives the best shelf life. Do not freeze sauce in the can.

You sure can, and they are wonderful this way. Much like smoke is a flavor in barbecue, time is a flavor in dough. Mix with cold water, not warm, and put the dough balls straight into the refrigerator to slow the yeast down. 24 hours is good, 48 is better, 72 is best in our opinion. Set the dough out at room temperature for 5 to 6 hours for the final rise before cooking. There are characteristics in cold fermented dough you cannot get any other way.

Yes. Mix the dough, cover it and refrigerate right away. On cooking day, take it out and let it sit at room temperature 5 to 6 hours until risen and ready. Ideally stay under 3 or 4 days, though a week is safe. Our dough is built for same day use, so times and results vary.

Yes. Mix the dough, let it rise about an hour, then cover it well and freeze. For best results move it from freezer to refrigerator a day or two ahead, then let it rise 5 to 6 hours at room temperature on cooking day. If you forget, go straight from freezer to counter for 8 to 10 hours until thawed and rising again. Well covered, with no freezer burn, it keeps at least a few weeks and can go months with good storage. You can freeze par baked crusts too.

Our dough is designed to rise quickly and be used the same day, so plan on 4 hours or less. If you need longer, use the refrigerator or freezer methods above. That is the only way we recommend holding Neapolitan overnight. We do not recommend par baking Neapolitan.

Same day is still the target, 4 hours or less. You do have options though. Mix the dough and stretch it right into the pan, then let it rise in the pan 3 to 10 hours. You can also par bake it 7 to 8 minutes at 475F, cool it and cover it tightly so it does not dry out. Top and finish that crust in the next day or two, 8 to 10 minutes at 475 to 500F. Wrapped well, these keep longer in the refrigerator, and they freeze nicely.

Again, 4 hours or less is the sweet spot. To go longer, grill one side until it firms up (or grill both sides, or cook it on a stone). Once par baked, lay each crust on parchment, stack them with parchment between, wrap the stack in plastic and use them over the next several days. They keep longer in the refrigerator as long as they are wrapped so they do not harden, and they freeze well.

Yes, and it is the cheapest way to buy. Choose Subscribe on any product and we ship it automatically: save 15% every two weeks, 10% every month, or 5% every two months. Same products, same freshness, lower price, and you stop reordering the thing you always reorder.

Dough, sauce and seasonings are the usual picks. Every buy box on this page has the subscribe option built in.

Use the Manage Subscriptions link in the site menu, or sign in to your account. You can change the delivery date, swap products, skip a shipment or cancel outright, any time, with no phone call. If anything looks off, email us and we will sort it out.

Right here, shipped to your door, or at a store near you. We are carried by Ace Hardware, World Market, Scheels and other retailers across the country. Use our store locator to find the closest shelf.

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Three ways. Multi packs on every dough, sauce and seasoning, bundles that put a whole pizza night in one order, and subscriptions for up to 15% off. The Slicer's Special includes one of each crust mix, three cans of sauce and both Mojos.

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Email info@urbanslicerpizza.com and tell us what happened. A real person reads it, usually the same day. If a product failed, we replace it. We want you making great pizza, that is the whole point.

We would love to be on your shelf. Order wholesale through our Faire store, or email info@urbanslicerpizza.com and we will get you set up.