Articles

• Pepperoni, Ricotta & Hot Honey, Why This Trio Works Every Time - Three ingredients that do the work of ten. Here's the science of why cup-and-char pepperoni, fresh whole-milk ricotta, and hot honey are the combination every home pizza cook should master first.
• The Best Cheese Pizza I've Ever Made (Behind-the-Scenes A-to-Z) - The long-form breakdown of the best plain cheese pizza I've ever made. Every decision, every ingredient, every moment, from mixing the dough to the first bite.
• How to Make NY Style Pizza at Home (The Complete Guide) - The complete, home-oven, 671K-followers-can't-be-wrong guide to NY-style pizza. Every question you have, answered. Every mistake, explained.
• Baking Steel vs Pizza Stone, What's Better for Home Pizza? - The single biggest upgrade most home pizza cooks don't make. Baking steel vs pizza stone, a direct comparison, plus why I only recommend one.
• 48 vs 72 Hour Cold Ferment, Does It Actually Make a Difference? - The home-pizza-cook question that gets asked weekly in my DMs. Is 72-hour dough actually better than 48-hour? The honest answer, with the reasoning.
• What Pizza Should I Make at Home? A Decision Guide (+ AI Tool) - Stuck choosing? Use the ingredient scanner below to get an instant Dave-picked pizza, or read the decision tree that covers every situation.
• How Dave Hale Became Dallas's Most-Wanted Pizza Pop-Up - A pizza stone from Amazon turned into 671K Instagram followers, D Magazine features, and a headline slot at Eataly Pizza Fest. The path from home oven to Dallas icon.
• Day Job: Eye Equipment. Weekends: Pizza for a Million Followers. - The Dallas Morning News came to my house last month to write about me. The piece ran. It was generous. It also left out the longer story, the parts that don't fit in 1,500 newspaper words. This is the longer version, in my voice.
• How to Make NY Style Pizza at Home: The Complete Guide - Everything you need to make legitimate New York style pizza at home, foldable slice, leopard-spotted bottom, the foundation pie of American pizza. 3,500 words covering dough, sauce, cheese, heat, equipment, and the dozen things that make the difference between cardboard and a great slice.
• Homemade Pizza Dough: The Complete Guide - Pizza dough is 4 ingredients and a thousand opinions. This is the complete guide to making it well at home, flour, hydration, fermentation, kneading. Plus the 8 dough recipes I actually use, ranked by timeline and skill level.
• Pizza Sauce: The Complete Guide (Uncooked is the Way) - Pizza sauce is three ingredients and one rule: don't cook it. This is the complete walkthrough on tomatoes, salt, the uncooked-vs-cooked debate, and the regional variations that actually matter.
• Home Pizza Oven Setup: The Complete Guide - You don't need an expensive outdoor pizza oven to make great pizza at home. Your existing oven works. Here's exactly how to set it up, the 4 essential pieces of gear, what you don't need, and the configuration that produces leopard-spotted bottoms in 6 minutes.
• Baker's Percentages, Explained (Without the Math PhD) - Every serious pizza recipe is written in baker's percentages. Here's how the math actually works, why it matters more than you think, and how to use it to nail every batch.
• Pizza Dough Hydration, The Complete Guide From a Home Cook - 58%, 65%, 72%, every number you see in pizza recipes means something specific. Here's exactly what each hydration level does to your crust and which one to use for every style.
• 12 Common Pizza Mistakes Home Cooks Make (And How I Fix Them) - After a thousand home pies I've seen every failure mode. Soggy bottom. Burnt edges. Dough that won't stretch. Here are the 12 most common mistakes and the exact fix for each.
• The Best Flour for Pizza Dough, Bread Flour vs 00 vs All-Purpose - Bread flour, 00 flour, all-purpose, high-gluten, the flour aisle is overwhelming. Here's the one-page decision guide for which flour to use for which pizza, and the specific brands I buy.
• Why Is My Pizza Soggy? 7 Causes and How to Fix Each One - Wet crust, soggy middle, puddled cheese, soggy pizza has 7 possible causes. Here they are, ranked by how often they're the actual culprit.
• Pizza Dough Won't Stretch? Here's Why and How to Fix It - Dough snaps back when you stretch it. Tears when you push too hard. There are 5 specific causes, here's the fix for each one, in about 3 minutes.
• The Best Pizza Sauce Recipe, 4 Ingredients, No Cooking - Four ingredients. No cooking. Five minutes. The best pizza sauce is almost embarrassingly simple, here's the method.
• The Only Pizza Equipment You Need at Home (Ranked by Importance) - Every pizza equipment recommendation I actually stand behind, ranked by importance. The $50 upgrade that matters most. The gear you don't actually need. The expensive thing that's worth it.
• How to Make Neapolitan Pizza at Home (Even Without a Wood Oven) - Authentic Neapolitan pizza needs an 800°F wood oven. Here's how to get shockingly close in a regular home oven using the broiler trick, a Baking Steel, and a 24-hour cold ferment.
• How to Make Detroit-Style Pizza at Home (The Real Method) - Crispy caramelized corners. Brick cheese melted against the pan. Red top sauce in stripes. Real Detroit-style pizza is the easiest pizza to nail at home, here's the full method.
• Can You Freeze Pizza Dough? Yes, Here's the Exact Method - The short answer: yes, you can freeze pizza dough for up to 3 months with zero quality loss. The long answer covers exactly when to freeze, how to wrap it, and how to thaw it the right way.
• The Best Cheese for Pizza, Low-Moisture vs Fresh Mozzarella (And When to Use Which) - Low-moisture vs fresh mozzarella is the most misunderstood choice in home pizza. Here's which cheese works for which style, the best brands, and the cheese mistakes ruining your pizza.
• Pizza Dough Not Rising? 6 Causes and How to Fix It - Hours later, your pizza dough looks the same. Flat, dense, not bubbly. Here are the 6 causes of a dough that won't rise and the specific fix for each one.
• St. Louis-Style Pizza, What It Is and How to Make It at Home - St. Louis pizza is the most divisive regional style in America. Cracker-thin unleavened crust, Provel cheese, sweet tomato sauce, square cut. Here's why it works, and exactly how to make it.