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You've been cooking pizza wrong simple trick makes it so much crispier

One simple tweak can help you get a perfectly crispy pizza base every time, even when it comes to frozen pizzas.

[Neapolitan pizza Margherita with fresh tomatoes and basil, a classic Italian dish.]

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The simple hack promises restaurant-quality pizzas every time(Image: Francesco Riccardo Iacomino via Getty Images)

When you've had an exhausting day and the last thing you want is to spend ages cooking dinner, an oven pizza is your ultimate saviour. Delicious, hot and ready to eat in under 15 minutes, they are the true unsung heroes of manic evenings.

They're incredibly easy - simply pop one in the oven, wait, then slice and tuck in. But if you've ever been left with a soggy oven pizza, you'll know just how disappointing a dinner it can be. Luckily, there's a brilliant trick to guarantee a perfectly crispy base each and every time, and it couldn't be simpler.

The culinary experts at Simply Recipes say that a frozen pizza is the ideal emergency meal, so it's always worth keeping one or two stashed away for those moments. And while it might not always beat a slice from your go-to takeaway, there's one quick tip that instantly takes it up a notch.

[Ham Cheese Pizza with a Slice Missing on Wood Tray.]

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Oven pizzas will be crispy every time if you turn up the heat(Image: Getty)

All you need to do is crank up the temperature on your oven. The experts explained: "The dough is par-baked and the sauce and cheese are added raw, to be cooked in the oven. Most brands ask you to preheat the oven to 200F or 220F and bake the pizza for 10 to 15 minutes.

"This yields a limp pie with a soggy crust because the heat isn't high enough to create a crunchy crust with a chewy interior while also heating the toppings before they seep liquid."

In reality, oven pizza requires baking at a much higher temperature. The reason takeaway and restaurant pizzas taste so good is because they're cooked at very high temperatures for a brief period, rather than low and slow.

This rapid, intense burst of heat produces a crispy, light and chewy base without charring the toppings which is precisely the result you're after.

How to make the perfect oven pizza

Crank your oven up to its maximum temperature, typically around 260-280C. Position the oven rack in the lower third of the appliance and place your baking tray inside to pre-heat, or a pizza stone if you have one to hand.

Next, unwrap and carefully transfer the frozen pizza onto the tray, being careful not to leave the oven door open too long or the heat will escape.

Check on the pizza after roughly four or five minutes and you should find the crust has developed a satisfying crunch, with melted but not scorched cheese. Bear in mind this may differ depending on the variety of pizza and the toppings you've gone for.

Experts warned that this particular technique may not be suitable for deep dish pizza, as the heat must travel through a 'thick layer of fillings'.

The same applies to vegan pizzas, which contain different ingredients and behave differently during cooking. In both instances, it's recommended to stick to the instructions on the packaging.

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