Are you tirelessly searching for that elusive, crispy, pizzeria-quality pizza crust right in your own kitchen? Many home cooks dream of replicating the authentic taste of a brick-oven pizza without the hefty investment or backyard space required for a traditional setup. This comprehensive review delves into the Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker machine, model BREBPZ600XL, a compact appliance designed to bring Italian-inspired perfection to your countertop. We’ve put this machine through its paces over two intense months, hosting no less than six lively pizza parties, ensuring a thorough evaluation under heavy use conditions. Join us as we explore the pros and cons, uncover invaluable tips, and determine if this pizza maker is truly the closest you can get to brick-oven excellence at home.

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Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker Review: Elevating Homemade Pizza to Pizzeria Standards

For anyone who yearns for genuine, artisanal pizza but lacks a traditional brick oven, the Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker promises to be a game-changer. And let me tell you, this isn’t an exaggeration – I’m genuinely impressed and not compensated for this glowing assessment. While, like any appliance, it comes with a few minor quirks (which we’ll detail later), I’ve consistently struggled to achieve truly fantastic pizzas with that coveted bubbly, blistery crust until now. This machine delivers, cooking pizzas to perfection in a remarkable 6-8 minutes, transforming ordinary pizza nights into extraordinary culinary experiences.

Unboxing and Specifications: A Closer Look at the Breville Pizza Maker

Upon unboxing, the Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker immediately strikes a balance between professional capability and home-kitchen convenience. Despite its powerful performance, it’s surprisingly compact and lightweight, making it an ideal candidate for easy storage in a small appliance pantry or on your kitchen counter without monopolizing valuable space.

Compact Footprint: Measuring 11 inches by 18 inches and 14 inches high, and weighing a mere 14 pounds, its design is highly practical for diverse kitchen layouts.
Exceptional Power: Operating at 1200 watts, the unit is designed to heat up to an impressive 660°F (350°C). Our own measurements, however, frequently recorded the pizza stone reaching even higher temperatures, often nearing 700°F, which is critical for that authentic quick-bake, crispy crust.
Included Essentials: Each unit comes equipped with a high-quality, non-removable pizza stone, crucial for absorbing moisture and imparting a crispy base, along with a helpful recipe booklet to kickstart your pizza-making journey.

Mastering the Art of Pizza: Using Your Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker

The journey to perfect homemade pizza begins with the dough. We followed the recipe provided in the Breville booklet, which notably calls for 00 flour. This finely milled Italian flour is the secret ingredient for authentic pizza dough and fresh pasta, renowned for producing a tender yet crisp crust. As avid pasta and pizza makers, we often purchase 00 flour in bulk from Italian markets, though it’s increasingly available at gourmet grocery stores like Whole Foods. In a pinch, once during a trip to Florida, I even convinced a local pizzeria to sell me a few pounds of their premium 00 flour – a testament to its desirability!

However, don’t despair if 00 flour is hard to come by or simply not in your pantry. Excellent results can still be achieved using standard all-purpose flour, though the texture might vary slightly.

For our testing, my partner, Nathan, took charge of dough preparation. He meticulously crafted the dough (a surprisingly simple process) and, with precision, aimed to roll out each pizza exactly 9½ inches in diameter to perfectly fit the machine’s stone. He even created a parchment paper template to ensure consistent sizing, a simple yet effective trick for uniformity.

After perfecting the dough’s dimensions, it was ready for its transformation.

Achieving Optimal Temperatures for the Perfect Crust

One of the most impressive aspects of the Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker is its ability to reach incredibly high temperatures. While Breville specifications state a maximum of 660°F, our independent measurements of the pizza stone consistently showed temperatures closer to 700°F. This is significantly hotter than what most conventional home ovens or even many outdoor BBQ grills can achieve, making it a pivotal advantage for creating that sought-after crispy, Neapolitan-style crust.

Topping Your Masterpiece Thoughtfully

When it comes to toppings, restraint is key. For optimal, even cooking and to prevent ingredients from spilling onto the hot pizza stone, it’s crucial to top your pizza sparingly. Ensure you leave a generous amount of space along the edges to allow the crust to puff up beautifully and cook thoroughly.

The Rapid Cooking Process

Once topped, carefully slide your pizza onto the hot stone using parchment paper underneath. Set a timer for just one minute. This initial minute helps the crust set without the parchment burning. After this brief period, swiftly pull out the parchment paper. Leaving it in for too long will result in it charring. Within another five minutes, your pizza is typically ready to be enjoyed.

Celebrating the Crispy Crust: Our Delicious Creations

The results are consistently stunning. Take, for instance, one of my personal favorites: a simple yet elegant pizza with creamy ricotta, fresh mozzarella, and vibrant basil. The crust emerges beautifully blistered and golden, a visual testament to the intense heat and even cooking.

Over our many pizza parties, we experimented with a variety of toppings, each yielding a similarly impressive crust. (Please excuse the varying photo quality; these were taken on different days with different phones, capturing the spontaneous joy of pizza making.)

A rich combination of prosciutto, ricotta, artichokes, and a drizzle of garlic olive oil.
A classic with robust tomato sauce, mozzarella, and savory salami.
A gourmet delight featuring tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, tangy goat cheese, roasted beets, and then topped with fresh baby arugula and a luxurious drizzle of truffle oil.

Across all these variations, the consistent outcome was a wonderfully crispy, blistered crust with a perfectly and evenly cooked bottom. This level of consistency and quality is genuinely challenging to achieve with any other standard home kitchen appliance.

Advantages of the Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker

The Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker offers several compelling benefits that make it a standout choice for home pizza enthusiasts:

Authentic Pizzeria-Quality Crust: Its primary advantage is its ability to produce a remarkably crispy, bubbly, and evenly cooked crust that closely mimics the results of a professional brick oven. The high temperatures are key here.
Superior High-Temperature Performance: Reaching and often exceeding 660°F, this machine creates the ideal environment for rapidly cooking pizza dough, setting it apart from conventional ovens that rarely reach such intense heat.
Speed and Efficiency: With pizzas cooking in just 6-8 minutes, it’s incredibly efficient, making it perfect for quick weeknight meals or for entertaining guests at a pizza party without long waits.
Ease of Use: Despite its professional results, the machine is straightforward to operate, making homemade pizza accessible even for novice cooks. The included recipe booklet provides an excellent starting point for delicious dough.

Considerations and Limitations: Understanding the Breville Pizza Maker’s Nuances

Optimized for Thin Crust Pizzas

The Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker truly shines when making thin-crust pizzas. While it’s technically possible to attempt thicker crusts, we generally wouldn’t recommend it. The design of the machine features a limited space of approximately 1¾ inches between the pizza stone and the upper heating element. If the dough for a thicker crust pizza puffs up too much during cooking, it can touch the heating element. This contact will inevitably lead to smoking and localized burning of the crust, impacting the overall appearance and taste.

Despite these minor imperfections, the pizza remains incredibly delicious, a testament to the machine’s overall performance.

Cleaning Challenges

While promotional photos often depict a pristine, gleaming machine, the reality of regular use is that the pizza stone will naturally darken over time, and the machine’s interior may show some discoloration. The upper lid, housing the heating element, can be particularly challenging to clean. Since the heating element is not removable, scrubbing around it requires some patience and careful maneuvering to clean off any splatters or burnt bits.

However, a darkened pizza stone is actually a sign of a “well-seasoned” stone and is nothing to worry about. For cleaning the stone itself, simply use a metal spatula or a pastry bench scraper to scrape off any charred food bits. I personally avoid using soap on porous pizza stones, as I believe they can absorb the soapy taste. A good scrape and rinse with water are usually sufficient. Despite these minor cleaning inconveniences, my small gripes do not deter me from wholeheartedly recommending this machine for its phenomenal pizza-making capabilities.

Elevating Your Gatherings: Hosting an Epic Pizza Party with Breville

The Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker is an absolute dream for hosting pizza parties. It turns a simple get-together into an interactive culinary event. A single batch of dough from the included Breville booklet typically yields 4-6 pizzas, which is perfect for a smaller group. For our parties with eight adults, we found that doubling the dough recipe ensured everyone had plenty of opportunities to create their custom pies. The key to a successful pizza party is a well-stocked counter with an array of fresh ingredients for guests to choose from:

Cheeses: Shredded mozzarella, fresh mozzarella slices, creamy ricotta, tangy goat cheese, crumbled feta.
Greens: Fresh baby arugula, tender baby spinach, thinly sliced kale.
Herbs & Spices: Fresh basil leaves, delicate thyme sprigs, dried oregano, garlic powder, Italian herb blend, red pepper flakes.
Jarred Vegetables & Preserves: Roasted bell peppers, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted beets, pineapple chunks, Kalamata olives, sliced banana peppers, roasted garlic cloves, sun-dried tomatoes (chopped).
Seafood: Anchovy fillets (for the adventurous!).
Meats: Prosciutto, thinly sliced ham, pepperoni, pre-cooked shredded chicken, cooked crumbled sausage, crispy bacon bits.
Sauces: Classic pizza sauce (Trader Joe’s is a favorite), tangy BBQ sauce, vibrant pesto (Trader Joe’s Quinoa Pesto is excellent), a touch of honey for sweet/savory combinations.
Fresh Vegetables: Sliced mushrooms, skinny asparagus spears (or fat asparagus split lengthwise), thinly sliced red onion, fresh tomato slices, roasted or sautéed wild mushrooms.
Fruits: Thinly sliced pears, crisp apple slices, sweet figs.
Finishing Touches: High-quality olive oil, pine nuts, walnuts.

Before topping, always remember to brush a little olive oil on the edge of your pizza dough. For an extra layer of flavor, you can also sprinkle some dried garlic or an Italian herb blend on the crust.

Our Favorite Pizza Combinations: Inspiring Your Next Creation

Here are some tried-and-true combinations that have been hits at our pizza parties:

BBQ Chicken Pizza: A base of BBQ sauce, topped with shredded chicken and thinly sliced red onion. Drizzle with more BBQ sauce after cooking.
Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese: A sophisticated blend of earthy roasted beets and creamy, tangy goat cheese.
Ricotta, Artichoke & Fresh Arugula: A dollop of ricotta, marinated artichoke hearts, baked until golden, then piled high with fresh baby arugula after cooking. Finish with a sprinkle of sea salt and a good drizzle of olive oil.
Ricotta and Fig: Creamy ricotta and sweet figs. Drizzle with honey immediately after cooking for a delightful sweet and savory experience.
Pear and Gorgonzola: Sliced pears paired with pungent Gorgonzola cheese. After cooking, drizzle with honey and top with crunchy walnuts.

Essential Tips for a Seamless Pizza Party

To ensure your pizza party runs smoothly and everyone enjoys their culinary creations, keep these tips in mind:

Prepare Ingredients Thoughtfully: Since pizzas cook incredibly fast (around 6 minutes each), ensure all your toppings are thinly sliced or pre-cooked. This guarantees everything cooks through evenly with the dough.
Master Thin Crust: Aim for a dough thickness of about ¼ inch when rolling. For a crispier crust, use your hands to stretch the dough; excessive use of a rolling pin can flatten it too much. Gently work the dough, starting with a few rolls, then switch to hand stretching with your knuckles. While spinning pizza dough in the air is impressive, focus on getting a thin, even base.
Avoid Overloading: Be judicious with toppings. An overloaded pizza will become soggy in the center or risk uneven cooking and burning. Less is often more for the best results.
Parchment Paper Technique: Draw a 9½-inch circle on parchment paper to use as a guide for your dough size. You can slide the pizza from your peel onto the stone with the parchment, but remember to remove the parchment after the first minute of cooking to prevent it from burning.
Offer Appetizers: Since each pizza takes approximately 6 minutes to cook, having a few salads or other nibbles available will keep your guests happy and satisfied while they await their turn to cook their pizza masterpiece.
Manage Dough Bubbles: If your pizza dough starts to rise too high in certain spots, creating large bubbles, quickly open the machine and use a sharp paring knife to gently pop the bubble. If any dough or ingredients accidentally touch the heating element, immediately use a spatula or the back of a butter knife to scrape them off to prevent burning and smoking.

Is the Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker Right For You?

If you’re passionate about pizza and aspire to create authentic, crispy, brick-oven-style pizzas in the comfort of your home, the Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker is an exceptional investment. Despite minor challenges with cleaning and its optimization for thin crusts, its ability to reach incredibly high temperatures and consistently produce delicious, evenly cooked pizzas makes it a highly recommended appliance. It’s perfect for home cooks who love to entertain or simply want to elevate their weeknight pizza game.

Where to Buy Your Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker

Ready to bring pizzeria-quality pizza to your kitchen? The Breville Crispy Crust Pizza Maker is available through various retailers. You can find it on Amazon, where product availability may vary, or at Williams Sonoma, both online and in-store. Prices may vary between retailers, so it’s worth checking both options.

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