First Attempt at Pizza

brewcityegger

Tried pizza for the first time tonight. Got fresh made dough from a local grocery store, Sendik's, and coated my make shift peel and cheap pizza stone with corn meal. My set up was; plate setter legs up, grate, 3 bricks, and pizza stone. I just use a cheap pizza stone I had for years since trying on my old gas grill. Pizza was simple sauce, cheese, mushrooms, olives, and pepperoni. Turned out great. Can't wait to try more.






Any types on how to make the dough a little more round???

Alligator

Lots of practice hand stretching?   I don't recommend a rolling pin.

I'm just starting out and on pizza #8 or so still hard to get round.

cortguitarman

I use a rolling pin and mine turn out pretty good.

ncbbq

Looks good. If you want to make it more round go to youtube and search for:

smoking guitar player pizza dough

There is a guy who sales BGEs and makes a lot of egg related videos. He has one where he shows how to do it. I haven't tried his way because the wife handles the dough and she uses a rolling pin. I would like to try his way some time as it looks like what the pizza pro's do.

10Driver

Pros NEVER use a rolling pin. Go into a NY style or Italian pizzeria and tell me you see them using a rolling pin. It'll never happen Why, because you don't want to pop all those co2 bubbles in the dough. Now if you want to make a different style crust, Chicago style or something that's a different story. A rolling pin would be ok. I know this is the start of a flame war. But, I'm not telling you how to do it at home I'm just telling you what the pros do. And where I come from Pizza Hut and Dominos are not considered pros.

Skiddymarker

10Driver is right on. If you want thin hard crust, use a rolling pin, it pushes out many of the bubbles. If you like a thicker, pan crust, use your hands. Useful tip from my son's Italian mother in law was don't over think it. She advised using about 2/3 cup warm water with 1 Tbs yeast, 2 cups flour, 1 Tbs sugar, 1 tsp salt and 1 Tbs oil, anything but olive oil. Mix in a bowl and turn out onto a floured surface when the dough pulls together,  knead for about 3 or 4 minutes adding flour as needed. Turn and cover in an oiled bowl and let rest for 30 minutes. 

It will be round now. Turn out onto a floured surface, start from the middle and push out gently with your fingers until it is the size and thickness you want.   

tazcrash

I also agree with 10Driver. 

It's the war the Mrs, and I have when making pizza. 

She insists on forming the dough, and using a pin, but the dough comes out a bit tougher, less airy.

And round is over rated, unless you are just trying to fill out the entire round stone. 

rickHP

Interesting. I used exactly the same set up this weekend for my first Egg pizza, and it was a disaster. Started the egg, let it run for about 15 minutes before loading in the platesetter, bricks, stone. I could not get the stone up to a decent temperature, even after an hour (I measure the temp on the stone with an infrared thermometer, and get it up around 525-550 in my oven). Eventually, I took the daisy wheel off and was getting 500 degrees on the dome, but the stone was still around 300, at best. I loaded the pizza in after about an hour and 15 minutes, left it in for about 15-18 minutes and pulled it because it wasn't properly cooking and finished it in the oven under a broiler. A huge disappointment.

I was figuring maybe I loaded too much ceramics (platesetter, brick, stone) too early, but really have no idea what went wrong.

tazcrash

@rick: I don't think you loaded up too early. But It sounds like you didn't have a good enough fire going before adding all that. 

Can you get the egg up to 600 without all that ceramic?  

If so, on that cook, did you check for blocked air holes in the charcoal grate? 

Did your lump look like BCE'ers? IMHO You need that kind of heat to heat up a stone on bricks. 

Was your stone so far up in the dome, it blocked airflow when closed? 

Also, After some advise here I do't use the daisy wheel for cooks over 350 anymore.It really does let that egg get HOT.

rickHP

@rick: I don't think you loaded up too early. But It sounds like you didn't have a good enough fire going before adding all that. 

Can you get the egg up to 600 without all that ceramic? - Haven't tried to. 

 

If so, on that cook, did you check for blocked air holes in the charcoal grate? - Yes, there were none 

 

Did your lump look like BCE'ers? IMHO You need that kind of heat to heat up a stone on bricks. - Definitely did not look that hot 

 

Was your stone so far up in the dome, it blocked airflow when closed? - No idea, but don't think so since it got to over 500 pretty quickly after taking off the DW. 

JwgreDeux

When was the last time you cleaned out your ashes?  When doing high temps you want maximum air flow, clean out the ashes, make sure the charcoal grate holes are clear, load up the firebox with large chunks of charcoal (don't dump bag right into the egg, because you are dumping small pieces in which could block the air holes you just cleared out), and the egg should come up to temp very quickly and the stone should too after about 20 minutes. 

Don't give up, pizza on the egg is great.  Good luck next time.

Duganboy

10Driver is right on. If you want thin hard crust, use a rolling pin, it pushes out many of the bubbles. If you like a thicker, pan crust, use your hands. Useful tip from my son's Italian mother in law was don't over think it. She advised using about 2/3 cup warm water with 1 Tbs yeast, 2 cups flour, 1 Tbs sugar, 1 tsp salt and 1 Tbs oil, anything but olive oil. Mix in a bowl and turn out onto a floured surface when the dough pulls together,  knead for about 3 or 4 minutes adding flour as needed. Turn and cover in an oiled bowl and let rest for 30 minutes. 

It will be round now. Turn out onto a floured surface, start from the middle and push out gently with your fingers until it is the size and thickness you want.   

An Italian woman told you not to use olive oil?  I make pizza crust every week and I've never seen a recipe for pizza dough that didn't call for olive oil.

rickHP

 

An Italian woman told you not to use olive oil?  I make pizza crust every week and I've never seen a recipe for pizza dough that didn't call for olive oil.

I may not be able to get my egg to run right, but I do know a fair amount about pizza. There's are lots of dough recipes that call for no oil at all, including the one I used Saturday (from the Mozza cookbook).

I stretch my pizzas by hand,and don't have a problem getting them round, the only tricky part being that they can end up too thin in the middle. I don't see the point of a rolling pin. 

Thanks for all the advice. One problem might have been the charcoal size, as I was getting into the bottom half of my bag and the pieces were on the smaller side.

brewcityegger

I didn't have my daisy wheel on. My dome got up past 700 I had to shut it down to get a around 600 too put the pizza on. It tasted great. I can't wait to make another one.

Skiddymarker

10Driver is right on. If you want thin hard crust, use a rolling pin, it pushes out many of the bubbles. If you like a thicker, pan crust, use your hands. Useful tip from my son's Italian mother in law was don't over think it. She advised using about 2/3 cup warm water with 1 Tbs yeast, 2 cups flour, 1 Tbs sugar, 1 tsp salt and 1 Tbs oil, anything but olive oil. Mix in a bowl and turn out onto a floured surface when the dough pulls together,  knead for about 3 or 4 minutes adding flour as needed. Turn and cover in an oiled bowl and let rest for 30 minutes. 

It will be round now. Turn out onto a floured surface, start from the middle and push out gently with your fingers until it is the size and thickness you want.   

An Italian woman told you not to use olive oil?  I make pizza crust every week and I've never seen a recipe for pizza dough that didn't call for olive oil.

10Driver is right on. If you want thin hard crust, use a rolling pin, it pushes out many of the bubbles. If you like a thicker, pan crust, use your hands. Useful tip from my son's Italian mother in law was don't over think it. She advised using about 2/3 cup warm water with 1 Tbs yeast, 2 cups flour, 1 Tbs sugar, 1 tsp salt and 1 Tbs oil, anything but olive oil. Mix in a bowl and turn out onto a floured surface when the dough pulls together,  knead for about 3 or 4 minutes adding flour as needed. Turn and cover in an oiled bowl and let rest for 30 minutes. 

It will be round now. Turn out onto a floured surface, start from the middle and push out gently with your fingers until it is the size and thickness you want.   

An Italian woman told you not to use olive oil?  I make pizza crust every week and I've never seen a recipe for pizza dough that didn't call for olive oil.

Followed her up on this and she advised that pizza dough is a waste of good olive oil, adds nothing to the final product. Plain old vegetable oil works just as well. She also confirmed what others have said that some recipes use no oil. 

My pizza turns out OK, and I use the BGE video set up, appears not many have watched it. 

Load and light, before closing the dome to heat up, add plate setter feet down, stone on it, no rack needed. After it hits 550 or so, wait about ten minutes, add corn meal, slide on the pie. works well for me.