First pizzas on the BGE...

DeltaNu1142

OK, I did my first pizzas tonight on the Egg. I'm really pleased with how they came out. I took tips from the forums here as well as from pizzamaking.com. I made the sauce from scratch, and bought the dough at Trader Joe's for $1.19 apiece. I figured they would be good enough for a first try... and they were.

I started with the Egg at 500 deg F. I first rolled the dough thin, and poke it with a fork to get the air out. Each dough ball was more than enough for a 16" pizza. I placed the dough on parchment paper and put it on a raised stone for 5-6 minutes, then pulled it, added sauce & 1/2 mozz, 1/2 quattro formaggio cheese, removed the parchment paper and sprinkled semolina flour on the stone. The first pizza was fresh mozzarella slices with proscuitto. The second was roasted garlic with pickled jalapeños & carrots.









Downsides... my setup isn't right. My stone is plenty high in the dome, but I just sat it on a v-rack, so it was moving around a lot. It made things difficult to maneuver without sliding the stone all over the place. An AR would have made this a lot easier.

See the area at the fringe of the sauce that looks "wet?" I don't know how to avoid that, unless maybe I cook the crust more before applying sauce. Or not at all. I'm not sure. Either way, I feel confident I can step up to some better (read: more expensive) dough. I'm really happy with the sauce, and it was dead easy to throw together in the food processor.

Input, as always, is welcome! Thanks to all those who posted their Egg-spertise to get me this far.

tisoypops

I just used dough balls from the frozen section at the grocery store and they turned out great for me. I didn't cook the dough before preparing at all, nor have I heard of anyone doing that. Is that what you gathered from that website? Also, I didn't raise my grid at all. I just had the platesetter in, and put my pizza pan right on the grid. I don't even have a pizza stone yet so I just used a pizza pan I already have. That being said I think your pies look great!

DeltaNu1142

Yeah, I read about pre-cooking in the forums here somewhere. I forgot to mention, yes, I had the platesetter in legs up, and a drip pan in there... because it was in there.

So, I like how done the crust was in comparison to the cheese & toppings. I think I could have gotten away with cooking the crust even more prior to adding sauce. I just heard it was one way to avoid the crust sticking to the stone, but between the paper & the flour, I didn't have any issues.

jtcBoynton

Can't tell for sure, but the "wet" you are describing may be from the toppings releasing water during cooking and not from the dough being undercooked. Parchment or semolina are for preventing the dough from sticking to the peel, not the stone.  Raw dough will stick to the stone, but it will release as the dough cooks. 

onedbguru

go to a fireplace store  (or HD or Lowes) and get 3 firebricks.  That will stabilize it a lot better and is fire-rated >1000 degrees. 

DeltaNu1142

jtcBoynton said:

Can't tell for sure, but the "wet" you are describing may be from the toppings releasing water during cooking and not from the dough being undercooked. Parchment or semolina are for preventing the dough from sticking to the peel, not the stone.  Raw dough will stick to the stone, but it will release as the dough cooks. 

Yes, that's definitely from the toppings. Whatever water there was in the sauce seeped into the dough when I applied it. I don't think it impacted the dough any (?)... it's just an aesthetic thing. Good tip on the stone! Next time, I won't apply any flour to it. It just caused a lot of mess anyway, and a little bit of smoke with the lid up while I was brushing it off.

onedbguru said:

go to a fireplace store  (or HD or Lowes) and get 3 firebricks.  That will stabilize it a lot better and is fire-rated >1000 degrees. 

Excellent idea! I remember reading that for other applications, too. It's getting to the point where I have almost as much volume in accessories as I have in Egg... I really want to build an outdoor kitchen. Thanks folks!

bluebird66

Nice pizza's

Ladeback69

When I did pizza and what the I took told me was to half way through the cook turn the pizza at least a quarter to a half turn.  BGE makes a pizza rack that will work on the Large or XL, but fire bricks or add 3" SS bolts to an extra grate, that should get it up high enough.  I go legs down when cooking too.  Your time is right for that temp.  They look great.

Adrock

Out of curiosity- is that a jalepeńo, carrot, and garlic pizza?

DeltaNu1142

Adrock said:

Out of curiosity- is that a jalepeńo, carrot, and garlic pizza?

Yes, exactly. I roasted the garlic with some oil in a tinfoil ball as the Egg was coming up to temp, and took it off when I put the first pizza on. Admittedly, they were a little on the black side... I'll pull them sooner next time. I added pickled jalapeños from a jar that also had pickled carrots in it... so I figured, 'why not.'

Truthfully, I'm way happier with the prosciutto/mozz pizza. After the shredded cheeze melted, I threw on four or five 3" circles fresh mozzarella. Cheesy goodness.