A simple, tasty Pizza Eggsperiment

Unknown

I just saw the episode of "America's Test Kitchen" on deep dish pizza. I personally love the crispy bottom of deep dish, but prefer a much thinner crust. Well, here's how I was able to get both.[p]When pressed for time but still want a good Egged 'za, I usually head down to our local "Papa Murphy's" take and bake pizza joint. Pretty decent stuff for what it is. Sure, I prefer fully homemade, but again, these guys use decent enough ingredients, and being take and bake you can play with it quite a bit before it hits the egg.[p]And play with it I did![p]I got a 14 inch plain crust pizza with white sauce, Canadian bacon, sausage, and pepperoni to that I added fresh parmesan, colby-jack, lots of jalapenos en escabeche, mushrooms, then I topped it with a scattering of dried parsley, dried basil, and black pepper.[p]Here's the part where I Eggsperimented a bit: I very carefully peeled the tray that comes with the 'za back, and attempted to gently place the entire pie in my aluminum deep dish pan. Of course this resulted in a huge mess of pizza parts half in, and half out of the pan. I spent a few quite moments pondering the possibilities and many virtues of calzone, or maybe even pizza casserole.[p]Finally, I did finally wrestle that sucker into the pan in more or less pizza shape. I had very liberally oiled the pan down with olive oil first, and that helped a lot. Again, I was looking for that sort of fried texture you find on the bottom of deep dish pizza, without it becoming to doughy or thick.[p]The Egg and pizza stone had been given ample time to stabilize right at 350, so I tossed that deep dish pan right on the stone.[p]About 30 minutes later (longer time for the extra pan and the lower temp) and the results were excellent! It got a nice crispy fried bottom on the crust, right when the top finished.[p]I can't wait to try this same deep dish / plain crust thing on my homemade pies![p]Have fun with *your* Eggsperiments today,
bc[p]

Rick

bc,
For the best guidance on grilled pizza from the crust to the toppings, go to the Weber Grill site and down load their pizza on the grill cookbook. Great ideas and very good (simple too) crust recipes.[p]Enjoy,[p]Rick