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Having Fun – Pizza Anyone?

Devil'D Egg
Devil'D Egg Posts: 79
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Having fun with the new BGE! Last weekend I tried pizzas. After researching the forum, I decided to follow Naked Whiz’s “Pizza Hints And Tips” as a guide and Spins recipe for the dough and pizza sauce (also found at Naked Whiz’s web site). I was torn between making 2 – 12” pizzas versus 4 – 9” pizza’s because I perceived the later to be more challenging (being a Newbie). Since my son left for college this past year as a carnivore and returned as a vegetarian, I knew I needed at least one pizza to be vegetarian. He invited one of his high school friends over, so I was making pizza for four, so what the heck, I chose to be adventurous for my maiden pizza experience – four pizza’s it was.

For the first pizza I chose to make a Margherita pizza.

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The second pizza was an Italian Sausage pizza.

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The third pizza was a pepperoni and black olive pizza.

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The final pizza was a combination pepperoni, sausage and black olive pizza (pre-cooked).

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Observations: 1) I cooked the pizza’s in a range of 550° in the beginning and 600° in the end. 2) Time of cooking went from 15 minutes for the first pizza down to 12 – 13 minutes for the last two. 3) The total cooking time was spread out over 1 hour, necessitating everyone one eating in stages (not a big issue since the boys were down in the basement watching a movie). 4) Since I made the sauce and dough from scratch, I decided to try kalamata olives from the olive bar at the store. When cooked, these turned very salty.

Lesson’s Learned: 1) Work on keeping the temperature range narrower, closer to 550°, 2) make two 12” pizzas to keep the total time minimal, 3) skip the kalamata olives and stay with canned black olives.

Thoughts are appreciated on how to improve the experience.

Comments

  • Susan Egglaine
    Susan Egglaine Posts: 2,437
    Did you save us any? :) Nice job!
  • SheepDog
    SheepDog Posts: 176
    David the Pizzas look great! I'm going to have to check out TNW pizza tips, that site is amazing. A note on Kalamata olives, if you ensure that you balance out the salt of the other ingredients they actually work very nice. We use them on a pizza with artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and portabellas. Also we didn't use a red sauce, a simple garlic olive oil was great. So the saltyness of the kalamata was actually needed and turned out great. Just a thought!
  • Nice handle!
    Very good job on the pizzas! You obviously know your way around the kitchen, which will easily transfer to many great BGE moments B)
    Just one question: what happened to your son??? Mine goes this August and can't imagine anything but lack of $$$ turning him away from meat! (although he loves his veggies, too :) )
  • With 2 college boys eating, there wasn't much left ...
  • Thanks for the tip, I'll try this out on the next time. The family enjoys homemade pizza, so I don't think it will be too long before the next round.
  • When I made my first cook "Drunkin Chickens" I told the family I wanted post the experience and I needed to come up up with a handle. I have to give credit to the daughter for the initial idea, but once the it got going you can imagine how the ideas started flowing. We were either creative or the adult beverages were helping, probably the later.

    I'm not sure what happen to the son. He attends Marquette University and after the first semester he was tired of the dorm food, "mystery meat" as it was referred to. That coupled with him being a runner and enjoying pasta, I think the switch was easy for him.

    We'll see how he holds up when I cook my first brisket on the Egg.
  • DMurf
    DMurf Posts: 481
    Wow when I read the post I was going to suggest balancing the saltiness of the Kalamatas with the other ingredients. I also like the idea of simply using Olive Oil but would add some garlic to mine, and I have a local pizza joint that uses hot peppers with the Olive Oil for their base.

    Timing on the pies has been an issue for me when I am cooking multiples. I have actually taken to making smaller pies and letting the family create their own at a kind of pizza bar. Mine always goes on last as I do the cooking so I always get a nice hot pie for myself and on my large I can get to personal size pies on, so long as you don't insist on round.

    Gotta love the EGG and all that it can do.
    David
    BBQ since 2010 - Oh my, what I was missing.
  • fire egger
    fire egger Posts: 1,124
    Nice cook David!! Egged pizza is awesome, and for me a never ending quest, have fun with it!!
  • SheepDog
    SheepDog Posts: 176
    DMurf wrote:
    Wow when I read the post I was going to suggest balancing the saltiness of the Kalamatas with the other ingredients. I also like the idea of simply using Olive Oil but would add some garlic to mine, and I have a local pizza joint that uses hot peppers with the Olive Oil for their base.

    DM that's exactly what we used, a couple of fresh garlic cloves in a pot of olive oil. Add a little heat and within a few minutes you have a great garlic infused olive oil. Is perfect for pies and dipping!
  • thechief96
    thechief96 Posts: 1,908
    Good looking zas David. Its been awhile since I've done one. Maybe this weekend.
    Dave San Jose, CA The Duke of Loney
  • I’m definitely going to use the garlic and olive oil as a base. Do you use it as a base on all your pizzas or just the veggie pizzas?
  • eenie meenie
    eenie meenie Posts: 4,394
    David, nice pizzas! :) And I love your handle and avatar. :lol: