First Pizza / Papa Murphy's

midwestsmoker · August 2012

Well actually my second pizza, my first one was 3 years ago and it was a complete failure. I didn't burn enough grease off from the hamburger cook the night before and well you know the rest. Soooo, today's pizza was a thin crust, cheese, sausage and pepperoni family size for $8.00. Stabilized the egg at 525 with the plate setter legs up, grate and pizza stone and waited for the egg to burn clean, I didn't time it but I know it was over 30 minutes. The cook took about 18 minutes and it was 98% successful, the only thing I feel I did wrong was putting the pizza stone in to early. There were several hot spots so it was a fine line of over cooking the crust and getting the cheese just right. FYI I did cook the pizza with the cardboard and I would do that again. Turned out great, look forward to my next one.

BGEXL_Nick · August 2012

Well done! I did two of them a couple weeks ago. Used a pizza stone on the plate setter with the legs down and heated to 425. The first one was a thin crust with just pepperoni and chesse. It took only 13 minutes. Both the crust and toppings were perfect. The second one was a chicken artichoke thin crust. I had it on for 16-17 minutes before I pulled it. The crust was perfect but the toppings/cheese weren't as browned as I wanted. Definitely agree with using the cardboard and I rotated them 180 degrees half way through as suggested by others for an even cook. I found it funny that the family liked the less done toppings on the second one better than the first. Just meant more of the first one for me :-)

midwestsmoker · August 2012

Haha, more for me. I should cook like that on purpose. I also rotated the pie during the cook but only 90 degrees at a time, figured I had four rotations at 5 minute intervals. Interesting that you put the stone right on top of the plate setter. At what point did you put your stone in the egg?

TUTTLE871 · August 2012

Im sold on the PM Pizzas even though the one close to my house pissed me off yesterday. They stoped doing 2 Larges for 10 bucks, but I called the one 4 more miles down the road and they said YEP. I told the pimple face kid I am heading down the street and getting my pizzas from them.

As much as Diesel costs these day I probably spent more driving around town getting my pizza, But I wanted to prove a point.

Anyways I got them and am cooking them up tonight.

BGEXL_Nick · August 2012

After the fire was going I put the plate setter and the pizza stone in at the same time. Forgot to mention Its a Pampered Chef stone so its not as thick as the ones made for the egg. I'm always worried about it shattering on me which is why I put it directly on the plate setter.

Skiddymarker · August 2012

After the fire was going I put the plate setter and the pizza stone in at the same time. Forgot to mention Its a Pampered Chef stone so its not as thick as the ones made for the egg. I'm always worried about it shattering on me which is why I put it directly on the plate setter.

BGEXL Nick - I agree, although I do pizza in my medium at about 500F. The PC stones will work just fine if you keep the heat under 450F (I think that is what their instructions say) The reason PC has a bad rap used in the egg is most of us tend to cook too hot.

I use 13" stone sitting on the setter, legs down - give the rack the day off. If doing more than one pizza, a quick wipe with a damp cloth seems to cool the stone so the second crust does not burn. Picked up my stone for $10, no sense in paying too much, I seem to break them before I wear them out!

midwestsmoker · August 2012

Yep, I believe my stone is a PC as well. I wanted to bake the pizza @ 450 but the plate setter had so much grease on it from the last use I felt the 525 temp was doing a better job burning it clean. Like you said, I had concerns about getting the stone over 500, no need to push it.

BGEXL_Nick · August 2012

We usually do pizzas around 550 when we make our own but went on the conservative side since people mentioned burning the crust on Papa Murphy's at that temp. I was always more worried about heating/cooling the stone too fast than the max temp which is why I put it directly on the plate setter. It allows the temperature change to be more gradual. Its changing too fast that makes them break. I've had it up to 600 many a time and the stone is still fine. Of course, I may have just been lucky :-)

Here are a few examples of them. I apologize for the quality. My phone doesn't have the best of cameras ;-)

midwestsmoker · August 2012

Great looking pies. I think your spot on with the rapid temperature change which is why I put mine in early on but I didn't anticipate the time it would take for the egg to burn clean. I wanted the stone to come up to temp with the pizza on it.