second pizza, good but crust still a little crunchy (pics)

anez · February 11

second shot at pizza was a lot better than my first shot. this time i used dough from my favorite pizza place. was very easy to work with. while it turned out really good the crust was just a bit crunchy. wasn't rock hard, tho. wonder if i cook higher in dome it will help?

egg setup: place setter legs down, grid, three balls of tin foil, pizza stone.

Cook: 550ish for about 12 mins, until it looked done.

pics below.

Should i cook pizza even higher in dome to get a less crunchy crust?

Eggcelsior · February 11

I would try to push it up in the dome more.I have had the same issues previously with your exact set-up. I used the feet instead of the AF. I have less of an issue with legs-up, but I went at higher temps and one time burned the crap out of the bottom because the top wasn't cooked enough. Getting it up in the dome fixed this and allowed for lower temps.

NecessaryIndulg · February 11

That looks great to me! yum!

anez · February 11

thanks, kristi! it was darn good.

Solson005 · February 11

First I would just ask the pizza place you got the dough from how hot they cook their pizzas. Since that is the issue your dealing with. This is just based off of your pictures, but it looks pretty thin for a 12 min cook and that might be why it is a little crunchy, do you spin it at the halfway point to help prevent burning?

Trying to get the top and the bottom done to perfection isn't the easiest. I settled on having a better tasting crust by using the platesetter legs down and the stone on the little green feet and spin the pizza at 5 or 6 mins. I use jamie oliver's pizza dough recipe with both 00 flour and King Arthur Bread Flour with great results. (if you have a kitchenaid it is really easy to make)

Here are my two pizza setups that work best for me:

and with my CGW Swing Rack I start it out on the bottom and finish high on the 2nd level for 2-3 mins. Best pizzas yet!

I hope you find a method that works for you, as you have probably seen everyone does it a bit different, this is mine.

anez · February 11

Thanks, solson. yup i turned it about 5 mins in. it was a really thin pie, so that prob had something to do with it. it was good, tho, but i want to perfect it. gonna hit up pizza shop later to find out what they cook it at ... and have a cold IPA at the same time.

pgprescott · February 11

Looks pretty damn good. We are our own greatest critics aren't we?

smokesniffer · February 11

We use parchment paper, put that on the pizza peel, then sprinkle some corn meal on the parchment, load the dough onto the paper, build our ZA and then it goes onto the pizza stone which resting on our 3 little feet, Beneath all that is the plate setter, legs down. We run about 550, for about 14 mins or so, depends on how thick the toppings are.

After about 4-5 minutes I pull the parchment paper. From there on in, I will turn the ZA on the stone a few times, just in case there is a hot spot.

Pizza on the egg is better than any take out joint. Hands Down, we haven't order in since we bought our large egg.

Keep playing with it, all of a sudden it happens, and you will nail it.

;)

smokesniffer · February 11

Also, pre- heat your pizza stone real good, so that it is up to temp.

anez · February 11

cool yea had the stone heated up for about 40 mins. gonna try the parchment paper next time. thanks for the tips, smoke.

gerhardk · February 11

Couple of ideas, like others have said may it just was in the heat for too long. Did you allow the dough to come to room temperature before shaping, if you did not you should next time. You might want to let the dough rest after you have shaped it this will allow it to rise a bit, 10 minutes would make a huge difference. Also if you shape it by using a rolling pin don't use a lot of pressure but rather more motion and don't go through the middle each time as that will make it really thin. I learned not to use a rolling pin for the shaping at all and think it improved my results.

Gerhard

Skiddymarker · February 11

Higher in the Dome will help the top along, if the crust is overcooking, there are two other things to consider. First, a higher moisture content in the crust will take longer to cook, and secondly, different than some other advice here, do not heat the stone as much. Once you have a stable egg, the stone will heat in under 20 minutes.

When cooking 2 or more in a row, I wipe the stone with a damp cloth to cool the stone between pies.

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second pizza, good but crust still a little crunchy (pics)

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