Frozen Pizza in the egg

kjed · February 2002

Has anyone cooked a frozen pizza, like a Freschetta or a DiGiorno, in the BGE? I have the pizza stone, and I'd like to know what temp to cook at, should the pizza stone be preheated, how long to cook, etc. Any help is appreciated.

The Naked Whiz · February 2002

kjed,
Spin and I did some experimentation on this with a bunch of DiGiorno pies. Spin should chime in here, but my results were basically that you should follow the instructions on the box. Whereas real pizza dough (by that I mean from a pizza joint or made at home) will do best with a preheated stone at 550 or 600 degrees, DiGiorno, and probably all "rising" dough freezer pizzas cannot take the heat. My personal theory is that these "rising" freezer doughs rely on steam to help them puff up and by releasing the moisture in the dough to steam, the crust is going to burn at a lower temperature. (For more information on the subject, see the Good Eats episode on chocolate chip cookies. Honest! It has to do with low vs. high protein flour.)[p]Anyway, follow the instructions on the box. You may have to fiddle a bit, but it wasn't hard to turn out very acceptable pizza. If you do have trouble with the crust burning, you could try a couple of things: 1) According to informed sources in this forum, it is a pizza joint trick to use a damp towel to rub the hot pizza stone before the first pie goes on. As long as you keep cooking pie after pie on it, the stone will stay at the lower temperature. If you let it sit for a while, you shoule give it another rub. I found that the 2nd through last pies had better crust than the first. 2) You could try putting the pizza on a screen and put that on the stone. I've not tried this myself.[p]So, go buy a bunch of DiGiorno small pies (they are usually about 3 bucks) and play around. [p]TNW

Painter · February 2002

kjed,
Preheat stone in the egg for about 15 to 20 min. to the package suggested temps and go with that. Check edge of crust after 7 min. and go from there. Probably will take maybe 10 min. to finish. Premade pizzas brands vary so much it's hard to get an exact timing.
Painter

ChefRD · February 2002

kjed,
Hello, and glad to meet you. I have done a few DiGiorno's on the large and maybe I can help. I used to always burn the bottom so now here is my routine.
Use a plate sitter with a pizza stone on top of it. Not just a stone alone. Preheat at 500-550 degrees for about 15 minutes. Slide the pizza on the stone (from a cornmeal covered peel) and after about 8 minutes start peeking in from the top or slightly crack the top open to look at the crust. My guess is would be more like 12 minutes before the crust and toppings are done, but I still peek cause I burnt so many at first .
Also, I let the pizza thaw out before cooking. (Even though the package says not too.)
I let it thaw completely and add more toppings of my choice, and then add it to the egg and follow the above instructions.
This does not produce a pizza as good as a home-made one, but it will suffice in a pinch or when you're in a hurry, and it tastes much better than one done in the oven.
Hope this helps, and if you have questions, just email me.
later,
ChefRD

Spring Chicken · February 2002

kjed,
My wife and I love the DiGiorno Supreme. I purchased a pizza stone and plate setter just for that if nothing else. The first time we followed the DiGiorno directions for heat and time. No good. Took forever and still wasn't done when we ate it. Also the back side was cooked to the point of being burned. Then I read a post that suggested a higher temperature (400°) and a rotation about half way through. It turned out good but nothing to brag about. Then I took it up another notch to 550°, rotation at the halfway point and it was great. No burned crust. Cooked all the way thru and even temperature on all slices. Took about thirteen minutes from frozen pizza box to first bite. I just heat the pizza stone as the Egg is building up steam and it works great. A slight hint of smoke from previous cooks adds a nice touch. This is the kind of Pizza I would have for my guests. Hope this helps.[p]

Spin · February 2002

kjed,[p]The DiGiorno four cheese pies are what I experimented with. I took them directly from the freezer to the Egg. The Egg setup was the plate setter/pizza stone with a wire rack on top to hold the pie off of the pizza stone. Initial cooks were done using 400°F for the directions timing, with later cooks using raised temperatures.[p]The Egg needs to be well preheated for the cook, controlling the temperature with the top vent only. Better results were gained by cooking at 450°F. I do think the temperature could be raised higher, but didn't experiment with them.[p]Spin

Frozen Pizza in the egg

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