Pizza Help

Pa_BBQ · December 2009

Ok I promised the kids pizza today on the grill, had ordered a book from Amazon on cooking pizza on the grill, but its not helping me out so looking here for help.

I did a search but most posts seem to be older not sure if they are still the best option or not.

I can not use the feet for the pizza stone, they are under my egg.

The only pizza sauce I found at walmart was the generic kind in a jar.

Can you give me a good dough recipe that can be cooked at 550 degrees for 15 minutes, I will need to make 4 pizzas.

Do I use the sauce from walmart or try and make some myself, if that is the case any sauce recipe you like?

Any tips and help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Pa_BBQ · December 2009

Sorry if this is one of those questions that is asked a million times, I was hoping to just find a decent pizza sauce at walmart, and use a basic dough recipe, but belive it has to be specific to cook at high temps.

lowercasebill · December 2009

you can use regular pizza dough at that those temps..
this is the infamous Zippy Za dough slide show

under the stone you can use copper "T' plumbing fittings or rocks or aluminun foil balls
good luck
make extra dough so you can do a practice run,, took me a while to get the hang of pizza

Grand Oeuf Vert · December 2009

You'll find a few dough recipes right here on the forum. Give OttawaEgg's a try. You can also use store bought dough. As for sauce, I just use store bought stuff. I add some LaBomba to it for some heat. Just go ahead and eggspariment with your pizza. You'll find it will turn out great!

Village Idiot · December 2009

Pa,

I'm new to the BGE too (less than a week), but I've already made pizza and it turned out pretty good ! I screwed it up a little taking it off the stone, but the crust was great and so was the toppings. I used onion, bell pepper, breakfast sausage and turkey pepperoni.

This recipe will make 2 pizzas. I forgot where I got it.

Dough
3 cups Flour , bread or high gluten
1 ½ teaspoons Yeast, Active dry
1 cup Water, warm (105-110 deg)
1 ½ tablespoons Salt, Kosher
1 teaspoon Sugar
½ teaspoon Garlic powder
½ teaspoon Onion powder
3 tablespoons Olive oil
Sauce
1 28 oz. can Tomatoes , crushed
1 6 oz. can Tomato paste
1 teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Garlic powder
1 teaspoon Basil, dried
1 ¼ teaspoons Fennel seed
1 teaspoon Oregano
Dough

Pour warm water, yeast, sugar and a small amount of flour in a bowl and mix the ingredients together. Let it stand for 8-10 minutes to let the yeast activate.

Pour flour, salt and 1 Tbsp of Olive Oil in an electric mixer (using Dough Hook) and lightly mixed it up. Add Yeast water and mix for 7-10 minutes until dough is coming off the sides but still slightly sticking to the bottom.

Shape the dough into a ball and place it on a slightly floured table and let rest for 2-3 minutes

Pour remaining 2 Tbsp of oil into the bowl and mix it around the bowl to coat it with oil and place the dough in the bowl. Turn the dough until the oil lightly coats it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it in warm, dark location. (I put it in the oven to get it out of the way)

Let the dough rise for 2 hours.

After the 2 hours, take large dough ball and cut in 1/2 to create 2 pizza dough balls. (these pizza dough balls will be roughly 12 ounces each)

Cover the dough with a light moist cloth and let rise for 1 hour.

Sauce
Mix the ingredients together in a glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Assembly
Start by adding a little flour to your table and begin working the dough with your hands in a circular motion. Continue to work the dough until it is even, thin thickness and forms a circle. Be careful not to tear the dough.
I like to use a dough docker (puts little holes in the dough to prevent large bubbles to form). - You can also use a fork to dock the dough as well.
I place some cornmeal on my pizza peel and put the dough on top of the cornmeal. (this keeps it from sticking to the peel).
Put a couple of large spoons full of pizza sauce in the center of the pizza dough and begin to move the sauce around until it evenly covers the whole pizza dough - leaving about 1/4 of an inch of dough on the outside.
I sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese over the sauce and then begin to add meat and vegetable toppings.
Add cheese (I like to do a mixture of Mozzarella and white cheddar)
Drizzle a little high quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the top of the cheese and add some fresh chopped basil and a little more Parmesan cheese on top for taste.
Place pizza on top of a pizza stone.(using indirect heat on a 650 degree charcoal grill with some hickory or oak sprinkled in for flavoring)
-Remember to preheat the grill and pizza stone for 30 minutes prior to making pizza.

9. The pizza should be done in about 3 - 4 minutes.

I use a Big Green Egg to cook these pizzas. I use it because it imparts a nice wood fire flavor and has a wonderful ability to maintain even high temperatures.

If you wish to bake in the oven:
Set the temperature to 500 degrees (most ovens only go to 500 or 550 degrees)

Remember: Let the pizza stone sit in the oven for at least 30 minutes to allow it to come up to temperature.

Start by adding a little flour to your table and begin working the dough with your hands in a circular motion. Continue to work the dough until it is an even, thin thickness and forms a circle. Be careful not to tear the dough.
I like to use a dough docker (puts little holes in the dough to prevent large bubbles to form). - You can also use a fork to dock the dough as well.
I place some cornmeal on my pizza peel and put the dough on top of the cornmeal. (this keeps it from sticking to the peel)
I have found that it is often a good idea to shape the crust and let it pre-bake in the oven for 3-4 minutes and then add the sauce and other toppings. This allows the crust to crisp up a bit.
Put a couple of large spoons full of pizza sauce in the center of the pizza dough and begin to move the sauce around until it evenly covers the whole pizza dough - leaving about 1/4 of an inch of dough on the outside.
I sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese over the sauce and then begin to add meat and vegetable toppings.
Add cheese (I like to do a mixture of Mozzarella and white cheddar)
Drizzle a little high quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the top of the cheese and add some fresh chopped basil and a little more Parmesan cheese on top for taste.
Place pizza on top of a pizza stone and bake until cheese is bubbling and just starting to get a bit of brown on the crust and cheese.

Village Idiot · December 2009

By the way, the recipe says to put it in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. I immediately used mine and it was just fine.

BBQMaven · December 2009

Since this is your first go at it, be sure and build the pizza on a piece of parchment paper. Transfer the pizza to the stone with a peel. Leave the parchment paper under the pizza the whole time.
Also, make sure EGG, plate setter, and pizza stone are to cooking temp for an hour before you put the first pizza on.

Matt_inSC · December 2009

You can use numerous things to raise the stone off the platesetter. I currently have a copper elbow and two brass nuts from my plumbing kit.

I'm looking forward to making my own dough but I used Publix brand dough first time around and it was good. Just something to keep in mind if you're pinched for time (and you have a Publix near you.) :ohmy:

If you're doing many pizzas stock it up w/ lots of lump. I haven't done an extended burn like that (550*) before and it went through some lump.

Pa_BBQ · December 2009

That was great, thanks

Village Idiot · December 2009

Maven,

It is my understanding that the stone sucks out the moisture from the dough, which gives it the crunch. If you keep the parchment paper on for the entire time, wouldn't that prevent the stone from doing it's work?

Matt_inSC · December 2009

I think lots do it with parchment paper there the whole time. I did pizzas for my first time last night and on half of them I pulled the paper after 3-4 minutes (and the dough was no longer tacky(.
Not sure how much difference it made.

BBQMaven · December 2009

Never have had that problem. The dough tends to stick to the peel and stone when try to slid it on. After you've done it awhile, you may feel better at it.

The parchment paper and a peel are the best friend of a new pizza cooker.

Unknown · December 2009

parchment paper does work and many here use it regularly with great results, but it is unnecessary even for beginners, & if you skip the step & learn to use a peel right from the get go, you'll never miss the parchment... there is a reason you never see a shred of it in pizza shops

Unknown · December 2009

Another way to set up the grill is to use the platesetter, legs up, with the grid on that, and the stone on the grid.

You don't need spacers that way.

It's the only way I've done it and it has been uniformly successful.

UnConundrum · December 2009

For the pre-made sauce, Don Pepino seems to be the favorite readily available sauce. I personally like 6-in-1 ground tomatoes with some sugar, salt and basil, but it's real difficult to find 6-in-1 at a grocery store. I assume the "Pa" in your name stands for Pennsylvania? If so, what part? Maybe I can direct you to some resources for pizza making.

As to dough, If you're shooting for 500 - 550 F, I strongly suggest you use a high gluten flour. King Arthur's Sir Lancelot is my favorite, but depending on where you are, that may be difficult to find. If you can't find it, use a bread flour. Again, King Arthur's products are a great place to start.

I always use baker's math and weights to do my dough formulas. I'd suggest you start with a 60% hydration and 2% salt. Depending on how long you're willing to wait for your dough to rise, I'd suggest about .5% IDY (instant dry yeast) going no more than 1%. If you're willing to wait, I'd cut it to about .25%. So assuming you're going with .5% and the flour is always 100%, the sum of your ingredients is 162.5%. Now figure out how much dough you want? That would be the size of each dough ball times the number of dough balls you want. So, for example, if you want 6 dough balls @ .75# each, you need 4.5# of dough. You divide that result by the sum of the percentages. In our example, that would be 4.5# divided by 1.625 or 2.72 pounds. That's your flour weight or 100%. Now multiply the 2.72 by our 60% hydration which is 1.63# of water. The salt is 2% of 2.72# or .05# or a little less than an ounce, or 25 grams of salt. I always use grams, especially for the smaller items. The yeast is .5% of 2.72 pounds which is about .2 of an ounce, or about 6 grams. That brings us just short of the 4.5#, the result of rounding to keep the numbers easy.

Once you understand baker's math, you can easily expand or contract any dough formula.

One last point, the dough benefits from patience. If you can plan the day before and start your dough then, the taste will improve greatly. Allowing for a 24 hour room temperature fermentation is a marked difference. There are more advanced methods of using a poolish, but that's for another day.

Oh, and as to the flour, you want to reduce the protein (lower gluten) as you raise the temperature of the fire to bake on. If you're baking at about 700, I'd use all purpose flour, and at 900 you want special flours designed for pizza like the Italian 00 flours such as Caputo.

Like I said, let me know where you live, and maybe I can share some resources

HungryMan · December 2009

Going to try your recipe for my next batch. I dtill have some in the freezer I need to use. I will leave out the fork. I like the bubbles in my dough.

mkc · December 2009

UnConundrum - I thought I saw your posts over there on pizzamaking.com! We are kindred spirits in the obsession with pizza

My freezer is full of Ezzo pepperoni, Grande East Coast Blend, and All-Trumps flour (unbleached, unbrominated).

UnConundrum · December 2009

Well, I just found out this weekend that Fred (SmokingGuitarPlayer) is carrying Caputo

That should save me some running.

I'm trying to fire up my WFO this morning, but all the wood is damp from the rain and snow. So I'm trying to get a wood drying fire going, lol. Guess you guys got hammered too. No pizza in my immediate future :-/

Serial Griller · December 2009

Here's another stone set up option.It's key to get you egg temp stabilized and then all those stones preheated for 45 minutes- 1hr .Before putting on the pizza.
platesetter with firebricks

16" pizza stone

yum

UnConundrum · December 2009

That's the way I do it as well, with great success.

mkc · December 2009

UnConundrum wrote:

Well, I just found out this weekend that Fred (SmokingGuitarPlayer) is carrying Caputo That should save me some running.

Still a bit of a haul from Texas B) I have to do mail order from PennMac.

I haven't yet gotten up the courage (in 2 years) to take the Egg hot enough to do a true Neapolitan, so I haven't had success with straight Caputo, and I know the temps are why.

At the moment, my dough of choice for a 14" pizza is a mix of 170 grams All-trumps and 88 grams Caputo in a 5-day cold rise for NY style. I autolyze the All-trumps with 170 g. water for 20 minutes, then add 1/4 tsp SAF Instant yeast, 1 tsp Morton kosher salt, a drop or two of olive oil, same of honey (food for the yeastie-beasties for that long ferment), and the Caputo. 2 minutes on stir, 4 minutes on speed 2 of my Kitchenaid, then into an oiled bowl, flip to oil the other side, and in the fridge.

Hmmm... Fridays are pizza night, 5 day cold rise, I do believe I need to get into the kitchen and start this week's doughball NOW.

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