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??? about Pizza

BMFD
BMFD Posts: 25
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I did my first cook on Pizza last week. We used a store bought dough, cooked with a stone and plate setter at 550 for 8-10 minutes a pie.

The Pizza came out a little to doughy for my taste, I thought we would make a home made dough this week. I see there are several recipes for dough in the cookbook but does one stand head and shoulders above the rest?

We may have made the dough to thick when doing the pizza so I bought a roller to help roll out the dough , I might try to toss it and spin it but odds are it lands someplace it shouldn't!!

Also I thought I would use parchment paper. It was a struggle to get the pizza onto the stone. I now have a Peel but thought of using the paper as well. When looking at the box it says withstands temps to 420F,,, what does cooking at higher temps do, just burn the paper away or do you remove the paper after a minute or two of cooking?

Any other tips would be appreciated as well.

Comments

  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
     
    Here are some answers. If the dough is not cooked enough you need more cooking or more heat on the bottom side of the pie. You are going to have to figure out how to balance the heat from the bottom and heat from the dome. I cook pies about 500° dome on a raised grid, heavy pizza stone. About 8 to 15 minutes I just watch the toppings and bottom to make sure neither side cooks too fast. A lot of people are using the plate setter legs down, spacer and a stone. That is a good combination just make sure you let all that ceramic heat up before cooking.

    I build the pie on the peel and parchment paper, paper trimmed just a little large than the pie. On the stone let it cook and leave the paper there until the pie is done. It will get brown and even maybe some blackening on the paper - doesn't hurt anything.

    pizza.jpg

    GG
  • The Naked Whiz
    The Naked Whiz Posts: 7,777
    The parchment may scorch around the edges, but that's ok. However, your thought about removing the paper is a good one. I ran across a recipe in a "cooking over wood fire" book that says to do just that. You may like the crust better if it spends some time directly on the hot stone.
    The Naked Whiz
  • Judy's Egg
    Judy's Egg Posts: 104
    Use the parchment paper(makes for an easier transfer). I remove it after a few minutes. Good luck.
  • Roll Tide
    Roll Tide Posts: 505
    Like a couple of the other posts have stated, I typically use the prchment paper to transfer to the stone and wait around 4 minutes and remove the paper. This allows the pizza to set directly on the stone and crisp up a bit. This is how I do it and it has truned out really good each time. Also, if cooking several pizza's I will take a damp cloth and wipe down the stone to cool it a bit so that the bottom doesn't burn.
  • chefddr
    chefddr Posts: 1
    Try this http://tastingtable.com/recipe/No-Knead-Pizza-Co.pdf for a dough. It requires some advanced planning but it's one of the best out there. You have to have a light hand with the toppings for this dough, as it is very wet and can collapse under the weight of too many. Also, you may want to avoid a preponderance of wet or oily topping, for the same reason.

    I always cook my pizzas directly on the plate setter. Sometimes i even grill them directly on the grates. This dough is too thin for that technique, but you can do it with a thicker dough. If you want to do that, cook the pizza on one side un-topped to set the dough, flip it, and cook it for even less time on the second side. Then pull it off, top it, and put it back on the grill. All this could be done at about 450*

    Hope this helps
  • BobS
    BobS Posts: 2,485
    I cook at 650-700 and leave the parchment on the whole time. The old saying that if you're lookin' you ain't cookin' applies to pizza too, IMHO.

    You can look through the top and see how it is doing and when it is time to pull.

    Depends on what you like in a crust, but rolling out with a pin is hard on the dough and it pushes out most of the small bubbles that make the dough rise with the heat of the stone. I always put a little oil on the parchment and then you can stretch it as much as you want, without picking up the dough.

    Last, be sure that you have 45 minutes to 1 hour to preheat your stone.
  • FlaMike
    FlaMike Posts: 648
    There's a ton of pizza dough recipes out there. Just keep experimenting.
    For transferring...... I Love My Super Peel !!
    http://www.superpeel.com/videos.html