Pizza on the BGE – What works for me

jetman96 · January 2021

Long, detailed post ahead, on how I've dialed in my pizza on the BGE. Feel free to ask me any questions, and I'll answer what I can. I hope this helps someone. Enjoy!

I’ve seen a lot of great recipes for dough that take many hours (or days!) that I’m sure taste amazing and have more flavor than mine. I’ve been making pizza on the BGE a few times a month, for several years now, and have my recipe dialed in. I can go from raw ingredients (flour, water, yeast, etc) to finished pie in about 90 minutes. I’ll give the shortened recipe first, then the details following.

Pizza timeline, rough estimate:
00:00 – Put the ingredients in the bread machine (recipe below) or knead by hand or KitchenAid.
00:05 – Press start, go light the BGE, two Firestarter cubes, Rockwood lump up to the top of the fire ring. Bottom screen wide open, lid up.
00:20 – Load the AR with oval ceramic deflector, extender, and pizza stone (see photos). Close lid, bottom screen back in place, Smokeware cap fully open. Remove if needed to bring temp to 500 F.
01:00 – Start checking pizza stone temp with IR gun. Target is 450 F (center) to 500 F (edge), plus or minus 25 F. Make sure you get to these temps to get a crispy crust.
01:08 – Dough is done. Split into two balls, freeze one, roll out other in 14” square to fit metal peel
01:15 – Pizza is prepped on cornmeal on metal peel (see pictures). Launch onto pizza stone.
01:19 – Check to see if pie needs rotated to account for hot spots where oval stone doesn’t block heat (see picture).
01:23 – Check pie again to determine cooking rate. Will pull between 12 and 15 minutes after start.
01:30 – Pizza is done (see pictures)

This pizza dough recipe is from the back of a King Arthur’s pizza flour bag, which I haven’t been able to find in some time. Because it has oil in it, the firing temperature is lower (500 F) than Neapolitan style (900 F) and the flour is red bag Antimo 00, rather than blue bag Antimo 00. I do not use a scale, which I know is more accurate, but this has worked for me for years.

Pizza Dough Recipe
1 1/4 cups warm water (bottled, not tap, which has chlorine)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt (fine sea salt, or table, which has iodine)
2 tablespoons EVOO
3 1/4 cups flour (Antimo 00, red bag). Scoop flour with a spoon into measuring cup, scrape level
2 teaspoons fast-rising or pizza yeast, or 1 packet (2 1/4 tsp)

Use Dough function on bread maker, or by hand or KitchenAid:
Knead 6 minutes
Rest 5 minutes
Knead 12 minutes
Rise 40 minutes, or pull out of bread machine and rise longer
Punch down

Pizza toppings (current recipe)
Mid’s pizza sauce, 1/2 jar (1 cup)
Pizza cheese, 1/2 cup
Banana peppers
Red onion
Black olives
Red bell pepper
Pepperoni
Hot cheese, 1/2 cup
For serving:
Basil leaves
Good EVOO drizzled
Good Parmigiana Reggiano, grated

AR Setup

Dough prep on metal peel

Potential hot spot along side

Finished pies