Pizza tricks/suggestions???

MM61 · August 2011

I have followed the temp guidelines, heated the pizza stone, tried various dough receipes, lightly dusted the stone w/cornmeal (per the dvd), etc and have had at best - just a FEW successes - but more times then not, I have blackened the dough (cooking at 500-550)... My biggest issue and reason for this discussion is - prep and transfering the pizza from the prep plate to the stone???

Prep - we like THIN crust and I thought that if I preped the pizza and placed it immediately on the stone - my results would be better - problem

(1) the crust is so thin compared to the sauce, cheese, meat, etc - it is almost impossible to transfer it from the pizza tin to the stone and forget about maintaining the shape!!! I do prep the pizza on a light disting of cornmeal and prep pizza in a flat, thin pizza tin... Any suggestions

It seems the dough could be drier in order to maintain shape. Here is the recipe I use (from a friend that worked in a pizza parlor) - it is fast and easy and results when cooking the pizza in our oven - is great...

3 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 2 tsp olive oil, 1.5 cups of warm water and 1/4 oz of active dry yeast

Mix yeast/water first, then add salt, sugar, olive oil, and finally slowly mix in the flour (all ingredients in this specific order)

Make dough into a ball and let sit for 10 minutes

Lightly coat the ball w/EV olive oil, dust w/flour and shape dough (on a light dusting of cornmeal). This recipe does not require time in fridge to rise. Simply slap on the sauce, etc and cook. The dough taste great but it seems way to wet/soft to transfer the pizza to the stone.

I do not plan on giving up on BGE pizza's and would sincerely appreciate any suggestions. If it were not for a week long, camping trip in NC (trout!), I would head to Eggtober fest to watch various methods. I swear the pizza is the only thing I have been disapointed w/so far regarding BGE.

HELP!!!

Botch · August 2011

Here's some ideas:

- Get yourself a wooden peel to prep your pizza on; trying to slide an assembled pizza off a metal surface, even a metal peel, is damn near impossible in my experience. Once I have the dough opened to the correct pizza size, I dust it with flour, then sprinkle cornmeal on the wooden peel, and transfer the dough to the peel, floured side down. Once you get this far, don't dawdle; get the pizza made and onto the egg. The longer the dough sits on the peel, the more likely it is to stick (shake it on the peel before transferring to make sure it isn't). If you're still having trouble with the dough sticking, you can form it on top of parchment paper, and just slide that onto the stone (the stone will still absorb moisture thru the paper).

- A lot of folks on this forum suggest "dusting the stone with cornmeal". This doesn't make any sense to me; the cornmeal helps release the raw dough from the peel, but once it hits the hot stone sticking will no longer be a problem.

- The thinner your crust is, the thinner your ingredients need to be; resist the urge to really pile it on.

- Although your recipe doesn't require a slow rise in the refrigerator, give it a try; let it rise overnight or even two days in the frig. The crust will taste so much better (reduce the amount of yeast if you do this). In fact, your recipe doesn't even require a first rise at room temp. I've made pizza that way before, but the yeast's action on the flour really make the dough taste better.

I've been experimenting with pizzas for years now, and have only been egging them the past few months, still lots to learn. Hope this helps, and good luck!

Hillbilly-Hightech · August 2011

MM61 - I don't know why so many people go for the high temps w/ pizza. I usually use Costco pre-made, uncooked pizzas and have EGG-CELLENT success just cooking them @ 350-400 for 15-20 minutes (after 15 minutes I'll lift up the dome & look at it & see if it's done. If not, I'll shut the lid & wait another few minutes).

The ONE time I tried high temps, I burnt the bottom of the crust. Actually, that was done on a different pizza. There's a REALLY good local pizza joint close by, and we LOVE going there. I found out I can buy their uncooked pizzas, so I bought one. We were ALL "Egg-cited" to get it back home & try it on the Egg. I tried doing it based on the recommendations of the cook at the restaurant - 500 for 15 minutes. I figured since that's how they do it, it should turn out fine.

(cue the "wa-wa-wa" sound). The family was disappointed. The middle wasn't even cooked completely while the bottom was burnt
:-L

So, the moral of the story is - there's nothing magical about 500 degrees - if you like thin crust & you're burning them @ that temp, lower it & cook it longer!!

HTH,
Rob

gamera06 · August 2011

The peel is the trick... get some wood at your local hardware store and use Naked Whiz page

Made mine in less than 30 minutes and I'm very proud of it !!!

I ran some pizzas in the Large 2 weeks ago (10 in a row) and the best technique is to shake it baby ! Keep shaking the peel while you put the ingredient on it.

When I emailed customer support about my burned gasket, Duane told me to invert my Plate Setter: legs up, grille on top, baking stone on the grille. It seems to keep a better air flow around the pizza.

Botch · August 2011

When I emailed customer support about my burned gasket, Duane told me to invert my Plate Setter: legs up, grille on top, baking stone on the grille. It seems to keep a better air flow around the pizza.

Hmm, I'll have to give that a try. Oh, and right now, Papa Murphy's has their Large Pepperoni take-n-bake for $5; I can't make mine from scratch for that little! (I think its a national sale this week)

GrannyX4 · August 2011

I've cooked pizza twice. Once with legs up on the plate setter, 450 on parchment paper and cast iron pizza pan - it was wonderful. Next time I tried plate setter legs down, little green feet, cast iron pizza pan at 550 with parchment paper - burnt the crust and the gasket. I was wondering if I went too high the second time or if it was the plate setter with the legs down.

Lit · August 2011

The trick is the metal thing you see under my pizza. It is almost like a splatter gaurd for skillets but with thicker wires. Its solid metal on the outside for support but mesh in the middle. You build your pizza right on it and cook on it. I have 2 pizza peels and never use them because its still a pain to get the dough off the peel even with flour and corn meal. Another trick is to cook high in the done to get to the higher heat to finish the top of the pizza faster. My favorite set up is feet up, grate on teh feet, spyder feet down, and the stone on the spyder.

Pizza tricks/suggestions???

Comments

Categories