Not a pizza cook disaster last night but not good

EggHead_Bubba · May 2015

Made two pies, the first used a dough ball purchased at Whole Foods. Took the dough straight from the fridge to the counter and it was impossible to stretch into any semblance of a pie. I have since learned it needed to sit at room temperature for a few hours before trying to stretch it. Anyway, my wife finally took the remainder of the dough and made a small pie that was round at least. The BGE had stabilized at 500° and the CI pizza "stone" seemed ready after a 30 minutes at that temp.

I put my wife's crust only on the stone to pre-cook it since she likes crispy crust. After a couple about 3 minutes I flipped it and then did about a minute on the other side. I brought it in and she added sauce and toppings to the side that cooked 3 minutes. Took the pizza back out and cooked it for about 3 minutes and the crust was on the verge of too done. Cheese was melted but not completely the way she likes it. Plus the crust had risen when pre-cooked and was too thick. She like thin and crispy and it was not.

My pizza was next and it was made with Bob's Red Mill Pizza mix. The dough was extremely hard to work with. The instructions say to use wet hands to work with it and that's the truth. At any rate, it ended up about the same, too thick but charred and not completely cooked through.

Pizza was a challenge last night but I'm sure I must be doing something wrong and will learn from experience.

EggPerfection · May 2015

I used to burn my blasted crusts all the time. I beat it making personal sized pies and putting them on the stone while sitting on foil. That pizza stone can just get too hot and burn the bottom of your beautiful pizza.

EggHead_Bubba · May 2015

@EggPerfection... I agree, but I have read in numerous threads where the temp used is 500° and higher with great results. There must be more to my problem. Thanks for the reply.

gamason · May 2015

Temp has a lot to do with the sugar content of your dough. The more sugar in it the easier it will burn at high temps. Publix dough for example cooks great @ 500 for 12 minutes but if I went nuclear at say 700 it would be burnt up. Personally I have found 475 to 500 is my sweet spot and I turn out consistent pizzas on Publix dough all the time. One of these days I'll try my own dough, but for now I'm very happy with this set up!

EggHead_Bubba · May 2015

@gamason.... Do you cook the dough a little before putting on sauce and toppings to finish the cook?

SmokeyPitt · May 2015

I don't precook the dough at all and I have been pleased with the results at 500ish. I wonder if the CI pizza pan might be a little hotter compared to a stone?

EggHead_Bubba · May 2015

@SmokeyPitt... I'm starting to think the CI "stone" was much hotter than the grid temp of 500°. I need to look into some way of determining the stone temp to be sure.

SmokeyPitt · May 2015

Lots of people will use an infrared non-contact thermometer to measure the temp of the stone to dial in their pizza cooks. I would think if the CI is hanging over the plate setter it could actually be hotter. In addition CI has really good heat retention properties. I suspect a stone will cool down more than CI when you put the cold pizza on.

EggHead_Bubba · May 2015

@SmokeyPitt... I really never even considered that. I looked around a bit and found one on Amazon at a big discount. What do you think? http://www.amazon.com/Temperature-Non-contact-Thermometer-Emissivity-Adjustable/dp/B00JA3BMDW

SmokeyPitt · May 2015

EggHead_Bubba said:

@SmokeyPitt... I really never even considered that. I looked around a bit and found one on Amazon at a big discount. What do you think? http://www.amazon.com/Temperature-Non-contact-Thermometer-Emissivity-Adjustable/dp/B00JA3BMDW

I think for $12 I am buying one too

.

theyolksonyou · May 2015

@EggHead_Bubba @smokeypitt I bought one of those for that very purpose. It works fine for that. Plus the kids love taking the temp of EVERYTHING!

EggPerfection · May 2015

Also, every pizza joint I've ever seen makes their pie on a screen and that does create a little bit of space and air between the crust and the stone. Those screens are at FSW cheap.

dieseldare · May 2015

The dough is key... I've been making a lot of pizza lately, but I'm too lazy to make my own dough. I'm lucky to have 2 pizza joints near by that sell me dough. One turns black much easier than the other regardless of the temp.

If you're just starting out you can try rolling the dough with roller. You can make it nice and thin. Seems to me, however that rolled dough is more crispy and doesn't rise as well.

EggHead_Bubba · May 2015

@dieseldare... I'm sure it'll take me several tries before I have it down. It's a challenge since I'm working with two different doughs, one regular and one gluten-free. We both really prefer thin and crispy crust so may rolling it would be the ticket.

gamason · May 2015

@EggHead Bubba, I do not precook my crust. But I do sautee' stuff like my onions and especially mushrooms before putting them on. They will turn a crust soggy pretty quick.

jtcBoynton · May 2015

Rolled dough does not rise as much as stretched dough. Rolling it removes some of the air bubbles in the dough. It is the expansion of the air bubbles in the dough that give the dough its lift.

DieselkW · May 2015

The temperatures you're using should quickly kill the yeast and stop the dough from rising further. Remember, the dome temperature is quite a bit lower than the iron "stone" closer to the burning lump. It's the dome temp that melts the cheese, but the iron temp is cooking your dough.

I would try raising the CI "stone" above the felt line. This should give you a better balance between dome temp and "stone" temp and keep the crust from cooking before the cheese melts.

EggHead_Bubba · May 2015

Thanks @DieselkW... I'm working on a rig to do just that and have also purchased a IR thermometer too so I can measure the CI stone temp.

DieselkW · May 2015

EggHead_Bubba said:

Thanks @DieselkW... I'm working on a rig to do just that and have also purchased a IR thermometer too so I can measure the CI stone temp.

Cheapest way I know is empty aluminum cans placed in the fire ring indents. You can take aluminum to 1400f before it melts.

Fire bricks can be used as well, but I just use cans and throw them in the recycle when I'm done. They're a little flimsy and want to fall into the lump until you get some weight on them. Maybe fill them with sand? Don't use water, it's a huge heat sink and when it steams it will lower your temp.

I have an IR thermo - fun to have to check doors and windows so you know where to insulate.

mlamb01 · May 2015

You need 2 stones. Problem is that the surface the pizza is sitting on gets much hotter than the air temp cooking the top of the pizza. You can try and help this by pre-heating the egg more, but this just gets the stone hotter. You could leave the stone out while pre-heating, but putting a cold stone in an already hot egg is just asking for it to crack.

Solution is to get 2 stones of the same size, then get some spacers, like 3/4" copper elbows, to put between the two stones. This will block alot of the direct heat from the fire, keep the stone you are cooking on cooler, and get the pizza a littler higher in the dome.

So the setup is like this... Platesetter legs up, factory grid, stone1(does not have to be a high quality one, just similar size to stone2), 3/4" elbows on their side, then stone 2. After the flames from the firestarter die out, put everything in and close the lid, leave the daisy wheel off. Once the temp has been stabilized at 500 degrees for 30 minutes, you are good to go.

EggHead_Bubba · May 2015

@DieselkW and @mlamb01... thanks for the replies. Going to do a little experimenting this weekend and try your suggestions! Appreciate it.

Not a pizza cook disaster last night but not good

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