Now I know we all love pizza . . .

[Oldsarge]

It's just that we tend to prefer different kinds, and I'm not talking just about toppings. Some prefer the cracker crust thin kind from Napoli, others prefer the folded over kind from Sicily, others a thick crust and then there are those of us who dote on the deep dish kind invented in Chicago. The bad part is that it isn't easy to find outside of Chi-town and environs. Well, brothers and sisters, I come here today to tell you that King Arthur Flour has The Answer. Greedy pig that I am, I ordered the14" pan instead of the 12". Unless you, too, are a GP or you have a big family, don't make that mistake. However, do get one or the other. I tried it out last night. Man, whaddapizza! Huge, thick and filled up with almost a pound and a half of cheese plus all the other ingredients, it was a masterpiece. I can just imagine a frutti di mare made deep dish. Yum!!!

 

[bobdonny]

I love pizza... I have the supplies to make a pompeii brick pizza oven,,, just need the time

Those pans look ideal for this [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_gUHsnHaVQ]Giordano's Dining Chicago with David Lissner - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Mr. X]

Oh yes, I remember Giordanos Pizza And Gino's East Good after a day of XC skiing, not exactly healthy fare for most though. A coarse corn flour base is a nice touch - a thick layer of sausage meet over the whole area seems a little excessive though. Add a Prime Rib and Eli's cheese cake for dessert -> coronary?:crutch

 

[Oldsarge]

Actually, KA's pans are better than those because the sides are sloped. That way you can take it out of the oven, let it sit for 10 minutes and then slide it our onto a cutting board a lot easier than you can with the straight sided kind. However, the contents? Oh, yeah, just like that!

 

[agbiv]

Did Seafood pizzas at the Shrimp-o-ree in Aransas Pass one year--fruiti di mare with lots of Gulf Brown Shrimp (they are the sonsors). Best one I made used pesto instead of tomato sauce! Pile it high and cook it down. :thankyou

 

[Bill McIntyre]

I don't care for the deep dish pizzas. I prefer lighter toppings and thinner crusts such as Neapolitan or the even thinner Roman style. For years since a bicycle trip through Italy, I've been messing with my dough recipe trying to get it right. The photos shows one of my simple Margheritas.

I wish I could afford a brick oven, but since I can't I use a gas grill. I turn all the burners to high and preheat the stone in it for at least 45 minutes, and it gives pretty good results. The problem is that it doesn't really blister the top like a domed brick oven. Lately I've experimented with using the gas oven at 550° F and putting a second stone on the shelf above the pizza. That radiates some heat from above.

Whatever style pizza you like, I recommend a book called American Pie by Peter Reinhart. It has recipes for dough for every kind of pizza, and of course toppings.

 

[WillUnderwater]

Check this guide out from King Arthur as well, it involves using a cast iron skillet and we love making pizzas this way:

Cast iron pans: a pizza

Here is our last one using this method:

 

[Oldsarge]

Hmmm, cooking a smaller deep dish in one of my cast iron skillets . . .

Thanx, Will, I'll have to give that a shot. And Bill, thanx for the recipe book tip. I'll have to get that one!

 

[WillUnderwater]

Hmmm, cooking a smaller deep dish in one of my cast iron skillets . . .

Thanx, Will, I'll have to give that a shot. And Bill, thanx for the recipe book tip. I'll have to get that one!

I have a 12" I believe and with the King Arthur Dough kits it makes two pizzas - pretty easy and really good

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Check this guide out from King Arthur as well, it involves using a cast iron skillet and we love making pizzas this way:

Cast iron pans: a pizza

Here is our last one using this method:

That looks great.

I almost got this cast iron pizza pan

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Pro-Logic-P14P3-Pizza-14-inch/dp/B0000E2V3X/ref=sr_1_12?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1362846045&sr=1-12&keywords=lodge++cast+iron"]Amazon.com: Lodge Pro-Logic P14P3 Cast Iron Pizza Pan, Black, 14-inch: Home & Kitchen@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31nXLYjHn-L.@@AMEPARAM@@31nXLYjHn-L[/ame]

but didn't because I thought the lip would be a problem sliding the peel under the pizza when it was done, but you obviously deal with a much deeper lip.

My latest acquisition is this steel slab that replaces a stone.

Baking Steel | Create The Crust You Crave

Here are a couple of reviews.

The Pizza Lab: The Baking Steel Delivers | Slice Pizza Blog

The Baking Steel Product Review | The Kitchn

I can't seem to find it now, but one review of the baking steel is where I got the idea of putting my old pizza stone on the rack above the one with the steel.

 

[WillUnderwater]

That looks great.

I almost got this cast iron pizza pan

Amazon.com: Lodge Pro-Logic P14P3 Cast Iron Pizza Pan, Black, 14-inch: Home & Kitchen

but didn't because I thought the lip would be a problem sliding the peel under the pizza when it was done, but you obviously deal with a much deeper lip.

Cast Iron itself is already fairly non-stick. I usually place some flavored garlic oil in the bottom of the pan. Once done, I will run a knife or spatula around edges and it usually pops right out no problem

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Cast Iron itself is already fairly non-stick. I usually place some flavored garlic oil in the bottom of the pan. Once done, I will run a knife or spatula around edges and it usually pops right out no problem

I wasn't referring to non-stick. I've never had a problem with my crust sticking to a stone. I was referring the vertical lip around the cast iron "stone" or the rim of your pan making it hard to just slide my pizza peel under the pizza to check how done it is or to remove it when its done.

After forming my dough, I put it on a wood pizza peel covered with semolina, add the toppings, and then slide it onto a stone (or steel) with a quick jerk. Then when its done, I slide the peel under it for removal. In my first photo, you can see it sitting on the peel.

 

[Oldsarge]

Which duplicates the original way of cooking pizza in a wood fired oven. For years I've made pizza on a half bun pan. It's aluminum and has a lip. Yeah, unless you oil the pan carefully, it's hard to get out. With my deep dish, I oil the pan well but still have to pry up the pizza all round before I slide the peel underneath or just tilt it out onto a cutting board. But I like the pizza steel. Being only a quarter inch thick it would take up no room in a tall cupboard. Not being a Chicago purist and willing to make flat pizzas as happily as I am to make superfat ones, I can definitely see one of those in my future. I especially like the part about not being able to break one the way a stone or two of my has done in the past. :vangry

 

[Mr. X]

I don't care for the deep dish pizzas. I prefer lighter toppings and thinner crusts such as Neapolitan or the even thinner Roman style. For years since a bicycle trip through Italy, I've been messing with my dough recipe trying to get it right. ...

I wish I could afford a brick oven, but since I can't I use a gas grill. I turn all the burners to high and preheat the stone in it for at least 45 minutes, and it gives pretty good results. The problem is that it doesn't really blister the top like a domed brick oven. Lately I've experimented with using the gas oven at 550° F and putting a second stone on the shelf above the pizza. That radiates some heat from above..

Well you live in the warm climate of California - a deep-dish Chicago pizza would be heavy going & not too helpful when you go down to Muscle Beach in your speedos I too once had a super thin pizza in Italy, delicious

We have an old dome-shaped brick bread oven in our home - it was bricked up for more than 50 years (maybe more than 100 years) but appears to be in perfect condition still. It took me a while to figure out how it works (it has no chimney/vent) but I finally did. We haven't yet had the nerve to try it out - would be perfect for pizza though.

Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall made an outdoor clay pizza oven from clay dug up in a nearby field on this Channel 4 TV show, River Cottage. Unfortunately his youtube links on this are a bit rubbish though. Youtube has a number of videos by others though.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

We have an old dome-shaped brick bread oven in our home - it was bricked up for more than 50 years (maybe more than 100 years) but appears to be in perfect condition still. It took me a while to figure out how it works (it has no chimney/vent) but I finally did. We haven't yet had the nerve to try it out - would be perfect for pizza though.

I'm jealous.

Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall made an outdoor clay pizza oven from clay dug up in a nearby field on this Channel 4 TV show, River Cottage. Unfortunately his youtube links on this are a bit rubbish though. Youtube has a number of videos by others though.

I'll look around, but I suspect building one from clay will be beyond my expertise.

 

[Oldsarge]

We have an old dome-shaped brick bread oven in our home - it was bricked up for more than 50 years (maybe more than 100 years) but appears to be in perfect condition still. It took me a while to figure out how it works (it has no chimney/vent) but I finally did. We haven't yet had the nerve to try it out - would be perfect for pizza though.

So am I! I even have vast quantities of firewood to heat one with but unfortunately, no oven.

 

[Mr. X]

The bread oven's must have been standard equipment at one time (Victorian era I would think, with that cast iron door), the house next door has one the same. It too was bricked up and hidden from view for many years, although they've cut the front half off now and use it as a half-domed drinks cabinet . Thinking about it now, I suspect they were bricked up for more than 100+ years as I recall that in my grandparents era there was a village bakery in an outbuilding just 2 doors away run by family friends - so no point baking your own then.

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masonry_oven[/ame]

Our oven is built inside the side of an inglenook fire place, so it would breath and vent out of the open metal door, into the main chimney.

Like the Tardis, it is much bigger on the inside - and surprisingly smooth with no signs of burning, smoke or scorching. The is a slot immediately in front of the door that leads to a very large ash pit below (emptied by the last owner).

 

[Oldsarge]

In a day when every middle class family had servants and probably a professional cook, I'll bet that thing saw a lot of use, though I wonder about the lack of soot inside. Weren't the ovens all coal fired in Victorian days?

 

[Bill McIntyre]

My quest for the perfect pizza continues.

My daughter and her two sons, ages 11 and 9, just flew over from Germany for a two week stay. They demanded pizza. My daughter requested this recipe, so I'll paste it in if it happens to row anyone's boat. The amount of cheese is roughly right for two pizzas, but tonight I almost double it for four.

Pizza with Prosciutto, Potatoes, and Rosemary

2 cups Fontina cheese, grated
very thinly sliced potatoes (Yukon gold)
(I use a mandolin to slice the potatos so thin you can almost see through them)
rosemary
garlic oil
2 packages prosciutto

Toast rosemary sprigs until brown.
Brush crust with olive oil.
Spread cheese in thin layer.
Cover crust with one layer of very thinly sliced potatoes.
Top with a layer of thinly sliced proscuitto.
Bake at 550° for about 4 minutes.
Crumble rosemary over pizza and serve.

But the main point of my post is method rather than recipe. My 11-year-old grandson heard that I was experimenting with new methods, and expressed his disappointment to his mother. He loved it the way I always cooked it. She passed that along to me, and I decided that I should experiment on my own dime. I cooked the first three pizzas on a stone on my gas grill, and they were met with approval.

But meanwhile, I had also been preheating the oven with my new pizza steel on the top shelf, and since everyone was reasonably satiated, I took a flyer with the fourth one. I've copied and pasted this from the review that gave me the idea.

Baking Steel Broiler Pizza

This is where things really took a turn for the better. The skillet-broiler method is was my go-to method for cooking pies, but you can consider me officially converted to the Baking Steel-broiler method.
For this pie (and a number of other pies since), I heated up the baking steel on the second-to-top shelf of my oven set at 550°F until it was holding a steady temperature (this took about half an hour, the steel held steady at around 500°F). Then just before sliding the pie into the oven, I cranked up the broiler to high. (I have an oven with a broiler on the top shelf. If your broiler is under the oven, you'd have to preheat the steel under the broiler).
In order to ensure that the broiler didn't cycle off (it has a thermostat that shuts it off if the oven gets too hot), I kept the oven door barely cracked with a metal spoon, like this:

The first pie I baked cooked in just under four minutes, and the half dozen I've baked using this method since have all been in the three and a half to four and a half minute range.

The photo below shows the results. It was perhaps a bit underdone on the bottom, and a bit overdone on the top, but for a first try I'm pleased. Next time I think I'll lower the rack that the steel sits on to the next setting.

I'm sure everyone has his own favorite dough recipe, but here is the one from American Pie that I used tonight.

Neo-Neapolitan Dough

5 cups (1#- 6.5 oz) unbleached high gluten or bread flour
1 tablespoon honey or sugar
2 teaspoons table salt or 3.5 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ¾ cups plus tablespoon room temperature water (70°F)

Mix ingredients with dough hook at low speed for about 4 minutes or until all the flour gathers to form a coarse ball.

Let dough rest for 5 minutes, then mix again on medium-low speed for an additional 2 minutes, or until dough clears the sides of the bowl and sticks just a little to the bottom.

Immediately divide the dough into four equal pieces. Round each piece into a ball and brush or rub each piece with olive oil. Place each ball inside its own zippered freezer bag. Let the balls sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, then put them in the refrigerator overnight or freeze any pieces you will not be using the next day. (Or if you are making pizzas on the same day, let the dough balls sit at room temperature for 1 hour, remove them from the bags, punch them down, reshape them into balls, return them to the bags, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.)

The next day (or the same day if refrigerated for only 2 hours, remove the balls from the refrigerator 2 hours before you plan to roll them out to take off the chill and relax the gluten.

And for what its worth, here is another favorite that I've typed into MSWord.

Roman Pizza Dough

5 cups (22.5 ounces)(1# 6.5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup (1 ounce) semolina flour
1 ¾ tsp table salt or 3 ¼ t kosher salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1 ¾ cups plus 2 tbs cool water (65°)

1. Put ingredient in bowl of mixer, mix with dough hook on low speed for about 4 minutes, or until the flour gathers to form a coarse ball. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, then mix again on medium-low speed for an additional 2 minutes, or until the dough clears the side of the bowl and sticks just a little to the bottom. If dough is too soft and sticky to hold its shape, mix in more flour by the tablespoon. If its too stiff and dry, mix in more water by the tablespoon. The dough should pass the windowpane test.

2. Transfer to dough to a floured counter, dust the top of the dough with flour to absorb the surface moisture, and then working from the four corners, fold the dough into a ball. Place the dough in a bowl that has been brushed with olive oil, turn to coat with oil, and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough sit for 30 minutes, then put bowl in refrigerator overnight. (Or if you are making pizzas the same day, let the dough sit for 1 ½ hours, punch it down, reshape it into a ball, return the ball to the bowl, then cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours)

3. Remove the dough from the refrigerator 2 hours before you plan to make pizza. The dough will have expanded somewhat and the gluten will be very relaxed. Using a plastic bowl scraper dipped in water, or using wet hands, gently transfer the dough to a floured counter, trying to degas the dough as little as possible. Using a pastry blade that has been dipped in water, divide it into 6 (I do 4) equal pieces. Gently round each piece into a ball and brush or rub with olive oil. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment or a nonstick silicone baking liner and brush with olive oil. Place each ball on the pan and loosely cover with plastic wrap or a food grade plastic bag. (If you do not plan to use all the balls, place the in individual zip-lock freezer bags and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months.) Allow the dough balls to sit at room temperature for 2 hours before making pizza.

I hope to perfect my pizza before I die, but there is so little time.

 

[Oldsarge]

But . . . but Bill, the photo didn't come through! And I was so hoping, too. Keep experimenting with that pizza steel. It's got me intrigued.