Made my first pizza today

[Fritzo]

Restaurants have both types of ovens, their use is tailored to what they are cooking. Agree with you that electric ovens are drier than gas ovens; water vapor is a byproduct of methane combustion. The fancier ovens have steam injection and humidity controls

I've been in quite a few kitchens, and unless something has changed over the last 15 years, gas and convection were the only types of ovens used in (good) restaurants. I can't speak for the little ma & pa places.

 

[smackababy]

We have a small (28") oven so assembling the pizza while the stone is in the oven = very hi risk of burns. Also of dropping the pizza on the heating elements. We also do not have a peel.

We remove the hot pizza stone from the over and put it on the grates of our gas stove. Assemble the pizza on the (still hot) stone in about 1-2 minutes. Then put it back in the oven for however long it needs to cook. The stone does not cool down enough in the few minutes it is out of the oven to make a difference in how the pizza cooks.

Your method would work too, provided you are confident that you can move transfer the doughy pizza in the confines of a traditional 30" home oven.

Ah, my stone (or stones, rather) is a tiled square that takes up the majority of the rack. And, after a few unsuccessful tries, I learned how to properly slide my pizza off the peel. =)

actually what happened was I couldn't get it off the peel and the toppings got slid over to one side...

this time I also did a better job of rolling out the dough, should have taken a photo

When you say this, I really hope you don't mean you used a rolling pin. Please, take the 10 minutes and look up how to properly stretch your dough. It isn't hard and is superior to everything.

 

[Fritzo]

actually what happened was I couldn't get it off the peel and the toppings got slid over to one side...

this time I also did a better job of rolling out the dough, should have taken a photo

I used to make my own crust until I discovered Naan bread. There's a Lebanese bakery down the street that makes them 2/$1 and they make the BEST pizza crusts. I coat them with some olive oil and grated Parmesan, then add some tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, red onion, bella mushrooms, and capicola. It's one of my favorite things to eat ever.

 

[OutHouse]

funny, we did the make your own pizza night last night. I have used the parchment idea for a while and it works great. I normally put my oven at 500 and cook the pizza for 7 min. crust turns out crisp like from a brick oven pizza shop. I have been wanting to upgrade from my round stone to a rectangle one that fills more of my oven rack and get two pies going at once. The round stone we have used for almost 20 years for lots of things and its seasoned so well its almost black. nothing sticks to it


http://www.target.com/p/pizzacraft-...pid=14130091&gclid=CMjx6peLzcECFW4F7AodIBkAjg

 

[smackababy]

funny, we did the make your own pizza night last night. I have used the parchment idea for a while and it works great. I normally put my oven at 500 and cook the pizza for 7 min. crust turns out crisp like from a brick oven pizza shop. I have been wanting to upgrade from my round stone to a rectangle one that fills more of my oven rack and get two pies going at once. The round stone we have used for almost 20 years for lots of things and its seasoned so well its almost black. nothing sticks to it


http://www.target.com/p/pizzacraft-...pid=14130091&gclid=CMjx6peLzcECFW4F7AodIBkAjg

Do you also not use soap on it when you "wash" it? Every thing I've read suggests the stones are porous enough to absorb some of the soap and leave a bad taste. I've yet to use any on mine.

 

[KeithTalent]

Looks delicious OP; well done!

KT

 

[OutHouse]

Do you also not use soap on it when you "wash" it? Every thing I've read suggests the stones are porous enough to absorb some of the soap and leave a bad taste. I've yet to use any on mine.

never, i just rinse it in hot water and dry it. I think my wife got it from one of her friends who was doing pampered chef 15 or so years go. i love the thing, if it ever breaks i will be sad. its so dark it has been confused with castiron.


its this one, but without the handles. it can be tricky to get out of the oven when hot due to nothing easy to grab.

http://www.pamperedchef.com/shop/Stoneware/Medium+Round+Stone+with+Handles/1341

 

[RichieZ]

Ah, my stone (or stones, rather) is a tiled square that takes up the majority of the rack. And, after a few unsuccessful tries, I learned how to properly slide my pizza off the peel. =)



When you say this, I really hope you don't mean you used a rolling pin. Please, take the 10 minutes and look up how to properly stretch your dough. It isn't hard and is superior to everything.

i rolled it out the first time and stretched it the second time, stretching worked better but I should probably look up the proper technique

 

[Fayd]

Awesome! Next step is to get a Turbochef Fire oven:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkFrsUP9QUU

Or if you're more into DIY, build a traditional wood-fired oven:

http://www.traditionaloven.com/ovens.html

:awe:

that infomercial sounds *exactly* like the retro-encabulator. the same guy, the same inflections.

 

[RichieZ]

thought i'd update this thread with my latest effort:

 

[DrDoug]

That top pic looks good but that bottom pic looks like a huge scab someone pulled off a bit early. :biggrin:

My wife uses two large stones for her pizza and bakes on parchment. Preheating the stones before putting the pizza on them makes for a perfect crust.

Looks tasty but that bottom pic...lol!

 

[disappoint]

Nice improvement in 1 year. Not sure why it took a year though. Do you only make pizza once a year?

 

[xaeniac]

Please post your dough recipe!

 

[Kaido]

at $4700? or get a blackstone for under $400.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asP3D26oIrw

Just wanted to follow up on the Blackstone pizza grill. My buddy just picked one up off Groupon for $350:

https://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-blackstone-patio-oven-with-pizza-peel-0

Just fired it up tonight for the new year's party. Works amaaaaaaaazing! Pizza in like 3 minutes! We cranked out a dozen pies in under an hour. And because it was propane-powered, his kitchen wasn't five hundred degrees & no one was sweating. I thought the Kettle Pizza was where it was at, but thanks to the spinning pizza stone on the Blackstone, I'm sold. I went through a pizza bender this year...coal-fired pizza, neopolitan, etc. and, ultimately, meh on the wood vs. gas debate, at least for me. Bottom line, if you are looking for an outdoor pizza oven for under a grand, you can't beat the Blackstone!

 

[DigDog]

gotta say, that looks nice. well worthy of a bump. was the base crispy? i.e did it have "leopard spots"?

 

[MongGrel]

Just wanted to follow up on the Blackstone pizza grill. My buddy just picked one up off Groupon for $350:

https://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-blackstone-patio-oven-with-pizza-peel-0

Just fired it up tonight for the new year's party. Works amaaaaaaaazing! Pizza in like 3 minutes! We cranked out a dozen pies in under an hour. And because it was propane-powered, his kitchen wasn't five hundred degrees & no one was sweating. I thought the Kettle Pizza was where it was at, but thanks to the spinning pizza stone on the Blackstone, I'm sold. I went through a pizza bender this year...coal-fired pizza, neopolitan, etc. and, ultimately, meh on the wood vs. gas debate, at least for me. Bottom line, if you are looking for an outdoor pizza oven for under a grand, you can't beat the Blackstone!

Very nice

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

I'm just in the mood to maybe make a deep dish cast iron skillet one soon, haven't made a sloppy one in awhile.

Pizza is serious business

 

[Kaido]

gotta say, that looks nice. well worthy of a bump. was the base crispy? i.e did it have "leopard spots"?

Yes, it was crispy, but I totally forgot to check the bottom crust & take a pic! The Blackstone definitely makes an amazing pizza and is well-worth the money. We did a ton of flavors last night. We've narrowed it down to the Figs dough recipe (the small amount of whole wheat really adds to the flavor) with a couple different red sauce bases, plus other bases depending on what we're making.

This one was a sausage & pepper creation:

We did this one as a sampler - Thai sweet chili sauce with marinated chicken:

It's surprising how versatile healthy, homemade, awesome-tasting pizza can be. We did a basic pizza with pepperjack cheese and had a couple bowls for salsa & guac to load up on it for a southwestern-style flavor, but because homemade pizza is basically a blank canvas, there's a million things you can do to make it taste awesome:

http://dartmouth.spoonuniversity.co...n-pizza-toppings-you-wont-find-in-the-states/

 

[Kaido]

Very nice

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

I'm just in the mood to maybe make a deep dish cast iron skillet one soon, haven't made a sloppy one in awhile.

Pizza is serious business

I need to do more experimenting with doing pizza in my cast-iron skillet. I've had very few deep-dish pizzas that I've ever truly loved, but the couple that I've really liked were good enough to keep me attempting new recipes. This is the next one on my list:

http://minimalistbaker.com/simple-deep-dish-pizza/

I meant to get to the pan pizza from Serious Eats last year, but I guess I'll give it a shot this month instead haha:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/01/foolproof-pan-pizza-recipe.html

That's basically how Pizza Hut does it as well, in heavy round pans. I need to give this copycat dough recipe a shot in my bread machine sometime:

http://www.food.com/recipe/pizza-hut-style-pizza-dough-bread-machine-51209

It's amazing how much variety there is out there in the pizza world! I got a PizzaQue on Black Friday & it has been working out great for me. It does smaller 12" pizzas (15-minute preheat time, 7 minutes a pie, rotate once with a couple forks halfway through) & does an excellent job. Still on sale for $169, just plug into propane & go!

http://www.amazon.com/Pizzacraft-PizzaQue-PC6500-Outdoor-Pizza/dp/B00FYO368K/

 

[DigDog]

propane, uh?

i wouldn't mind one myself.

ofc here it would cost like, 500 pounds. my current oven just doesn't cut it, so no pizza for now.

 

[Kaido]

propane, uh?

i wouldn't mind one myself.

ofc here it would cost like, 500 pounds. my current oven just doesn't cut it, so no pizza for now.

Do you have access to outdoor burners where you live?

I'm still experimenting, but I've been working on a DIY pizza oven using clay bricks (simple dry-stack method) & dual burners. One to heat up the stone/steel cooking surface & the other to heat up the air. Another option is to build a $20 cob oven:

http://www.theyearofmud.com/2009/09/12/outdoor-cob-pizza-oven/

I'd like to try a gas-fired cob oven at some point, I think that would be pretty cool. I'm not in love with wood/pellets/charcoal enough (for pizza, at least) to care about the fuel source, other than wood takes several hours to get really hot & gas is like 15 minutes. Individual burners are pretty cheap too (considering you're building a DIY oven), a small one is under $20 USD & a big ol' 10" burner is less than $50:

http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-BG14-Burner-diameter/dp/B0009JXYTG/

 

[JM Aggie08]

Just finished up a dough that will proof overnight. Hopefully it pans out.

 

[feralkid]

Newsflash: most hipster things are old. Demonstrating your perceived superiority by doing things 'the right way,' like wearing sock suspenders and eating your Neapolitan pizza while riding your steam-powered unicycle, makes you retarded.

edit for clarification: it's not really that anyone cares if you do said things. It's that you shove them in other people's faces while screaming LOOK AT ME. LOOK AT HOW GENUINE AND NOT-HIPSTER I AM.

You have made everyone on this board feel better about themselves, simply because they are not you.

 

[DigDog]

Do you have access to outdoor burners where you live?

nope.
i live in west scotland, were we exist in a permanent state of rain, occasionally interrupted by short spells of torrential rain.
outdoors activities are out of the question. when i said i would love one of those, i omitted that i would also love to live somewhere with weather that doesn't hate you.

 

[DigDog]

that's pretty much your ideal homemade pizza. if you want to make your own, that is what you should be shooting for.

 

[RichieZ]

thought i'd update this with my latest effort, home made dough with 24h cold fermentation. much progress in the last year