i like the taste/texture of extremely thin crusts cooked at higher temps but am having some difficulty with burt bottoms and not cooked enough tops when i raise the temps up, would even like to go hotter if i could as the crust just gets better with the hot fast cook. any ideas on setup, right now i lay out 5 full size bricks like a star, on the cast iron grill, then a standard grill with fire brick spilts laid flat, then another grill for an air space between the stone, then the pizza stone. this gets it pretty high up in the dome to hopefully cook the top faster. first couple of pics are cooked at 575, color is ok to me but the texture is wrong, last couple is cooked at 700 dome, texture is right, bottom is too burnt and not enough charring on top. i actually like a little charring on top verse just browning. is there a setup that works better for high temp pizza[img size=1024]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/fishlessman/100_1525.jpg[/img][img size=1024]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/fishlessman/100_1526.jpg[/img]been doing alot of reading lately and it just may be that i need to go with a wetter dough as well, any thoughts. just practicing with store bought now and will work on toppings once i get the base right
fishlessman,There are others who know more than I do, but wetter dough seems to be necessary with higher temps. I also had pretty good luck with rubbing the stone down with a damp rag before each pie last time. The time before, I broke my cheap stone. The new BGE stone took it well. The rag seems to buy me an extra minute before the bottom starts to burn.
SpokaneMan, i think maybe add some water to the storebought stuff tonight and see what happens instead of changing my setup again. after doing a bunch of reading its amazing how much can be into making pizza dough with only a few ingrediants.
fishlessman, i dunno if we're doing it some way that is not "traditional", but we always toss the crust in ahead of time, dry, and let it go maybe 5 to 8 minutes, start to brown and set up. i will often toss in a little smoke too.then will pull it out, put on the toppings, and finish it off.set up is grate with platesetter legs down. pizza on the platesetter in a perforated pan . you could do raised grid, pizza stone, pizza on top of thatthe pan keeps the boton from getting black, while allowing time to brown the toppings.i wish i took a pick of the crust underside, it was perfect, best ever. and the wife likes the crust thin, so this is the only way i can manage them without burning. temps are maybe 550-600.with toppings on, it can take maybe as much as fifteen minutes. but it looks and tastes like 800 degree pizza to us.here's the set up... and here's how thin the crust is...fire is hot enough to crisp the onion on top, but i don't go mental and gun her up to 800....
stike,Perforated pan? Does that mean it has holes? I apologize for my ignorance on this. I'm willing to try it if it means no burned bottoms and no cracked stones.
I recon that the perforated pan will avoid burning the crust, I would sometime use it in my "one phase cooking" and the crust was not crispy at all.So I got a question for you, do you use this perforated pan or not in the first phase of your "2 phases cooking", which is when you have no toppings on it.
fishlessman, just a warning, If you are planning to add water to dough that has already risen, the results are likely to be ugly. It will likely be sticky and not rise. I'm not saying don't experiment, but you may want a "backup dough". Scott
stike, you got some good looking pizza there. ive got one of those pans but havent ever used it. my problem is that i was making pretty good pizza, then one day i went mental and cooked one at the 8oo plus mark. burnt most of it, but one piece came out great, slightly charred top and bottom. been trying to get the whole pie to come out that way since, tried several setup arrangements but after doing a fair amount of reading i think its more the dough thats being dificult. if you look at the two crust bottoms you can see in the unburnt dough sections a different looking formation of crust, the second almost looks fried as opposed to the first. both crusts are from the same dough ball and taste night and day different. only thing changed was the temp. the hotter cooked dough comes out with a better crunch and is more airy but still chewy. the lower temp one is still good, but more like a burtuccis crust.
fishlessman, i think that infinitesimal distance the pan offers between the stone is what allows us to get the top brown without a black bottom. at the same time, it slows down the bottom's cook so that we can control it. i'd try this at 800, the only thing i'd probably do is skip the pre-cook of the dough.
fishlessman, Hit the enter key by mistake reaching for the piece of pizza with the light char on it. I don't have the answer to the crust problem as the higher temps so far have only given up black crusts for me. Sometimes I think the dome reading is too low for the temp of the stone. Only other thought is the sugar content of the dough could lead to the black bottom curse.
Little Steven,I was a parchment paper user before getting the egg. The first time I tried it at 800 or so, it immediately exploded in flames. It looked pretty impressive to my guests so I pretended it was intentional.
stike,I think your idea of twice baking is interesting. I'm making pizza Saturday night and I'm thinking I might put the topped pizza on the stone for a minute or so to get the char started. Then, I'll pull it out and put it back in on a pizza pan. Do you see any drawbacks to doing the pre-bake with the toppings already on? I figure it will give me a little extra time to brown the top.
You bet! It was quite an inferno too. I was afraid to look at the bottom of the pie when it was done, but the torched paper underneath just floated away.
SpokaneMan, we always did it to get a little browning (very little) on the upper side of the crust, so that it wouldn't be "doughy" underneath really wet toppings. we use tomatoes all the time, and found that it was all very slippery and doughy under the toppings. precooking gave us a little crispiness. that, and a thin wash of olive oil before putting the toppings on.
