Best Pizza Pan?

[jlafrenz]

Recently I have been reading about everyone smoking pizza's. This sounds like a great idea to me and have the urge to give it a try. I just wanted to know what everyone thought was the best type of pan to put the pizza on? The kind with the holes, no holes, pizza stone, straight on the rack, etc... I would love to hear some thoughts from those of you who have experience doing this. I will be using a UDS if that helps any.

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Straight on the rack for me.


~Martin

 

[jlafrenz]

Are you doing this with pre-made/cooked crust or with raw dough? I am thinking about doing everything from scratch.

 

[diggingdogfarm]

I make the dough from scratch, sometimes I do par-bake it just until it sets, sometimes I don't.


~Martin

 

[thoseguys26]

You'll need a good stiff dough for straight on grills and smokers.

Martin, would you share your dough recipe? Or anyone else for that matter? I've heard overnight cold yeast fermentation is key?

 

[diggingdogfarm]

I usually use Peter Reinhart's Napoletana Pizza Dough Recipe for my grilled pizzas.

Recipe and method here....

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001199.html

~Martin

 

[chef jimmyj]

Interesting Recipe. It uses 4X the EVOO I do for that amount of other ingredients. I'll have to try it...JJ

 

[Dutch]

If it's a stiff dough, it goes on the grill long enough to firm up the underside then it comes out, gets flipped over and all the ingredients goes on the precooked side and then back on to the grill.

If it's a soft dough I'm using, the pizza stone get preheated on the grill and the pizza dough is placed on a pizza peel and the pizza ingredients are then added. When the grill hits 500° the pizza goes on to the stone.

 

[chef jimmyj]

I have not had the $$$ to buy a Pizza Stone but I had one of the girls pick up unglazed Quarry Tiles for a dollar and change each. I lay the tiles on the hot Grill, 500*F, let them heat, and Bake my Pizza on the Tiles with the grill covered...I also have 1" deep Sheet Pans that make great Thick Crust Sicilian Style Pizza...JJ

 

[roller]

JJ you should have traded that smoker for a Pizza Stone !

 

[thoseguys26]

Thanks for the recipe link. I might have to try that out tonight. I never thought to chill the flour too. My grandma always send there is stiff dough and soft dough. You need cold cold water for a nice stiff dough. Why not chill the flour? Brilliant!

I've heard about the unglazed quarry tiles. Gotta get some of those.

 

[jlafrenz]

It seems some of you guys are using the grill with higher temps to cook the pizza. I want to actually do it on the smoker with lower temps in the 250-300 range. It will have direct heat in the UDS though so I am hesitant to put the dough directly on the grate. It would also seem that it would want to fall through the grate and the pan would support it. I just got a pizza stone, but I don't think it will go over well if I delegate it to the smoker. I may have to see what it cost and pick up another one. Do you guys find that the stone is better than the pan with holes in it? I have one of those I wouldn't mind putting in the smoker. May have to just try it.

 

[scarbelly]

Here is what I use 

I just couldn't help myself 

 

[jlafrenz]

That looks slightly more difficult to build than my UDS

 

[thoseguys26]

Dang show off! I don't blame you..

 

[roller]

Here is what I use 

I just couldn't help myself 

Hell I would have done it too  !!!!!!!!  That is just to cool not to...Don`t be sorry about that !   

 

[s2k9k]

Here is what I use 

I just couldn't help myself 

Do they sell these pans at Wal-Mart?

That's AWESOME Gary!!!!!

 

[diggingdogfarm]

It seems some of you guys are using the grill with higher temps to cook the pizza. I want to actually do it on the smoker with lower temps in the 250-300 range. It will have direct heat in the UDS though so I am hesitant to put the dough directly on the grate. It would also seem that it would want to fall through the grate and the pan would support it. I just got a pizza stone, but I don't think it will go over well if I delegate it to the smoker. I may have to see what it cost and pick up another one. Do you guys find that the stone is better than the pan with holes in it? I have one of those I wouldn't mind putting in the smoker. May have to just try it.

Pizza is best when done with high heat.
It'll be near impossible to get crispness or charring at low temperature.

The crust on grilled pizza picks up smoked flavor very easily when coated with olive oil.
If I want it real smoky I use smoked mozzarella and smoked pepperoni, etc.
I preheat the toppings, it works much better that way because the pizza is done in a wink.

I do mine on a cast iron grate, the crust doesn't fall through.

Here's Steven Raichlen demonstrating one way to do it.....

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]



~Martin

 

[jlafrenz]

From the few cooks I have done on my UDS, it seems like 350 would be the max temp. I would say that it can hold steady at 325 no problem. Since I don't have an overall high heat, I thought that having some of that direct heat on a pan with holes would make it more crispy. I don't know if that is true though and my thought may be that 325 degrees is 325 degrees no matter where it comes from. Any thoughts would be helpful.

 

[scarbelly]

If you find that you can't reach the higher temps to get a crisp crust here is what we used to do before we built the oven and we now cook at 800+ 

A pizza at these temps takes 2-3 minutes 

Put a stone on the floor of the oven big enough to handle your pizza. Move the rack down to the lowest level and stick a bun pan on the rack in an upside down position. Turn on the oven to the highest temp and let it go for at least an hour. At this point your stone will be somewhere around 575  and will cook a nice crisp dough. You can finish the pizza in the oven or on the grill.  I learned this trick from one of the pizza forums I belong to and it works well