A short time ago when I joined this group I mentioned that one of the things I wanted to try on the RT was pizza. With all due respect to the folks who choose an easier path and go with either a Papa Murphy or other prepared, bake it yourself option, I prefer to make my own.
Since we each have our own objectives/standards/wishes/tastes I find it useful to lay out my personal objectives/parameters in the interest of clarity. I recognize that not all pizza lovers have the same standards. You go with what you prefer and I'm fine with that, and if I'm at your house I'd accept your hospitality in whatever form it takes. As for pizza in my house I want a crust that has some rigidity (none of that NY fold for me), not too thick (sorry my childhood home, Chicago), a distinct flavor that's a bit nutty and just a hint of what some call sour (comes from letting it sit and grow flavor on the counter over a few hours), as well as some crunch/chew or "tooth" as some would say.
To those ends I make my own dough using imported Caputto 00 flour. To me it makes a difference, particularly in the chew, so that's what I roll with. I like my pepperoni to have some pep, my mozzarella fresh (though I press the slices between a few paper towels to remove some moisture for the sake of crust crisp), and just a schmere of red sauce. Other toppings might be Kalamata olives, or sautéed mushrooms, or crisped prosciutto. Again, control the moisture. We do a blend of parmesan and romano cheese that gets sprinkled on as well. Just before delivery to the plate a sprinkle of fresh basil adds the finishing touch.
If I were totally over the top I'd have one of those high zoot, wood fired, Neapolitan style ovens in the back yard that would kick out a freshly done pizza in 2 or so minutes using 900-1000 degrees of heat. But I'm too cheap for that, or lazy, or whatever. So I try to wing it with lesser devices (from a heat generating perspective). When I'm feeling ambitious I fire up the kamado, but quite frankly that's a bit fiddly and doesn't happen very often. Usually we crank up the house oven to 550, use a pizza stone and do okay with that. The end product is better than most pizza joints, and certainly better than some of the other alternatives. So, when I read that the RT can get up to 600 degrees I thought that might be a good alternative especially with the chance of adding some smoke flavor.
How did it work?(it's about time you got to that!) I fired up the Stampede on "ful" and the wifi screen showed the target temp to be 600. Good! Weeelllllll, ambition is good, actual performance is another thing. The ambient temp outside was 49 so might have had some effect. After a bit over an hour it had only reached mid 500ish range, I put the pizza stone in at the beginning so that it could heat soak. When I use the house oven or kamado I do the same thing, pre-heat the stone for at least an hour from full temp. I often see folks complain that they can't get a crisp bottom crust even with a stone, but usually I find they only heated it for a short time, like 20 minutes. Like any refractory stone it needs more time to fully absorb and stabilize. Meanwhile I'd prepped my toppings, and shaped the dough. One of the cheats I use to get the crust more like the super hot ovens produce is I do what pie makers call a blind bake. I slip the dough round into the oven, or RT in this case, and bake it with no toppings for a couple minutes. Not looking for color, just get the initial rise and a tad of "dryness". Then I bring it in, top it, and put it back in the cooker. As an aside, regarding getting the dough disc to slide on the peel, I really dislike the feel of cornmeal on a pizza bottom, so I use semolina flour instead. It gives the same slip without the bad (to me) mouth feel.
As the picture shows the Stampede had only gotten to 546 when I put the pizza in. Each time I opened the lid the temp would drop and recovery was pretty slow. Most of the cook it hovered in the 510-520 range. The total cook time ended up at 18 minutes ( a few minutes longer than a similar outcome in the house oven) and I opened the lid a total of four times because I both wanted to monitor cook rate (so somewhat self defeating), but also because I suspected the pizza needed turning to give a more even appearance/cook......which it did, but that's common, even with the killer wood fire devices. I posted a pic of the pie just before taking it out to rest (helps with the cutting IMO), and then another pic of my bride holding the first piece to show the mild char on the bottom as well as how rigid the crust turned out. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. While the RT doesn't have sufficient top of chamber heat to put the classic Italian char on the crust rim, it still had very nice crunch and browning. The bottom had good mouth feel for us, and held the pie slice rigid, which we like/desire. Given the temp we didn't get much smoke flavor, maybe just a hint, but we had to think about it. Next time I might play with adding the smoke tube just before sliding the pie in to bake. For a first shot I'm pretty pleased, but there's some experimentation to do I think. You do realize that "normal" people think we avid outdoor cookers are a bit off kilter right?
If anyone has some additional experience that might be interesting please sound off.
Since we each have our own objectives/standards/wishes/tastes I find it useful to lay out my personal objectives/parameters in the interest of clarity. I recognize that not all pizza lovers have the same standards. You go with what you prefer and I'm fine with that, and if I'm at your house I'd accept your hospitality in whatever form it takes. As for pizza in my house I want a crust that has some rigidity (none of that NY fold for me), not too thick (sorry my childhood home, Chicago), a distinct flavor that's a bit nutty and just a hint of what some call sour (comes from letting it sit and grow flavor on the counter over a few hours), as well as some crunch/chew or "tooth" as some would say.
To those ends I make my own dough using imported Caputto 00 flour. To me it makes a difference, particularly in the chew, so that's what I roll with. I like my pepperoni to have some pep, my mozzarella fresh (though I press the slices between a few paper towels to remove some moisture for the sake of crust crisp), and just a schmere of red sauce. Other toppings might be Kalamata olives, or sautéed mushrooms, or crisped prosciutto. Again, control the moisture. We do a blend of parmesan and romano cheese that gets sprinkled on as well. Just before delivery to the plate a sprinkle of fresh basil adds the finishing touch.
If I were totally over the top I'd have one of those high zoot, wood fired, Neapolitan style ovens in the back yard that would kick out a freshly done pizza in 2 or so minutes using 900-1000 degrees of heat. But I'm too cheap for that, or lazy, or whatever. So I try to wing it with lesser devices (from a heat generating perspective). When I'm feeling ambitious I fire up the kamado, but quite frankly that's a bit fiddly and doesn't happen very often. Usually we crank up the house oven to 550, use a pizza stone and do okay with that. The end product is better than most pizza joints, and certainly better than some of the other alternatives. So, when I read that the RT can get up to 600 degrees I thought that might be a good alternative especially with the chance of adding some smoke flavor.
How did it work?(it's about time you got to that!) I fired up the Stampede on "ful" and the wifi screen showed the target temp to be 600. Good! Weeelllllll, ambition is good, actual performance is another thing. The ambient temp outside was 49 so might have had some effect. After a bit over an hour it had only reached mid 500ish range, I put the pizza stone in at the beginning so that it could heat soak. When I use the house oven or kamado I do the same thing, pre-heat the stone for at least an hour from full temp. I often see folks complain that they can't get a crisp bottom crust even with a stone, but usually I find they only heated it for a short time, like 20 minutes. Like any refractory stone it needs more time to fully absorb and stabilize. Meanwhile I'd prepped my toppings, and shaped the dough. One of the cheats I use to get the crust more like the super hot ovens produce is I do what pie makers call a blind bake. I slip the dough round into the oven, or RT in this case, and bake it with no toppings for a couple minutes. Not looking for color, just get the initial rise and a tad of "dryness". Then I bring it in, top it, and put it back in the cooker. As an aside, regarding getting the dough disc to slide on the peel, I really dislike the feel of cornmeal on a pizza bottom, so I use semolina flour instead. It gives the same slip without the bad (to me) mouth feel.
As the picture shows the Stampede had only gotten to 546 when I put the pizza in. Each time I opened the lid the temp would drop and recovery was pretty slow. Most of the cook it hovered in the 510-520 range. The total cook time ended up at 18 minutes ( a few minutes longer than a similar outcome in the house oven) and I opened the lid a total of four times because I both wanted to monitor cook rate (so somewhat self defeating), but also because I suspected the pizza needed turning to give a more even appearance/cook......which it did, but that's common, even with the killer wood fire devices. I posted a pic of the pie just before taking it out to rest (helps with the cutting IMO), and then another pic of my bride holding the first piece to show the mild char on the bottom as well as how rigid the crust turned out. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. While the RT doesn't have sufficient top of chamber heat to put the classic Italian char on the crust rim, it still had very nice crunch and browning. The bottom had good mouth feel for us, and held the pie slice rigid, which we like/desire. Given the temp we didn't get much smoke flavor, maybe just a hint, but we had to think about it. Next time I might play with adding the smoke tube just before sliding the pie in to bake. For a first shot I'm pretty pleased, but there's some experimentation to do I think. You do realize that "normal" people think we avid outdoor cookers are a bit off kilter right?
If anyone has some additional experience that might be interesting please sound off.
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