Pies!


 
Rich G

Rich G

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My youngest became a teenager this week. Tonight was the traditional family birthday dinner, and she requested PIZZA (not delivery, not frozen, DADDY'S PIZZA!) Gotta love her! :)

So, yesterday I made some dough. I doubled my previous recipe so I'd have enough to make 8 12-13" pies (seems like enough for 8 people, right?) I balled them up this am after 12 hours of cold fermentation in the fridge, then back in the chiller until 3 hours before it was pizza time. Fired up the KP with a full load of charcoal, and two oak splits. Here's a pic of the first pie that hit the heat:

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Sausage, jalapeno, honey drizzle....so good!:

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What can I say, the teenagers like pepperoni!:

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I made way too much.....I have a pizza and a half in my fridge, and I delivered a pizza each to two of my neighbors. Guess I counted on the octogenarians eating more than they did! :) We had way too much fun, and I'm having a blast working the oven, and turning out pies as fast as my guests can eat them. Great way to start the weekend!

R
 
That's A LOT of pizza. You are a pizza pie cooking machine, Rich! Pizzas look killer.

Nice of you to gift the neighbors, but I would have kept them - I love leftover pizza for breakfast (& lunch).
 
No wonder they didn't want take out Rich. Those look fabulous. The honey on the pizza intrigues me. Never heard of that before your post a week or so ago. Might have to give that a try. Hmmm, does it go with anchovies?? Nice birthday cook. You're a good Dad!
 
Cliff Bartlett said:
No wonder they didn't want take out Rich. Those look fabulous. The honey on the pizza intrigues me. Never heard of that before your post a week or so ago. Might have to give that a try. Hmmm, does it go with anchovies?? Nice birthday cook. You're a good Dad!
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+1 .............and I just did a quick search on the kettle pizza setup- very nice post.
 
Those look great! I need to pick up a KP. My daughters love my pizzas I've done in the oven way better than ordering out. It's a great feeling when they ask for it, isn't it?? Congrats to your newly minted teen!
 
Those are some awesome pizzas. You know you can freeze them to have later. That is the way Rich and I do them, we make 6 or 8 have one for dinner then freeze them for later.
 
Wow oh wow. Looks amazing. Bet they taste way better than any pizza chain's or otherwise store bought pies!
 
All it takes to run one of those pizza cookers is a single basket of coals in the background? Doesn't seem like it would generate enough heat.
 
Rusty James said:
All it takes to run one of those pizza cookers is a single basket of coals in the background? Doesn't seem like it would generate enough heat.
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Rusty, it's an entire Weber chimney of coals, and my chimney has the bottom grate flipped to make lighting it in the performer easier. In addition to those coals, I add two oak splits (about 8" long) and I add another split when the temp gauge drops off its "peg" at 700 degrees. I'm running Kingsford regular blue, and thus far, the fire management has been WAY easier than I thought with that process.

HTH!

R
 
Rich G said:
Rusty, it's an entire Weber chimney of coals, and my chimney has the bottom grate flipped to make lighting it in the performer easier. In addition to those coals, I add two oak splits (about 8" long) and I add another split when the temp gauge drops off its "peg" at 700 degrees. I'm running Kingsford regular blue, and thus far, the fire management has been WAY easier than I thought with that process.

HTH!

R
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America's Test Kitchen displayed the pizza cooker, and I saw a single coal basket that sits in the very back. The coal basket didn't look very large either.

I made the mistake of placing my treasured pizza stone on a hot 18" kettle, and the stone cracked down the middle after putting the lid on. Fortunately, I found another stone at a thrift store, but I'm afraid to use it on the kettle.
 
Rusty James said:
America's Test Kitchen displayed the pizza cooker, and I saw a single coal basket that sits in the very back. The coal basket didn't look very large either.

I made the mistake of placing my treasured pizza stone on a hot 18" kettle, and the stone cracked down the middle after putting the lid on. Fortunately, I found another stone at a thrift store, but I'm afraid to use it on the kettle.
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Rusty, indeed, the KP comes with a coal basket, but I have yet to use it. I did a bunch of Internet searching and YouTube watching before I fired mine up, and it became obvious that the popular method of achieving high temps is the one I'm using. I think that the coal basket that comes with the kit is the same size as a standard Weber coal basket, but I wouldn't count on just filling that and expecting 700 degrees or more. Spreading an entire chimney out in a "C" shape on the side of the kettle opposite the opening for loading pizzas seems to work great.

As to the stone, the stones in the KP kit are corderite. Corderite is much better at handling thermal shock, and so are much less likely to crack when exposed to open flame. I have a non-corderite stone in my oven (it was my mom's), and I wouldn't dare put it on the grill, as I suspect it will suffer the same fate as yours did. I also take the extra precaution of using my oven to preheat the stone for 30 minutes or so, giving it a headstart.

Cheers,
R
 
Rich G said:
Rusty, indeed, the KP comes with a coal basket, but I have yet to use it. I did a bunch of Internet searching and YouTube watching before I fired mine up, and it became obvious that the popular method of achieving high temps is the one I'm using. I think that the coal basket that comes with the kit is the same size as a standard Weber coal basket, but I wouldn't count on just filling that and expecting 700 degrees or more. Spreading an entire chimney out in a "C" shape on the side of the kettle opposite the opening for loading pizzas seems to work great.

As to the stone, the stones in the KP kit are corderite. Corderite is much better at handling thermal shock, and so are much less likely to crack when exposed to open flame. I have a non-corderite stone in my oven (it was my mom's), and I wouldn't dare put it on the grill, as I suspect it will suffer the same fate as yours did. I also take the extra precaution of using my oven to preheat the stone for 30 minutes or so, giving it a headstart.

Cheers,
R
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Thanks much!
 
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