Comments on: Real Pan Pizza

By: Jessica "Su Good Sweets"

Jessica "Su Good Sweets" — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:55:52 +0000

Michael, I never thought about baking pizza on the stove. In the oven, heat comes from the top and bottom, no? Your method uses insulation, but heat only comes from the bottom. It’s worth a try though. Let me know how it goes.

By: Michaelc

Michaelc — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:35:33 +0000

I have been seeing these recipes that call for heating the pan/griddle on the stovetop (which would be a lot faster than preheating an oven with pizza stones) then sliding your pizza with toppings right on the pan with a peel and putting the pan under the broiler in your over to cook the top. It sounds very promising.

I wonder if you could do it without the oven entirely, by heating 2 pans on the stovetop, one flat one to slide the pizza on to, and the other a frying pan which you would flip over as a domed lid onto the other pan. It takes only a couple of minutes with the broiler method, so I think this might work, especially if you had an insulating cover for the frying pan after you flipped it over to hold the heat better..

By: pinacle

pinacle — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:36:37 +0000

Mary throw that pan on a gas grill outside and burn off the residual…..mind ya to keep an eye on it..cast iron will crack if over heated too long..some throw them in fire pits..WRONG…crack it..sooo..happy times..ROCK ON

By: Jessica "Su Good Sweets"

Jessica "Su Good Sweets" — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:53:26 +0000

Mary, your pan is smoking because there’s residual oil in there. Cast iron pans are tricky to clean, since you’re not supposed to use soap and water. I heard you can scrub it with coarse salt.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:57:17 +0000

I’ve been making the no-knead bread but find that preheating the cast iron dutch oven causes a lot of smoke in the oven, and thus the house. Anyone know how to eliminate this?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 01:22:55 +0000

Tom, wow that sounds delicious. Kind of like real garlic bread sticks.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:36:03 +0000

Excellent technique! I have never thought to try it before.

I thumbed through Last months’ Bon Appétit and found Giada DeLaurentiis’ recipe for pizza dough and threw that together. Then when ready, I cranked my oven up to 500F (which got me to about 400F – 425F) with my skillet inside, cut the dough in half, rolled it out, pressed it in, put to the on, and popped it in the oven for 10 minutes. I then took 4 tbsp butter, two minced garlic cloves, and some Italian seasoning blend, and microwaved it for about 10 seconds. After the 10 minutes, I spread half the butter mixture onto the crust, sprinkled on some kosher salt, ground pepper, and Parmesan cheese and threw it bak in the oven for another 5 minutes. Came out great! I then repeated the procedure with the other half of the dough.

Thanks for the tip!

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 03:12:41 +0000

Aran and Denise, thanks, cast iron bread seems to be a trend now. Chef Heston Blumenthal also wrote about it, so I’m sure it’s been thought of before.

Janetek, maybe the crust is burned, but I like it. To each his own. I guess you could take the pizza out sooner if that’s your concern.

By: Denise

Denise — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:06:37 +0000

It reminds me of pizza I used to get in Rome…in a woodfire oven the edges get wonderfully charred. My favorite part. Never thought I could reduplicate that effect at home–I’ll have to give this a try. Thanks!

By: janetek

janetek — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 21:19:59 +0000

There is a diference between browned, charred and burned. That pizza just looks burned to me.