Thursday, July 2, 2009

Expanding the double oven pizza technique

So you're making a bunch of pizza, and you've got it down, but away from your company for about an hour if you wait for them to get there before you start cooking. You can't really prep anything but the tomato sauce before they get there.
Remembering the concept of the double oven, you can take advantage of the fact that your egg will tend to cook the bottom faster than the top. Cook all of your pizzas until the bottoms are finished, and set them on a wire rack to cool and rest. Be careful to not put them flat on a surface or else the steam can make them soggy.
From Big 'Dawg Eats

When you're ready to eat, fire up the oven on high broil and use your metal peel to finish them. Spin it around until the edges are evenly charred. You may even consider waiting to put your cheese on it until you do this step. This is going to give a finish closer than to the wood burning stove than either the oven or the egg will alone.
From Big 'Dawg Eats
From Big 'Dawg Eats
From Big 'Dawg Eats

Tonight's recipes:

Pizza Margherita
Fresh drained tomatoes
Sweet and purple basil
Olive oil
String cheese (I was out of mozzarella at the last minute)

Pulled pork pizza
Pulled pork (Boston Butt)
Purple basil
Cheese
Quick, raw tomato sauce (garlic, small can diced tomatoes, salt, olive oil)

Dough tonight was made from King Arthur LA-4 starter which rises much faster than than their regular sourdough, and provided a nice chewiness. Try it sometime!

1 comment:

JW said...

I saw an interesting idea while browsing the other night. This guy set up firebricks adjacent to his baking stone and on the rack above his baking stone to simulate the brick oven. Looked like he had a standard convection oven. Results looked surprisingly good. Mike Brown has some firebricks, perhaps I'll see if he can try or loan some to me for an attempt...
BTW: Mike is planning on building a wood fired pizza oven and I've been given the go ahead by Jennifer to do the same if inclined.