Cooking thicker pizzas

[Tscarborough]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

I think the relevant question would be why bother. You can use a regular oven to cook that type of pizza perfectly.

[texassourdough]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

Hi Faith!

Your concept is certainly more workable than some. And there are no doubt better and worse pan materials and timing and other details. And for the challenge motivated it will be a steep hill to climb if you are targeting great pizza. But I fear the best available will be rather mediocre. But it is almost certainly far more practical for an individual than a restaurant.

Like I alluded earlier! Take the challenge! Prove me wrong! I love it!

Best of luck!
Jay

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

@ Tscarborough...LOL really? "I think the relevant question would be why bother. You can use a regular oven to cook that type of pizza perfectly."
As one of the highly respected people people here at Forno Bravo I am surprised that you would utter such a statement.

In the words of my parents "Because" That answer always got me hot. But it is a good answer none the less. Because no one else is doing it or thought of it. Because it might just work out really great. Because it's a challenge that people "in the Box" will never attempt. And the because's of the can-do people make life interesting.

@texassourdough, Well I agree the challenge is a great pizza not just mediocre. But with success you can also wear the badge of being unique. In the world of business if you have unique and great you stand out from the rest. That is quite important.

Also as a side thought, You know how some people cover their bread with a bowl or pan for the first bit in the oven to capture the moisture? I'll bet it could have a positive effect on the pizza as well.

I love challenging things!!! Need a good sourdough formula for this...what do you think?

[RTflorida]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

I'm with Ts, an indoor oven gives perfect control and results. As I previously stated, a medium crust is easily doable with the right adjustments, a true deep dish really is a "why bother" proposition for a WFO and would certainly be a huge challenge commercially.
No one is saying it can't be done, as it can. Its the effort and end result that don't add up. Our ovens are amazing but they are not superior in all cooking applications, including deep dish pizza. Remember, we built our ovens because an indoor oven can't duplicate a true neapolitan pizza. A WFO can't match a gas or electric for consistant lower temp control for making multiple deep dish pizzas. As for the average home pizza maker it doesn't make sense to heat saturate my oven and lose all of that energy of the higher temps (that I would normally use use for thin crust) letting it cool down to under 500F for a deep dish that at best, would match the quality of an indoor. Waste of wood and a couple of hrs in time, if you ask me. Just my opinion, based on a few attempts. I may be a bit jaded because I have pretty much perfected (at least to my taste) an authentic Chicago deep dish in my electric oven.

RT

[Tscarborough]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

To be fair, the OP didn't say deep dish, just thicker, American style with a lot of ingredients. I have made them at the tail end of a bake (pit-pie), and they work, but not well. The long bake turns them ugly and somewhat monochromatic.

In a commercial setting it wouldn't make sense, but to try at home would be interesting. The dough is not much of a challenge, the cheese and toppings would be the hard part.

[BriggsARNP]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

The long bake turns them ugly and somewhat monochromatic.

I wonder if you could get around this by just saucing the crust and putting a few toppings on then adding cheese and other things later on and allowing them to melt. Maybe lifting them up to the top of the dome to get some higher heat action?

[bris-pizza-oven]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

its actualy not that hard to cook a thicker crust pizza i use a tray with them though just keep an eye on them and keep turning them and they come up quite well

and if you do it right the edges are crispy but soft like bread on the inside

[azpizzanut]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

Hi All,

bris-p-o is correct. I cooked three "thicker crust" pizzas on Wednesday for guests and they turned out exactly as she described. I would guess the thickest dough was 3/8" (10mm) in the center after cooking. From our previous experiences we knew not to load the center of the pie with too much sauce or toppings and not leave them on the peel too long. They cooked in the 4-5 minute range.

Cheers,

[texassourdough]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

With all respect to those of you who keep saying "You can do it!" You CAN! But you can also drive nails with a screwdriver and it is simply a wrong tool for the wrong job. A gas fired oven could actually work fairly well, and innovation, jury rigging can be a lot of fun but please let me know the next time you decide to use a Philips head screwdriver to drive nails and we will discuss how rewarding you found it! It is clearly not a preferred tool/result combination. And no amount of jury rigging and modification will reasonably change that. The temperature versus heat transfer needs are drastically different for thin and moderate thickness doughs.

For those of you determined to make this work, consider baking thicker pies in a cloche inside a conventional WFO.It WILL work. And allow you to have thicker dough and lower temps and all of that.It should work well. But that still doesn't make it a partiuclarly great use of a WFO for it diminishes the WFO to a conventional oven.

NOTE: a cloche takes a conventional oven and properly used approximates a WFO - a heat saturated, 550F oven with NO flames reasonably well. But a cloche in a WFO WITH FLAMES would approximate a conventional oven far more than a pizza oven!

Good luck!
Jay

[Mike D]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

I would say you could do it, but as a second day cooking, or from leftover heat, the next day without flame. This would be a good use of the residual heat from the night before. It doesn't hurt to try.

Mike

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

Hay Jay,

I think the "You can do it" people have a different agenda for their oven. I for one do not have a Pizza oven that can cook other stuff. I have a WFO that can cook pizza.

[texassourdough]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

Hi Faith!

I think your observation is right. I have no problem with experimenting. Experimentation can be good. And I do experiment.

I had lunch at my favorite pizzaria yesterday and was talking to the owner about our dough and the fact that by being DOC certified he is tied to only 00 dough whereas I made three different doughs last weekend - one of which was an amazingly fragile dough made with KA Italian flour, an AP Neopolitan, and an organic BF Neo-Neopolitan dough and my practice of matching dough to the pie. He asked if I could get my oven down to 550 because he had a wonderful dough made with All Trump flour that made great thicker pies. But it needs 7 minutes at 550 to bake. I told him I would give it a try after I get back from Italy. I will be firing up my oven tomorrow and will see if I can hold 550 as a stable temp. Finding and holding the right fire size will be the trick! And I will be doing a dessert pizza that prefers to be baked in a cooler oven to avoid burning the sugar so I will have a reasonable use for the cooler oven. (I often bake my dessert pizzas at about 625 to 650 as I let the oven temp drop after I finish the savory pies. I just have never seriously tried to actually control/maintain the temp with an appropriate fire at these lower temps.)

Review to come on Monday!
Jay

[texassourdough]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

I blew it! In the craziness of cooking for a big crowd I simply shut the oven down and quit rather than trying to stabilize it at 550. Unfortunately I won't be firing it up for a while.

Sorry about that!
Jay

[Tman1]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

I hope the 'for a while' is because of the aforementioned Italy trip?

[texassourdough]

Re: Cooking thicker pizzas

Yep!

16 days including a week at a cooking school on a 1000 acre wine and olive estate. First trip to Italy. Pretty heavily food oriented. While in Rome we scheduled a trip to a town (Genzano) renowned for some of the more unique bread in Italy. I have made their bread from recipes but look forward to the "real" thing. Will file a report when I get back!

Bake on!
Jay