Are You Ready for Some ....

Pizza?



I mentioned a few months ago
that I have been slowly working on this project
since I first read about it back in December.
Sunday was the day.
We fired up that portable pizza oven,
and here is what happened:

I scrambled Saturday night to create a Neopolitan style dough.
Having never made one, I was a bit nervous,
and waited until the last minute to go and purchase flour.
By 11 pm I had managed to throw together
2 double batches using a mix of all purpose,
whole wheat, and bread flours.
I tried to keep the hydration high,
as this is essential for this type of pizza
to be cooked at high temps.
I wasn't too sure about the amount of yeast needed
but I did document the exact weights for each ingredient
and set the doughs aside to rise.

Brett and I took off to drink a few brews
and throw darts at my cousin's house.
Well, not at her house
but we did throw them at a dart board inside her house.
By 2 am I was home witnessing with alarm
the blob that ate my kitchen....
2 extremely full bowls of dough.
I needed to transfer these into larger receptacles,
so out came the really big bowls.
The growth of this dough really surprised me,
and I was sure I had erred somewhere in my calculations.
Well, that's okay...this is a learning process
which I intend to master over time.
Maybe a little less yeast...who knows?

8 am and I hear Brett's concerned voice in my ear--
the bowl you stuck in the microwave for safe-keeping has
overflown.
Oh hell, I don't care...let me go back to sleep...
3 minutes later and I was jumping up to view the chaos.
I spent about 5 seconds pondering
over whether to take a picture of that mess.
We had just purchased a new camera
and I hadn't taken it out of the box yet.
In the end, I decided it just didn't matter.
I was surprised this dough had expanded
almost beyond control;
although it was messy, it was not a disaster.
Grabbing all that dough, punching it down
and giving it a gentle few kneads
transformed it from a bubbling experiment into
a gorgeous silky orb of sweet-smelling succulence.
Whooooo baby!
I got my game face back on!
I separated it into 200 gram portions,
placing each blob into a sandwich bag; setting them aside
to begin that incredible bulking process once again.
27 dough balls later, and we were ready!

We had planned for this day at the Raisch home,
with their refreshing pool and hottub
available to relieve stress if needed.
We had the Dallas Cowboys to divert our attention,
and 17 witnesses to the mayhem that would ensue.


I am seldom nervous, but I began flailing my arms
and causing my friends to wonder if this was a good idea.
Here we were in unknown territory,
and I had no idea how it would all turn out.
Brett had cautioned me several times,
(damn why does he do that?)
to just try this at home first,
but I wanted to see all the reactions, good or bad.
I am not afraid of failure.
It was gonna be interesting no matter what,
and we had back up food plans if needed.

At halftime, Dallas led the game and we lit up the grill.
While Paul and Brett monitored the heat,
Jon declared it was never going to get hot enough
due to lack of oxygen. Yeah, thanks, bro.


I nervously went inside and tried my hand
at rolling out the pizza dough.
Not the simplest thing to do with that wet stretchiness,
but I could see that I may actually have a decent mix
since the dough was acting just like it should.
I managed to build the first pizza onto the heavily floured peel.

We were beginning to get real heat on the pizza stones,
the top stone was getting over 500 degrees,
and the bottom stone had just hit over 400.
Once we acheived 500 on the bottom stone,
I opted to get that first pizza on,
knowing the top stone would be much hotter.
It looked good after just 90 seconds of baking,

but it was burning on one side--
too much flame coming up around the fire brick on that side,
and no charring on the bottom yet.
I panicked and took off that first pizza at just over 2 minutes.
Everyone was amazed because this really looked promising.
Jon stayed off to the side, with his doubtful eye on things.

Virginia wanted to try her hand at tossing the next pie
(she worked at Domino's when she was a teenager)
and it was her skills that literally saved the day for me.
She's a pro, I tell you.
We began to crank them out, and began calling out
to each kid and kid-at-heart for their "special orders"...
The stones began to smoke and burn red (exaggeration),
we were beginning to get into the high 600's and the hot spot was hotter!
We tried spinning the lid every 30 seconds to force the overdraft
but the hot spot was caused from my not cutting that firebrick to fit.
I'll fix that and eliminate the problem.

The pizzas were cooking beautifully
with a decent rise to the crust edge,
beautiful charring (leoparding) on the bottom,
and nice browning on the top.
The pies were cooking through within 2 to 2-1/2 minutes.

Wow!



After about the 6th pie, I sensed we had lost heat,
and sure enough the flame had gone out.
We thought it might have been the wind's fault,
but it turned out to be....
the lack of oxygen my brother kept warning me about.

I'll need to modify the cutout on the bottom of the grill
where the flame element enters, and leave a larger gap around there.
At the moment it has maybe a 1/4" gap all around
and most of that is taken up by the foil liner.

I also need to cut the firebricks so they set flat,
and hopefully eliminate that hot spot flaming up around one edge.

We had to get the heat back up, so we had a lull at this time.
Enter my cousin the "Michilada Queen".
With our tasty red spicy beers in hand
we resumed the process and lifted the lid
sporadically to keep the flow of oxygen going.

By now, Virginia was literally tossing and spinning dough!
The look on her face was magic.

I was maneuvering the peel and sometimes fighting
to release the pizzas onto the stone
without flopping everything right off the dough.
I did fold one before it got all the way off the peel
but we just made that one into a calzone.
Some of those pizzas were literally flying off the grill.

We had many toppings to choose from.
Pepperoni, canadian bacon, cheap red sauce,
mushrooms, black olives, sausage, jalapenos,
green chiles, onions, pineapple, mozarella...
I was going to bring some other toppings:
roasted red peppers, fresh basil from my garden,
white or garlic sauces, a variety of cheeses (feta, parmesan, asadero)....
but this day was sort of overwhelming already.

I've got to give kudos!
Props to all those who inspired me at Pizzamaking.com.
If it weren't for all their modifications,
and their exuberance and helpful tips
I would not have reaped the reward
of high fives, broad smiles,
and the virtual shock and awe
of fantastic made-to-order personal pizza
anywhere we want to make it!

This one is a keeper.

Portable Pizza Grill

Who likes pizza?

From what I understand, damn near everybody! I have to admit, it just ain't my favorite thing to eat, because so much of it is just really so bad. I am not fond of pepperoni, it gives me heartburn, so, of course, my husband loves pepperoni. That probably began my fear and loathing where pizza is concerned, not to mention the weekend late-night drunken rituals of I'm hungry, what can we eat?
Chico's!



Yeah, I stole that pic from Taco Journalism


But nobody is sober enough to drive to Chico's Tacos.
Bummer.

So, by default the answer is Pizza-they deliver! Oh so convenient, and oh so awful. Don't get me wrong, good pizza I can handle. But that's a subjective comment if I ever made one. What constitutes a good pizza? You'll get varying answers to that question from around the globe, and I can't even pinpoint exactly who makes the best pizza for my taste. I aim to change that trend very soon, and be happy with pizzas I make on my own.

We used to make some pretty decent pizzas in our home oven back in the day, but they were always just sort of....ehh, okay. Fun to make on a Friday night, but the oven never really got hot enough to make a decent pizza pie.

About 8 months ago I was browsing through craigslist, (a daily ritual) and I saw a nice Kitchenaid Mixer listed for 75 bucks. I snagged that quick when I saw how new it is. I love to bake, but I really started thinking about pizza when I got this thing. Being the internet scavenger that I am, I had to find the best recipes for the right style crust. I was also trying to find a whole grain recipe, which is another story within itself. I ran across a couple of really interesting sites such as pizzamaking.com and the PMQ Think Tank. You can't get any better than this for learning about all things pizza. These folks have pizza down to a science. I've learned that it really is a science. Mind-boggling when you see the full scope of all the styles of pizza and all the styles of baking those pizzas. The lengths people will go to for good pizza, you'd be amazed. Who would have ever thought you could cook pizza using the cleaning cycle of your home oven? Well, they did, and they do. Boggles the mind, don't it?

So, I'm web surfing along, specifically seeking whole-grain pizza dough recipes, and I come across this forum post at Pizzamaking.com with a beautiful picture of a 60% whole-grain thin crust. That's Villa Roma's picture of a beautiful slice of cheesy pie!

I am truly amazed at what else I find at pizzamaking.com. Any style pizza crust you want, multitudes of recipes, resources for all things pizza, and a pleasant, helpful community. I could hardly believe I had found the thinner chewy crust I wanted, made with whole grain, and really good, concise information about how to actually recreate it. This particular poster calls himself Villa Roma (what a great name). It wasn't just the pictures of this guy's pizzas that blew me away, but how he was cooking those pies. He had taken one of these:




and turned it into an 800+ degree pizza oven. He cooks his pizzas in less than 2 minutes, and he calls the contraption a little black egg or LBE. There is a growing faction of LBE aficionados, and they have made some fascinating modifications to all manner of Weber Smokey Joe's. Of course, I've now got to have one for myself, knowing no pizza made in my kitchen oven is ever going to amount to anything I really, really want to eat. Sure, I'll eat pizza, but seldom do I wholly crave or enjoy it. Looking at my forlorn and neglected Smokey Joe Silver sitting on the back porch, knowing I had abandoned him to my BIGGER, better grill...well, I just knew I had to try and make one of these pizza cookers. I'm a project type of gal, dontchaknow?

I've been trying to get my husband on board with this experiment, but every time I'd mention it to him he'd say "That sounds dangerous." photo courtesy of skylighter.com

My first reaction is to do a double-take...A man who loves pizza is worried about a little ol' hot-ass pizza cooker? One that we can take camping? One we can take anywhere? WTF? So I do what I always do, Image credit to Farm1

and keep him out of it, while I talk it up to friends and family; this is what I do, I talk them up about all my hair-brained ideas until they begin to see the light. Finally, I wear him down, and before you know it he is purchasing the burner element required for this little contraption. WooHoo! I'm on my way! I get so excited I call my brother and another friend and tell them the game is afoot. I get out my Craftsman work station, a drill, an old hacksaw blade, protective goggles, some duct tape and needle-nose pliers, a few screwdrivers, my Dremel, Tungsten Carbide cutting bit, hearing protection, and consume a couple bottles of Bud Light. Fully prepared, I commence to making the cut-outs needed to modify the Smoky Joe.



Drilled a couple of pilot holes in the lid, and started the difficult task of cutting out this oval shaped vent with a flimsy length of broken hacksaw blade (one end ensconced in duct tape to protect my soft and delicate hand). I smoothed out those rough edges with my dremel, one little burr at a time.





I'll need to take some more pics to show you the end result. After I pried off the vent assembly from the bottom of the grill using my husband's Leatherman I began cutting out the hole for the burner assembly to fit into. I found it much easier to use a smaller drill bit, and forget the hacksaw blade completely. Many pilot holes later, I was able to Dremel cut my way through and create a semi-round hole. It was easy enough going for a few hours work, and altogether satisfying.

I love the way this burner I took from the Outdoor Gourmet Deluxe Fryer Stand fits perfectly upon that little ash tray underneath the grill. We found the burner locally at Academy Sports. They sell component parts there as well, but I needed the regulator and hose assembly, so I just bought the kit which was cheaper in the long run.





I posted a want on craigslist for a few firebrick splits, and a very nice gentleman from central El Paso responded. So I now have a buffer for the flame which is going to need to create temperatures of at least 600 to 800 degrees. That's some powerful heat. How do you know when you've reached optimum temperature? I suppose you could hold your hand over the surface, and try to gauge it that way, nope, not me! This is the tool of choice: Infrared Thermometer or something very close to it.

I will still need to order a good pizza stone or kiln shelf for a cooking surface, as all others who have gone before me can attest. A crappy stone will last through baking one pie, and then it will crack. If I can't find a round kiln shelf through my ad on craigslist, I'll have to break down and buy one. I was going to order a stone from Fibrament (possibly the best on the market) but their smallest stone at 13 5/8" is a little too big for my grill.

It's only a matter of time, but I shall soon have completed this project, and I'll be posting the end results once I get there.