Reheated pizza

[Steve]

Yesterday, I made one of my "best ever" thin-crust pizzas. I ended up undercooking the crust because the toppings were starting to burn.

The pizza was good, but it lacked the crackery cripness that I was hoping to achieve.

Today, for lunch, I took a cold leftover piece and pondered the best way to reheat it. I usually just zap it in the microwave for 10 or 20 seconds which heats the slice up nicely, but the crust is always soft.

Today I tried something new... I took a frying pan and put it on the stove. I cranked the burner to "high" and let the pan get hot. The pan was dry, no oil.

Once hot, I plopped the slice of pizza in the pan and checked the bottom every 30 seconds or so. After several minutes, the bottom of the pizza turned a nice golden brown and the cheese started to soften up. I put the slice in a napkin and chowed down...

The results: Pizza BETTER than "fresh out of the oven"... The crust had nice crispness and toothiness to it... the toppings were somewhat hot and the cheese perfectly melted. It was a "perfect" cracker pizza... it had just the right amount of crispness!

Now to get it to come out of the oven this way...  

[DKM]

What kind of oven do you have?

DKM

[Wayne]

Wow I might have to try this with an entire pizza.

[Steve]

What kind of oven do you have?

I have a standard kitchen electric dual-oven wall unit (Whirlpool). The reason for the undercooking of my thin crust was due to the fact that the Chicago pie was occupying the oven that I normally cook with pans. My top oven has pizza tiles installed on the bottom shelf and is used exclusively for my NY style pizzas. The tiles act as a heat baffle which I find less desirable for making thin crust (I put the cutter pan on the lowest rack directly over the heating element which superheats the bottom of the pan and produces a crisp crust.)

[naschol]

I "fry" my leftover pizza all the time.  The only difference is that I usually warm it up a bit in the microwave, first, and then finish it off in the fry pan.  I have found that the bottom gets crispy and the cheese is really melted doing it this way.

[Randy]

I take mine straight from the freezer to the oven for a very crisp crust.

[DKM]

I put my in a cold oven then turn it own.  Cheese melts nice and crust turns out real good.

DKM