Cast Iron Skillet, Pizza Magic

[mkevenson]

Thank you, Norma for encouraging me to bake on my upside down Cast iron skillet.

Dough recipe:

Flour: 50/50 KABF & Caputo 00 Pizzeria
water: 57%
IDY: .8 %
Salt: 1.7% Kosher Diamond Crystal
Sugar : 1.6%
EVOO : 4%

Dough ball 304 g
Dough ball temp 70 f
Cold ferment after balling 20 hrs
Room temp rise 2. Hrs
Opened to 12"
Baked for 7 min on inverted CI skillet
Skillet temp 570 F pre heated @ 550 F for 1. Hr.

The pie came out very nice, color pretty good ,crust tender and tasty.
Toppings, Bubba sauce, hot Italian sausage, part skim Mozz and aged Provolone, Kalamata olives

Overall, the methods works.

[mkevenson]

More pics

Mark

[slybarman]

Mark:

I did my first pies in a cast iron pizza pan (14" lodge logic). My pizzas kept coming out tough and I never really figured out why. I moved on to a stone and seemed to have better results. I would think the heat properties of the cast iron would be great for home oven, but couldn't get there. I am interested to see your photos when I get home tonight. Right now tapatalk isn't letting me view uploaded photos.

[norma427]

Mark,

You did a great job with your cast iron skillet. 

I think you made a wise choice in using a blend of flours with Caputo pizzeria flour being one of the flours.  Your pizza looks very tasty.  Did you have problems landing your pie on the cast iron skillet?

Norma

[mkevenson]

Mark,

You did a great job with your cast iron skillet. 

I think you made a wise choice in using a blend of flours with Caputo pizzeria flour being one of the flours.  Your pizza looks very tasty.  Did you have problems landing your pie on the cast iron skillet?

Norma

Norma, as you can see in the "inside the oven " pic, I did droop a bit over the side. No matter, after a few seconds I was able to stabilize and smooth sailing from there.
Thanks again for the idea, now back to the 2 Stone and the frigid cold, outside!

Mark

[norma427]

Norma, as you can see in the "inside the oven " pic, I did droop a bit over the side. No matter, after a few seconds I was able to stabilize and smooth sailing from there.
Thanks again for the idea, now back to the 2 Stone and the frigid cold, outside!

Mark

Mark,

I think you did a great job of landing that pizza on the cast iron skillet!    You are braver than I am.  I would like to try my BBQ mod out again, but I sure am not going out in the cold.  I will wait for warmer weather.  Have fun with your 2 Stone. 

Norma

[JimmyG]

Mark,
 An upside down cast iron pan is very intuitive.   Nice work.
Jim

[mkevenson]

Mark,

I think you did a great job of landing that pizza on the cast iron skillet!    You are braver than I am.  

Norma

Launching into the 2 Stone is very similar, I have to give credit to my new, relatively, Italian metal peel with the holes in it.



Mark

[Pete-zza]

Mark,
 An upside down cast iron pan is very intuitive.   Nice work.
Jim

Jim,

The heated inverted cast iron skillet is a method that the celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal popularized. See, for example, the YouTube video at

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E0GP1rkFRM" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E0GP1rkFRM</a>

. In his case, he preheats the cast iron skillet on the stove and then puts it in the oven. There is also discussion on his method in the thread at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,4223.msg35178.html#msg35178.

BTW, are you the one in the avatar that is partially au naturel or are you the one with the shirt?

Peter

[pizzaboyfan]

That is the one of best ideas I've seen here, and this place is full of great ideas.

I  see room for three more , adding to the thermal mass of the oven, or even using it under a pizza stone to increase the mass.
I wonder how doubling up the thickness by using  two, nested and inverted,  would work ?

Perry