Best Deep Dish Pans?

[spacelooper]

I am trying to find quality Deep Dish pans and was curious if anyone had suggestions?... I am looking for 10" x 2" and 12" x 2"
I am having issues with my bottom crust not getting done enough on my deep dish pies. I think part of the problem may be the pan. I would greatly appreciate any advice on the subject.

thanks,
Todd

[Randy]

Todd the pan is not the problem.  Have you tried baking the pizza on the bottom rack?
What temperature are you using?

[Pete-zza]

Todd,

There are several places that sell quality deep dish pans, but my favorite source is pizzatools.com, at http://www.pizzatools.com. You should check out both the stacked and nested pans, particularly those with the dark PSTK coatings. I personally would avoid the aluminum pans because it may take a long time to get them seasoned to do the best job. I have several pizza pans of different types from pizzatools, all with the PSTK coating, and they are my clear favorites.

You might also look into the Chicago Metallic dark pans, and also check eBay although just about every time I have found pans I liked on eBay they were more expensive than those from pizzatools.com. I would try to avoid the pans that have coatings (Teflon and later versions) that cannot withstand high oven temperatures or are likely to emit toxic fumes. Many such pans are touted for pizza, but I am suspicious of such claims. Deep-dish pizzas usually don't require oven temperatures as high as other styles of pizzas, but I would still go for the pans that can withstand the higher temperatures.

Peter

[spacelooper]

Thanks for the suggestion... it looks like they have a pretty decent selection of stuff...
as far as my deep dish is concerned...I have only made 2... each time I had a simliar problem.... I am cooking on the bottom rack @ 450...I have made them in a regular oven as well as toaster oven...at current time I only have a toaster oven... but am going to experiment with a regular oven this weekend while I am home for the holidays...

thanks,
Todd

[Randy]

After dumping a Chicago deep dish getting it out of a ten inch pan, I am going to take your advice Peter and get me the one you recommended with the coating.
Is 14" the typical size and I was thinking of the heavy wall, coated, in the nesting type since the slope of the sides might made depaning easier.
What do you think?

[Pete-zza]

Randy,

I don't often feed crowds, so for myself I use a couple of 9" dark pans, one of which has sloping sides and the other of which has straight sides. The straight-sided one is a springform pan with a removable bottom which, of course, makes depanning a breeze. Neither of the pans is a pizzatools pan, only something I picked up on sale somewhere. I use a pan gripper and a flexible spatula to remove deep-dish pies from the pan with the sloping sides. I think the sloping sides help with this process.

I also have a 12" pizzatools dark deep-dish pan with straight sides, 2" deep, but have not tried it yet. I thought that would be a good size to use when feeding more people. Since I haven't actually used the pan yet, I can't comment on the ease of removing pies, but I would think that the equivalent pan with the sloping sides should make for easier removal.

Peter

[Randy]

I had not thought of using my spring form pan.

[Pete-zza]

Randy,

To be of the safe side you might want to check the temperature rating of the pan since different coatings may behave differently in the oven at high oven temperatures. I haven't worried much about this because I use lower temperatures than I do with regular pies. The pizzatools PSTK pans are better suited to high temperatures because of the way the coating is baked into the pans.

Peter

[Randy]

Will do Peter.

[LabRat]

I've had pretty good results using a simple cast iron skillet that I bought at Target for under $10 several years ago.  The one I use is 10" across and 2" deep.  As long as the skillet is seasoned properly, getting the pies out is quick and painless.

[vr6Dad]

I too use a cast iron skillet. Actually, it is a dutch oven. Now that I have the "secret" of how to use a long cake spatula, I can get the pizza out much easier.

But there's a rumor going around that a pizzatools.com order is somewhere under the Christmas tree. 

[gschwim]

When, occasonally, I make a (non-Chicago) deep-dish pie, except for a slightly longer cooking time, I use the same basic procedure as for a traditional pizza:  I heat a pizza stone in a 500-degree oven for 1 hour, then put the pizza-in-a-pan on the stone.  If you use a flat-bottom (so forget the springform) pan, so that the entire bottom of the pan contacts a hot stone surface (as opposed to sitting on a wire rack), at 500 degrees, you should have no trouble with undercooked bottom crusts.

It's been awhile since I last made a deep dish pie, but I seem to remember baking it for around 10-12 minutes.