Pizza Hut Pan Pizza...Success at last!

[Laura]

I have been making the PH pan pizza recipe from this site for months and months.  While the flavor and texture of the dough from this recipe is really exceptional, the crust ended up being just a little too thick for my family's taste.  It just seemed to overpower the toppings.  Tonight, I made the PH Pan Pizza recipe as listed on the site.  After the kneading stage, my dough ball weighed in at 36.4 ounces.  I split the dough ball in half and rolled one 18.2 ounce ball into a 14" circle.  I placed it in a 14" deep dish pan that had 4 ounces of oil in the bottom.  I let the crust rise at room temperature until the dough met the sides of the pan.  I then placed the pan into the refrigerator (to retard rising) while I preheated the pizza stone to 450 degrees (about 40 minutes).  I then removed the dough from the refrigerator and topped with sauce, cheese, pepperoni and Penzey's pizza spice.  I baked the pie on a stone on the lowest oven rack for 14 minutes.   Both of my teen-aged sons loved the results so I consider the pie to be a success!

For those of you who cringe at the 4oz of oil, I was pleased to find out that after baking, a good 1.5 ounces was left in the pizza pan (and I'm betting another one-half ounce was left on the cutting board where I moved the pizza to slice).  In past experiments, I've tried to reduce the amount of oil added to the pan by as much as half but I had unfortunate results.  This style crust needs enough oil to flow underneath to achieve the proper browning.  In my experience, skimping did not work. Happy New Year to All!!!

[goosen1]

That looks great!!!! Good job!!!! 

Still to this day... Every time I have PH pizza, I ruin my pillow case at night from the oil coming out of my pours.

Goose

[Pete-zza]

Laura,

Good to see you back. I see you still have the Soehnle scale.

I might have saved you some experimentation if you had posted earlier on your travails when using the original PH pan pizza dough recipe. Some time ago, I posted on that recipe at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,4607.msg38909.html#msg38909 (Reply 6). It looks like you came fairly close on the dough weight in any event.

Peter

[Laura]

Thanks, Peter.  I debated with myself on whether to stick to the 22oz ball as was suggested for the 14" pan but in the end it just seemed like too much dough.  Perhaps I'll try it next go-round.  Yes, I still have my scale and I use it daily for all kinds of tasks.  Thanks for steering me in the right direction.  I love it.

Laura

[heavy-d]

WOW..what a great pizza...I made the dough with the weight suggested by Pete-zza
pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,4607.msg38909.html#msg38909
I mixed etc. according to Xphmgr directions. I could not wait for my new pans to arrive, so I baked it in a Lasagna pan....Came out awesome....smelled like pizza hut for sure! I have only one complaint. The dough was a little dry on the top outside crust. I did not spray the outside edge with release spray before it was baked. I baked at 450 for 14 min in my home oven. I also noticed that the Kitchen mixer did not like the dough one bit. I tripled the batch to make bread sticks as well and the dough while kneading was very stiff and had actually slowed the mixer considerably to a point in the ten min knead cycle that the mixer smelled like a hot electric motor. I will only double the recipe next time. other than that I used the Cento pre- prepared sauce Dr'd up a bit and it was awesome! I will make it again when my pans arrive and try to remember to take pics next time!
Heavy D

[Levi]

Laura,

When you were through rolling out your dough how close was it to 3/4" thick, as mentioned in xphmgr's recipe?  I ask because I just tried a batch and with 22oz of dough the only way I would have gotten close to 3/4" would have been with about a 6-7" circle.  I only have a 12" pan and the dough was a lot closer to 3/8" and no where near covering the bottom of the pan. 

I'm sort of wondering about the 22oz myself - I think that 37oz would come a lot closer to the specified 3/4" thickness

Thoughts anyone?

[Laura]

Hi Levi,

I let my dough rest after the kneading period for about 15 minutes and then rolled it out until it was close to 14".  When I placed it in the pan, it did not touch the sides (it was a good 3/4" from the sides before rising and probably 3/8" thick..maybe a little less).  However, this dough gains quite a bit of volume during the rise.  I let it rise at room temperature and after a few hours, the dough was completely touching the sides and was about 3/4" high.  If you use the entire 37oz ball for one 14" pan, you will end up with crust about 1-1/2" thick...which in my opinion, is just too much bread.  Hope this helps.

Laura

[JerryMac]

Laura,

Great Lookin Pie 

Now I Need Pizza 

Jerry

[Bread Maker]

Nice looking pie. Just wondering: by any of your calculations, how much do you think everything costs by doing it at home versus the $12 or $14 or whatever it is for one of those Pan pizzas? I've always wondered how much you can really save by doing it at home. We all know that cheese is pretty pricey, in and of itself, but taking everything else into consideration, it would be cool to know how much $$$ really goes into an entire fabrication of one of these at the comfort of your home. 

[Marshenko]

Nice looking pie. Just wondering: by any of your calculations, how much do you think everything costs by doing it at home versus the $12 or $14 or whatever it is for one of those Pan pizzas? I've always wondered how much you can really save by doing it at home. We all know that cheese is pretty pricey, in and of itself, but taking everything else into consideration, it would be cool to know how much $$$ really goes into an entire fabrication of one of these at the comfort of your home. 

How pricey is cheese these days?  I'm fortunate enough to be able to "stumble" upon massive quantities of mozzarella on a regular basis...
I just paid $8 for a 3lb bag of KASL and a 5lb bag of KABF .... sauce and/or tomatoes are relatively inexpensive....  I'd imagine that, for the price of two Pizza Hut pizzas, if you planned ahead, you could put together at least a dozen at home.

[matermark]

I just bought Sorrento 1lb pkgs both "whole milk" and "part skim" from a Price-Rite a couple weeks ago for I think $1.69! I bought 3 but should have bought more.