Why doesn't broiling pizza work?

[garyd]

I have tried using the broiler to make pizza and it just doesn't work. Why? I have tried moving the pizza stone as close to the top burners as I can, I heat the stone up in the HI Broil mode for an hour. I slip the pizza onto the stone. The top browns and is done in 2 minutes but the bottom is far from done. The stone doesn't seem to get hot enough even though it pre-heats right under the red hot top burners.

[Jackitup]

I would go the other route, stone on the bottom rack at 500 deg or so for an hour pre-heat and then go for a 10-12 minute bake til browned to desired doneness on top and see how that works for you. Check bottom by tipping with a spatula to see if it's done enough for you at about the 8 minute mark. If things are looking done enough on the bottom you can turn the broiler on breifly if needed to brown off the top more if you like. See what works best for you, but using only the broiler usually doesnt work out the best.
Jon

[Pete-zza]

garyd,

Does your oven allow you to keep the broiler on continuously? My oven does not.

Peter

[LabRat]

I don't think a pizza stone has the thermal mass needed to cook a pie in the way you describe.  It probably is getting very hot, but when you slap the cold dough on top of the stone there isn't enough heat stored to properly cook the bottom of the pizza.  The floors of wood burning ovens are usually several inches thick, which allows them to absorb massive amounts of heat energy so they don't cool down so much when a raw pizza is placed on them.  With something as thin as a pizza stone, you would need some kind of heat source underneath to bring the temperature back up enough to cook the bottom of the dough.  I wonder if you could set up another stone over a gas burner on your stove top to cook the bottom of the pizza after the top has cooked under the broiler.

[garyd]

I don't think a pizza stone has the thermal mass needed to cook a pie in the way you describe.  It probably is getting very hot, but when you slap the cold dough on top of the stone there isn't enough heat stored to properly cook the bottom of the pizza.  The floors of wood burning ovens are usually several inches thick, which allows them to absorb massive amounts of heat energy so they don't cool down so much when a raw pizza is placed on them.  With something as thin as a pizza stone, you would need some kind of heat source underneath to bring the temperature back up enough to cook the bottom of the dough.  I wonder if you could set up another stone over a gas burner on your stove top to cook the bottom of the pizza after the top has cooked under the broiler.

That must be the problem. I generally cook most of my pizza's in the clean cycle and they general cook in about 90 seconds to 2 minutes but the broiler method like the chef Heston uses is appealing with the shorter warm-up times. I've tried this with the cast iron skillet up side down but since cast iron doesn't absorb the moisture, I don't get exactly what I am looking for.

BTW. I've posted this before, but on most ovens you can easily use the clean cycle without cuting or altering the latch on most ovens. You just open the door and press the button that tells the oven the door is closed. You then press the clean cycle button and the latch slides over and the clean cycle starts. Once the latch has slid over all the way, you close the door and it doesn't lock shut!