My Two Stage method -- first in a BBQ on a stone - then broil in the oven

[fmed]

Hi All...

Long time lurker here...

I learned a lot here so I thought I would share a method that cobbles together some of the great ideas that I have gleaned in this forum. The method in short...I start my pizza in a small BBQ (my "camping" Weber Q120) by preheating a pizza stone for 30 mins or so on the highest setting. Then I take it out and finish it under the broiler in my gas oven.

I have tried this method on my larger BBQ, but I find that this tiny Weber to be better at this task. (Probably because it has smaller cavity, the burners closer to the grill & stone and its convex lid). I could actually serve the pizza straight out of the BBQ, but I like more char on top so I finish in the oven under the broiler (I preheat the oven to the highest setting and turn the broiler on before I insert the pie.)

I use the Lehman no-knead pizza dough recipe (but I add more salt to my liking).

This pie is a buffalo mozza, dried chorizo, black olive and onion. The sauce is just whole canned tomato that I crushed by hand and sieve-drained for an hour (I may have added a bit of oregano here). Swish of olive oil then into the BBQ.

I have tried all sorts of things (I haven't attempted the home oven mods - eg self-clean mods, resistor mod, etc. yet though), but this one has produced the best results for me so far. I can only do this in the summertime, however.

Hopefully the pics attached are self-explanatory. (edit: it took about 3 mins in the BBQ and one additional minute in the broiler....so not the sub-2 minute pies that the little black egg guys are getting.)

[Pete-zza]

fmed,

Very nice job.

Can you tell me where you found a "Lehmann no-knead pizza dough recipe"?

Peter

[ThunderStik]

Very nice looking pies indeed! Man I wouldnt mind a slice of that right now.
I love the chorizo idea.

[fmed]

fmed,

Very nice job.

Can you tell me where you found a "Lehmann no-knead pizza dough recipe"?

Peter

Apologies....not "Lehman"...it was Jim Lahey's pizza dough recipe.. I can't post a hyperlink because I am a new member. It's at the tastingtable.com website. It's also the first link when you Google "no knead pizza dough"

[Pete-zza]

fmed,

This is the link: http://tastingtable.com/entry_detail/99/Jim_Lahey_reveals_his_recipe_for_no-knead_pizza_dough_.htm. There is also a thread on this forum devoted to the Lahey no-knead dough, at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7745.0.html.

The Lahey recipe calls for letting the dough ferment at room-temperature for "12-24 hours, in a warm spot, about 70 degrees". Can you tell me how long you fermented your dough and at approximately what temperature and what the condition of the dough was at the end of the fermentation period?

Peter

[fmed]

It fermented for about 18 hrs at room temp (approx 65C) then retarded for about another 12 hrs in the fridge. I took it out and divided it into 3 balls cold from the fridge and let it rise for maybe 3-4 hrs. The dough was slack and soft...but not sticky. When I shaped the crust, I floured my bench fairly well so the hydration ratio must have changed.

[Pete-zza]

fmed,

Thanks. The reason I asked the specific question is because I attempted the recipe several times using 20+ hours of total fermentation time, as discussed at Reply 31 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7745.msg69521.html#msg69521, and concluded that a shorter fermentation time was more sensible for me. I was also trying to avoid using a lot of bench flour to offset the wet and sticky nature of the dough.

I see also that you made your skins thicker than called for by the recipe, by making three dough balls out of the bulk dough instead of four.

Peter

[fmed]

I've tried to make 4, but I am not yet skilled enough to make them that thin and still be able to slide them off my peel without incident. I recently  purchased a non-stick baking sheet to use as a peel hoping that it will work better than my wooden one. I'll go for 4 next time (in a couple of days).

[fmed]

Hi Peter...

I just read through that thread just now. (I can't believe I haven't seen it until now...I thought I had read everything on this site).

Your experiences with this dough echo mine.

A couple of changes/conditions may have made a difference in workability

- I retard it in the fridge for 8-12 hrs after fermenting for 12-18 hrs (really to accommodate my schedule more than anthing else),
- I doubled the salt (1.5 tsp vs 3 tsp I like my crusts a bit salty. It may have slowed down any biological and chemical processes that might result in an unruly dough....just a guess),
- and as you have pointed out, I made 3 instead of the 4 pies that the original recipe yields. I can still make it pretty thin crust.
- I use a fair amount of bench flour -- however, if I add too much flour - I get a cracker-like crust.
- The ambient temperature here is often quite cool - especially at night.

The resultant pies are very good compared to the typical pies you get in my city (Vancouver is a pizza deprived place).

I'll be glad to contribute to that thread for my next few batches...and I'll try to be more systematic.

-f

[fmed]

I found some pics of an attempt at 4 pies. I had 3 good pies and one that was very distorted and lost a bit of the topping when I did the handoff onto the stone. Here is a pic of one of the successful ones.

[soflnoles]

What kind of pizza stone are you using directly on the grill?  No issues with cracking?  Are you deflecting the flame?

[fmed]

What kind of pizza stone are you using directly on the grill?  No issues with cracking?  Are you deflecting the flame?

It is an old (already cracked) Pampered Chef stone.  I have not experienced new cracking but I'm not worried if it cracks (again). I have three or four cracked ones in my garage.

And no -I'm not using a deflector for the flame - the grill design of the Q120 already takes care of that.