Pizza

[gordo2212]

Did my first pizza on the akorn last night. Went pretty well except the dough was a little overdone underneath. I upgraded my pizza stone I was using in my oven and got an 18 inch. Is that too big and possibly not letting enough heat get above? 

 

I also usually use cornmeal and flour to launch pizza onto stone. Is the cornmeal possibly burning?

 

I had the grill at about 550 dome temp as seen on some other posts. Gonna try a lower temp next time. I make my own dough so maybe water content isn't high enough? 

 

Thanks for any input.

[Golf Griller]

That's a good looking pizza.

[JohnnyAppetizer]

2 hours ago, gordo2212 said:

Is that too big and possibly not letting enough heat get above? 

 

can't tell if you have a diffuser under the grate. If not, add one so the pizza stone is not getting direct heat. Just need an air space between the two stones. 

looks like plenty of open space around the stone.

[gordo2212]

3 minutes ago, JohnnyAppetizer said:

can't tell if you have a diffuser under the grate. If not, add one so the pizza stone is not getting direct heat. Just need an air space between the two stones. 

looks like plenty of open space around the stone.

Yes I have the stock diffuser down below. I think for my dough I just need lower temps next time.

[DWFII]

I have had pretty good results on my Akorn with this set up...and you need to use an infrared laser thermometer pointed down through the top vent cap  so that it reads the stone--that's where the temp counts. I usually run 550 on the stone when I slip the pie in.  (stainless steel bolts and washers and nuts.)

 

 

 

 

[MikeRobinson]

Maybe that temperature is a little-bit too high, but ... "you are cooking a pizza over a fire and on a stone."  You should therefore expect ... and, I think, enjoy ... a wee bit of "crispness, underneath."  It's part of the experience.

 

Instead of doing it in your kitchen, you're cooking the pie in "a charcoal-fired convection oven."

[DWFII]

I know I sure like my crust crisp...esp. underneath. But I can't stand burnt or charcoal...can't even stand it on toast. Once the colour hits expresso coffee...even if it's just in spots... it gets cut off. Guess I'm a pick-y eater.

[gordo2212]

7 hours ago, MikeRobinson said:

Maybe that temperature is a little-bit too high, but ... "you are cooking a pizza over a fire and on a stone."  You should therefore expect ... and, I think, enjoy ... a wee bit of "crispness, underneath."  It's part of the experience.

 

Instead of doing it in your kitchen, you're cooking the pie in "a charcoal-fired convection oven."

It definitely was overdone on the bottom. I changed up my recipe to not have any sugar and had great results tonight.

[Daz]

That's a good looking pizza! while making the pizza ring I did dozens of pizza dough recipes and here are my 2 cents

 

1. You need to match your dough's water percentage to your stove's temperature. For Neopolitan pizza, if cooked at 550 degrees, you need 70% baker's percentage. That is, for 100 g of flour you'll need 70g of water. The dough should come out soft with crispy surface. If you cook it at 950 degrees than you can lower it to 50~60%, but you only cook it for less than 2 min. I learned this from a book called "Element of Pizza", it's like the pizza version of Amazingribs.com. The longer you cook your pizza, the more water you'll need to keep it from drying up.

 

2. Most of time the stone will be hotter than air. So your bottom got cooked faster than your toppings. I added another pizza stone on top and it made a world of difference. 

 

3. Leave the dough overnight in the fridge and it'll be so much more stretchable the next day. That way you can make it thinner and cook it faster. 

[Photoman]

Why do you need the second tier? I can see you have a diffuser below, does it n0t work to set the pizza stone right on the main grill

[DWFII]

It gets your pizza up  in the dome where the heat is more even.

[Photoman]

1 minute ago, DWFII said:

It gets your pizza up  in the dome where the heat is more even.

Ah thanks

[Charles Wagon]

Great looking pizza. I’m sure it tasted awesome!

 

trouble with making pizza on a Kamado, especially an Akorn, is that there is much less cooking for the top than the bottom. A two-stone set up can address this. When I had an Akorn, I would throw a stone on the top expansion rack and cook pizza between the two stones.