Hey Brenda! King Arthur question

[brenda]

@Mik Thank you!!!

[xenon]

@Optimistic said in Hey Brenda! King Arthur question:

Unlike pretty much everywhere else on the internet, the comments section at KAF is actually really helpful The people who monitor those boards do a great job of responding to questions raised and troubleshooting issues.

I've had my eye on this recipe for a few months. I love NY style thin pizza if I buy it, but if I'm baking it, I like the thicker crust:

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/crispy-cheesy-pan-pizza-recipe

Thanks again for the heads up here, Optimistic.

The results (my dough was already in progress and not quite the same recipe, but close enough):

[mark]

That looks awesome!

[George K]

Oh. My.

[brenda]

That's gorgeous!

[xenon]

Thanks - I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out! I've made plenty of pizzas - they never turned out like this. Main things that I think made it good:

• Good dough recipe

• Hot oven - I had it at 550

• Seasoned cast iron pan (I'm irrationally finicky about the seasoning on this cheap ass pan. Melted cheese slides right off... mostly)

[Horace]

beautiful pizza, Xenon!

[Mik]

Good looking pie!!!

[Optimistic]

Oh MY. Amazing!

Did you use that Forkish recipe you mentioned before?

Did you do the cheese under the sauce too?

I bought a cast iron pan just for this recipe a few months ago. Still not been used, and only seasoned once. I think I’ll season it again before I do the recipe.

[Mik]

Xenon, did you preheat your pan before you put the pizza in?

I think we may try shrimp pizza tonight. It's something we had on our honeymoon. We decided to stay in one night and I called this place and asked for white shrimp pizza. my instructions were 'If I can see anything under the shrimp there aren't enough shrimp. add more. Cost is irrelevant'. i think it ended up being like $30 in 1991. but it was damn good with all the champagne.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Mik said in Hey Brenda! King Arthur question:

Xenon, did you preheat your pan before you put the pizza in?

I think we may try shrimp pizza tonight. It's something we had on our honeymoon. We decided to stay in one night and I called this place and asked for white shrimp pizza. my instructions were 'If I can see anything under the shrimp there aren't enough shrimp. add more. Cost is irrelevant'. i think it ended up being like $30 in 1991. but it was damn good with all the champagne.

Awesome. Was it soggy? Because the shrimp density would absolutely mess with the baking instructions. If it wasn't, they knew what they were doing.

[Mik]

No. It was completely and utterly awesome.

[xenon]

@Optimistic i used the Forkish recipe, but it’s similar. Same dough hydration, but no oil in the dough. Also less yeast but longer rise time. Methodwise, I followed the recipe quite closely, but my dough didn’t rise that much in the 2 hours it sat in the pan. It was jiggly though.

Also - for this recipe, as long as your pan is kinda seasoned and oiled, you should be fine. It won’t stick much.

@Mik did not preheat the pan. I have in the past, but my results weren’t great. Dunno if it was because of the preheating or poor dough in the past.

Preheating also kick starts the dough cooking process when you place the dough in. But the dough cools a bit as you make the pizza. (I guess you could drop in a pre-shaped one with a peel - I never did)

[Mik]

I've read, and last night bears it out, that preheating your cooking surface gives a better, crisper crust. Yours seems to have gotten around that. Cast iron heats up rather slowly, so that surprises me. Maybe you had a thicker crust so longer cook time?

[xenon]

I’ve never used my cast iron without pre-heating. But in the book I’ve been using (Flour Water Yeast Bread) - the author specifically uses a non-preheated skillet for pizza. He uses preheated Dutch ovens for all his bread recipes.

This specific recipe on the KA site also does not call for preheating the pan (you can’t since the final dough rise is in the pan).

The results have been surprisingly good.

[Mik]

Pizza weekend - decided to make a Margherita for lunch, which is about my favorite pizza. I heated the half sheet in the oven, but not the round sheet I am cooking on. Will see how this turns out. Cooking at 500.

[Mik]

And done - about 8 minutes at 500.

[brenda]

I wonder if preheating the cast iron pan would reduce some of the oven spring for a thick crust pizza?

[brenda]

@Mik Looks like a good lunch!

[Mik]

It is good! Eureka! Crust is not quite a crisp on the bottom as putting the bare pie right on a screaming hot pan, but it has a nice little crunch to it and is nice and chewy.