Hey Brenda! King Arthur question

[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.

[Jolly]

Meanwhile...

https://popculture.com/trending/2020/04/17/us-running-out-frozen-pizza-amid-ongoing-coronavirus-pandemic/