Pizza on the 1250

[Smokinbutts]

Tried pizza for the first time last Fri night. I make my own dough that I’ve been experimenting with for years and finally figured out what works for us. When I make them in the oven I use screens and they usually come out very good.I used 3 different pans/stone on the 1250 to see which one would be better. We are thin crust people with a slight crunch when you bite into it.
Preheated the 1250 to 500, got to temp, put the 16” stone on it for 20 min. Used a 16” screen and 18” resteraunt style pizza pan for the first run. Made one sausage, built it on parchment paper and slid it onto the hot stone, left the paper under it.
Resteraunt style pan was pepperoni and screen was just cheese.
Verdict: resteraunt style pan & screen were outstanding, just how we like them, top more on the well done side with edges crisped and bottom had a nice crunch.
Stone: top perfect but bottom was still flimsy and lacked the crunch we like. Flavor was on point on all of them. Best part is I was able to fit 2 on at the same time. Probably could have put another one on the top rack but wanted to try 2 at first. Might try the next one directly on the stone to see if that helps, if not will try a cast iron pizza pan.

 

[R Berg]

Those are some fine looking pizzas
Ive been getting the best results by putting my pizzas on a pan and setting the pan directly on the grill rack
I been running my 1250 anywhere between 500 and 550
I just haven’t been able to prefect a good thin crust yet but I’m getting closer
I make the dough from scratch and work it by hand
I’m kind of afraid if I stretch it out anymore I’ll tear holes in it

 

[Smokinbutts]

Those are some fine looking pizzas
Ive been getting the best results by putting my pizzas on a pan and setting the pan directly on the grill rack
I been running my 1250 anywhere between 500 and 550
I just haven’t been able to prefect a good thin crust yet but I’m getting closer
I make the dough from scratch and work it by hand
I’m kind of afraid if I stretch it out anymore I’ll tear holes in it

I never could stretch it by hand, always tear it! I use a rolling pin with some flower on the counter. The pan def works well on the 1250 as does the screen. Think I’m gonna try putting that stone on there for a good 40 min next round. It’s usually a Fri night thing in our house. Get home, pour a bourbon, pre heat the grill, pour another and hope for the best!

 

[NBK]

Looking delicious.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

When I used stones, they took close to an hour to stabilize. But you already found an acceptable solution.

Other methods I've used include using a steel plate and/or pre cooking the dough.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

We did pizza for our nieces tonight on the 2Stone. The oven has a rotating bottom stone, fixed top stone, curved deflector in back, and big burner on a slide. It was a creation of a young entrepreneur but the business didn't last long. It went under maybe a dozen years ago. Mine is a later model and is about 95% 304 SS. It can easily reach Napolitano pizza oven temperature.

Later, Blackstone copied the basic design and made them in china, selling a bunch. But the quality was so bad, they discontinued them.

 

[sdynak]

We did pizza for our nieces tonight on the 2Stone. The oven has a rotating bottom stone, fixed top stone, curved deflector in back, and big burner on a slide. It was a creation of a young entrepreneur but the business didn't last long. It went under maybe a dozen years ago. Mine is a later model and is about 95% 304 SS. It can easily reach Napolitano pizza oven temperature.

Later, Blackstone copied the basic design and made them in china, selling a bunch. But the quality was so bad, they discontinued them. View attachment 15694View attachment 15695View attachment 15696

That 2Stone looks pretty cool. I like the rotating design and sliding burner to get the top or bottom of the pizza. Was the Blackstone similar in these features? I recall seeing pictures of them now but never realized the features. This would be amazing if they has a dual fuel feature maybe with pellets.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

That 2Stone looks pretty cool. I like the rotating design and sliding burner to get the top or bottom of the pizza. Was the Blackstone similar in these features? I recall seeing pictures of them now but never realized the features. This would be amazing if they has a dual fuel feature maybe with pellets.

The Blackstone had copied the rotating stone, top stone configuration and burner arrangement. I doubt that the original 2Stone inventor patented the design. I had a Blackstone for a while before I found a used 2Stone. It cooked well with some small modifications, but suffered from very poor chinese quality. The knob/valve for the burner would blow out the seal and fire would ignite behind the knob. Some members on the Pizzamaking.com forum tried to keep them running but most rusted out. It's been about a dozen years since they made them. The production was short lived with the problems that made them seem dangerous.

2Stones can pop up from time to time. Especially the stainless models. But since the stainless model was over $2k originally, they still can be expensive. The Blackstones were only about $250-300 on sale.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

BTW, we made the pizzas with Guiness stout instead of water in my dough recipe. The dough has a distinct brown color and great flavor. I've used several different brown/dark beers. Firestone Double Barrel Ale works great too.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

My basic "quick" Neapolitan dough recipe...takes about 3-5 hours, depending on temperature and yeast type. You'll need a stand mixer. Makes 3 12" pizzas or 2 about 14-15".

600 grams Caputo flour
375 grams water (or beer) @ 80-90F
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 packet Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast or Rapid Dry Yeast

Mix the salt into the flour in a bowl. Put the water/beer in the stand mixer bowl. Add roughly 1/2 cup of flour to the water/beer and mix it with the regular flat beater attachment or a wisk. Add all the yeast and mix lightly. Let the yeast work for a bit, maybe 10 minutes.

Verify that you're getting some yeast activity. Start adding the flour as you mix with the flat beater blade. You will need to change to a dough hook at some point during adding in the flour. Once it starts balling and pulling away from the stand mixer bowl, continue to mix (on low) for 5 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Mix for 5 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes. Mix a third time for 5 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl. Hand knead the dough on a flat floured surface for a few minutes, stretching and folding over in two directions .

Form a large ball and let it rise to at least double its original size.
Punch it down and cut into 2 or 3 equal parts depending on how large the pizzas you are making. Ball them and put in to well oiled separate bowls big enough for them to rise 2-3 times their original size. Let them rise. Form the pies, top them* and bake at up to Neapolitan pizza temps (825F).

* Tip: brush the formed pie dough very lightly with EVOO to seal the dough from the wetness of the sauce. This ensures no gooey wet center.

Higher baking temperatures make for more tender crust. Lower temperatures make tougher crust.

 

[sdynak]

The Blackstone had copied the rotating stone, top stone configuration and burner arrangement. I doubt that the original 2Stone inventor patented the design. I had a Blackstone for a while before I found a used 2Stone. It cooked well with some small modifications, but suffered from very poor chinese quality. The knob/valve for the burner would blow out the seal and fire would ignite behind the knob. Some members on the Pizzamaking.com forum tried to keep them running but most rusted out. It's been about a dozen years since they made them. The production was short lived with the problems that made them seem dangerous.

2Stones can pop up from time to time. Especially the stainless models. But since the stainless model was over $2k originally, they still can be expensive. The Blackstones were only about $250-300 on sale.

Wow.. I’m sure it’s not easy to sell a $2k pizza oven so guess that contributes to them going under. Shame.. seems like all good things come to an end.

 

[C. Keeper]

BTW, we made the pizzas with Guiness stout instead of water in my dough recipe. The dough has a distinct brown color and great flavor. I've used several different brown/dark beers. Firestone Double Barrel Ale works great too.

My favorite brew

 

[Roaniecowpony]

Wow.. I’m sure it’s not easy to sell a $2k pizza oven so guess that contributes to them going under. Shame.. seems like all good things come to an end.

He was selling the $2k ovens as a commercial restaurant appliance. But even the tabletop plain steel version was pricey for the backyard pizza makers. So, to your point, he was just too expensive for the market.

Blackstone headed in the right direction for consumers when they stole Willard's idea, by making it cheaper, but just got so low on the quality, it didn't cut it. Still, there are many people that would buy another Blackstone, even as bad as they were.

 

[Pacman]

Just a shout out to @Smokinbutts. I made my first pizzas over the weekend. My dough recipe needs a little tweaking, but I cranked out 5 progressively better pies using the pizza screens at 500. They took on average around 10 minutes. No need for a pizza stone in my opinion.

Lessons learned:

1. Cook off all of the grease that accumulated in a year of cooking low and slow before your first pizza.
2. 500 degrees was plenty. I guess cranking higher would cook faster, but this worked fine.
3. Spray a little nonstick spray on the screens so you actually get a whole pizza to slide off.
4. Even for a Neapolitan dough, don't go super thin like I did on doughball #1 that never turned into a pizza (I tore it to shreds) and pizza #1 that basically disintegrated when attempting to remove.
5. I was pretty skimpy on the toppings at first, but started figuring out that for the thin toppings like pepperoni and sliced mushrooms, more was better.
6. I ordered some smaller screens. I went with two 16 inch screens that fit perfectly, but my 6 250 gram doughballs were really more in the 10 to 12 inch range.

Pizza #1 and all that was left of 5 pizzas with only three of us attacking them.

 

[FF Cory]

Has anyone had any luck with this type of oven on pellet Grills? I like the concept. Just not sure how well they work for $150. Thoughts?

 

[Pacman]

Has anyone had any luck with this type of oven on pellet Grills? I like the concept. Just not sure how well they work for $150. Thoughts?

Look for the thread here called "GMG Pizza Oven is Awesome" or something similar. Quite a few people have that and overall seem to like it.

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

Has anyone had any luck with this type of oven on pellet Grills? I like the concept. Just not sure how well they work for $150. Thoughts?

View attachment 16775

Here is the thread that @Pacman was talking about.

https://www.recteqforum.com/threads/gmg-pizza-oven-is-awesome.3966/page-9#post-76809

I have it and use it with my 1250 and I love it. Only down side is storing it when not in use.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

Just a bit about pizza I learned while hanging out with that crowd over one Pizzamaking.com forum. Higher cooking temperatures (think 650-850F) make for more tender dough, especially the part called the "cornice", which is the edge. Lower cooking temperatures (450-600) make for a more chewy dough (NY style). When temperatures get down in the 400 or less range, the dough starts to get harder. The longer you cook it, the drier the dough gets and therefore the tougher/harder it gets.

Of course, the water content affects this as well. But it will be difficult to make tender dough with lower temperatures and longer cooks.

So when choosing your pizza oven, give some thought to what type of pizza you want to make, then decide on the equipment/settings. My experience suggests that making NY chewy style pizza (probably the most popular) is doable in the 500-600F range, with the right dough hydration.

 

[gkal1964]

My basic "quick" Neapolitan dough recipe...takes about 3-5 hours, depending on temperature and yeast type. You'll need a stand mixer. Makes 3 12" pizzas or 2 about 14-15".

600 grams Caputo flour
375 grams water (or beer) @ 80-90F
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 packet Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast or Rapid Dry Yeast

Mix the salt into the flour in a bowl. Put the water/beer in the stand mixer bowl. Add roughly 1/2 cup of flour to the water/beer and mix it with the regular flat beater attachment or a wisk. Add all the yeast and mix lightly. Let the yeast work for a bit, maybe 10 minutes.

Verify that you're getting some yeast activity. Start adding the flour as you mix with the flat beater blade. You will need to change to a dough hook at some point during adding in the flour. Once it starts balling and pulling away from the stand mixer bowl, continue to mix (on low) for 5 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Mix for 5 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes. Mix a third time for 5 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl. Hand knead the dough on a flat floured surface for a few minutes, stretching and folding over in two directions .

Form a large ball and let it rise to at least double its original size.
Punch it down and cut into 2 or 3 equal parts depending on how large the pizzas you are making. Ball them and put in to well oiled separate bowls big enough for them to rise 2-3 times their original size. Let them rise. Form the pies, top them* and bake at up to Neapolitan pizza temps (825F).

* Tip: brush the formed pie dough very lightly with EVOO to seal the dough from the wetness of the sauce. This ensures no gooey wet center.

Higher baking temperatures make for more tender crust. Lower temperatures make tougher crust.

Made your Neapolitan dough recipe tonight. This recipe is spot on. It will be my go to pizza do recipe going forward. Thanks!

 

[Pacman]

Looking forward to trying this recipe once the weekend weather starts cooperating. My dough recipe is one of those long overnight things that stifles my pizza creations.