Friday evening pizza cook with dessert.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

I had my gf's family over for pizzas Friday evening.  I ended up cooking 5 pizzas and hen dessert.  Overall everything came out well.  I had one pizza slightly burned in the bottom, but other than at they were all great.  Despite having a few lessons on making a round pizza, I still can't get it, and am caring less and less each cook....kind of over it.

The main thing I learned on this cook was to pull my stone out after the second pizza to let it cool down a little bit.  This would have prevented my third pizza from burning a little bit and is what I did to make sure my fourth pizza did not burn.  I only pulled the stone out for about 5 minutes, just long enough for it to cool down slightly. 

I used a ton of mesquite for this cook just adding a few chunks here and there as needed.   I did have the first three pizzas spread out and ready to go on wooden peels so I wouldn't have to wait between cooks to spread out a new dough thus losing heat in the kettle pizza.

I used my gourmet grate and put it in the KP upside down so that the hinged grate was hanging open and I could easily add more wood chunks with my metal peel. 

I started off with a fully lit chimney of KBB, poured it into my coals baskets then added at least a half chimney more of unlit if not a while chimneys worth.  Then a 8-9 mesquite chunks.  I had to add multiple pieces of me quite several times during my cook to keeps temps above 600. 









First pizza:  crush San Marzano tomatoes, shredded mozzarella, pepperoni on half. 


Second pizza:  olive oil (don't use too much, it really gets bubbling and will run off and onto your stone if you use too much...I drizzled on lightly then spread it around with a brush), fresh mozzarella, ricotta, minced garlic, pepperoni. 






Unfortunately I didn't get pics of the first two pizzas once they were done, but they both came out great.

Third pizza:  lightly sauced with San Marzano tomatoes, fresh sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil.   This one was my worst shaped pizza and is the one that was a little burned on the bottom but still edible.


Fourth pizza:  San Marzano sauce, shredded mozzarella, ricotta, minced garlic, dry Italian salami


Fifth pizza: olive oil, fresh mozzarella, ricotta, pepperoni.
I was starting to lose heat at this point and didn't want to add more wood since it was the last one.  It took 6-8 minutes instead of 4-5 minutes and didn't get as golden as the others but it was still really good.  I tryed rolling this one out in an attempt to get a round pizza and again have failed!  It was interesting to see that the texture of the dough wasn't really differnt than my hand stretched pizzas.


Dessert time!!!!
Graham crackers with 2x2 squares of Hershey's, some milk chocolate, some dark chocolate, topped with 5-6 mini marshmallows.  At this point the kettle was down to 400-450 which apparently was the ideal temp. The marshmallows got nice and golden just as the chocolate was nice and soft.  I used my metal pizza pan that came with my KP with some foil on it.





Additional info:

Here are the pizza spinners I got.  They are Cuisinart 18" pizza spinners I got on Amazon for $17.45.   They worked great!  Spin g pizzas was so much easier than trying to do it with my metal peel.


Pizza stone:  newly purchased 15" round pizza stone from California Pizzas Stones via Amazon.   No problems with this stone so far.  My last stone that I got from Bed bath and beyond that sat in a steel tray cracked every cook I've don't and this one did not, so I like it so far.

Dough Recipe:  Bobby Flays recipe.  I noticed Friday that Bobby Flay has at least two recipes out there that are a bit different.  I have used this one on each cook and get 3 pizzas per batch of dough instead of the recommended 2 pizzas.

Pre-cook pile up!  And I was able to send a few people home with pizza in real pizza boxes I got on Amazon.  It was a cool touch to end the night.



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[apt323]

Nice cook and nice detail on the cook.  Thanks and keep the pizza info coming as I will be soon trying it and hopefully it will be somewhat successful.

Thanks again.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

@apt323 - Thanks!  I need to remember to have a designated photographer in the future!  I'm sure you will be successful.  It's a ton of fun and unless you totally ruin a pie, you wlil like your results even if you think there is room for improvement.  That is the best part of pizza cooks, having them come out pretty good but knowing they can get even better.

[jkolantern]

Great looking results and a nice detailed write-up.  Everything looks spot on and the smores idea was inspired!  Might have to steal that if I have people over and the KP is fired up.

[kettlecook]

Sounds like a great time for all, Mike. Pizzas look super to me and thanks for the write up. All the details are much appreciated, and I love the s'mores and the take home pizza boxes. My wife made a batch of the Bobby Flay dough today so tomorrow night is pizza night.


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