Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I tried this and I had a few problems I'm hoping someone can correct...
1. My pan got WAY hot on the burner and turned ashen in the middle. The burner coil coating flaked off when I removed the pan to put it under the broiler. Maybe I left it on too long (25 minutes or so)?
2. The dough was really difficult to manage being so thin and flimsy. It was hard to maneuver accurately, and dealing with such extreme heat, I decided to put the pie on the upside down skillet before placing it under the broiler. It cooked while I was holding it.
3. 1 minute 35 seconds under the broiler was maybe too long as the bottom turned to coal.
4. Have to say, all this aside, that was one delicious pie. Willing to try again with a few adjustments, provided I didn't ruin my pan or my stove coil.

I just saw this posting yesterday and tried it tonight. I used Mark Bittman's Basic Pizza Dough. I used 2 cups KA bread flour and 1 cup KA white whole wheat flour. I heated my cast iron skillet in the oven while it was preheating (I don't quite understand why you would put it on the stove and then put it in the oven). Then I slid my pizza in and my gosh! This was gorgeous. Thin in the middle with a nice thick brown crust. The bottom could hold its own and it was cooked so fast. I will never go back to cooking pizza on a cold pan again at a low heat!

Just a note: you can buy griddles designed to cover two eyes of the stove at once. They are reversible, with grill marks on one side and a flat surface on the other. If you used one of these, you could do 2 8-inch pies at once!!! Search "cast iron griddle double reversible" on Amazon, and you'll see some good results. Many are also available for about $20 at Macy's and the like during specials. You can find them at ross and other discounters also.

Homemade dough is *not* a pain. I use Mark Bittman's recipe/technique (I found it in "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian"), which uses a food processor to knead the dough. If you can measure ingredients and push the button on a food processor, you can have excellent dough in as little as an hour. The actual dough-making takes all of 5 minutes, then you just let it rise for an hour (or more, if you can spare it). Roll it out and throw it into the oven, and voila, a damn tasty, perfectly textured crust as thick or thin as you like it.

Try it and I swear you'll never want to buy a pre-made crust (or pizza) again. And it's at least as pain-free as the skillet/broiler finagling.

I made this last night with very good results. Having a thin crust is imperative--because I didn't stretch it out enough, it was slightly doughy. Still delicious, though. AND quick.

I instantly upgraded my pizza with a combination of having visited Luzzo's in Manhattan a couple of weeks ago and coming here.

The cast-iron pan idea wouldn't work for me because I'm too lazy and poor to go out and buy one big enough, but putting the pizza stone one level down from the broiler and pre-broiling the oven for one hour worked like a charm!

I had previously been par-cooking the crust so that the middle wouldn't be soggy (which it always was, in the days when I cooked it 20" away from the broiler) but this time I did just like at Luzzo's--sauce, mozza, toppings on the raw dough--and it turned out brilliantly! I had never been able to get any kind of a char before on the bottom but obviously the broiler heat must have baked the stone beyond 500, because this pizza only took 3.5 minutes where before it was 8 or even 9.

Molto bene!!!

No -- you did say to make them thin. I just was being lazy -- in part because I didn't let my dough come up to room temp before shaping. The dough wasn't pliable enough, so I just gave up when I stretched it to a certain point. By the time I did the second pie, my second round of dough was nice and warm and workable.

I also made my pies bigger b/c I had the pizza stone to work with -- also because I was being lazy. I wanted to make only 2 bigger pies instead of many little ones.

OK. I tried hacking the Paupers' hack last night. Speculation in the thread above was that you could try a similar technique with a baking stone.

I superheated mine on the gas broiler in my stove. (I should have tried Brian Spangler's trick of keeping the oven door open, though.)

So once I had the stone superheated for an hour or so, I figured I'd transfer it to under the broiler. (I have a gas oven whose broiler is beneath the oven chamber, so I was preheating the stone on the floor of the oven chamber, hence the need to move it.)

So I go to move it into the sliding drawer thing so it will rest beneath the broiler -- and CRAPPO! -- the stone is too wide/long to fit into the broiling pan area. Gargh.

But ... wait ... !! It's just the right size to fit edge to edge across the drawer. It can still fit into the broiler area with about 1.5 to 2 inches clearance. Hmm...

Yes. I think I can fit a pie in there and have it clear the space. So I slide it on there and hope the crust doesn't spring up enough that I can't get the pie back out. Long story short ... my first pie just barely makes it out, getting its far end caught on the overhang of the broiler compartment. I was able to salvage it, though.

Seems that I need to make my crust thinner. There was a noticeable "gumline" in the pie. Sounds just like it is -- a gummy, undercooked area. I adjusted my next pie to make it thinner, and it came out much better. I'm still not absolutely pleased with my result (I never am), but I think this technique has potential.

Pix of the results here: Broiled Pizza

I have a 13-14 inch cast-iron crepe griddle my mom brought me back from Paris. It would work great for this. This is one of those "Doh" moments (no pun intended) when I think, why didn't I think of that.

Good question, k_d. I'll ask the Paupers and report back here.

Hi Adam, the link is http://www.sugoodsweets.com/blog/2007/03/skillet-pizza

Trader Joe's has great pizza dough for a buck - whole wheat, regular or "with herbs" - cheaper than Domino's and more likely to be chemical-free. This cast-iron skillet idea is genius, so I'll have a reason to pick up some of TJ's dough next time I'm there!

Hey, I've been using a cast iron skillet for pizza for two years! I even blogged about it here: http://www.sugoodsweets.com/blog/2007/03/skillet-pizza. Dang it, if I didn't procrastinate with my post, I would get all the credit.