Everybody Wants Perfect Pan Pizza

So you want perfect pan pizza, but you end up with insipid crust and over-baked tops. As usual, the problem is not always the recipe. I tried variations on pizza crust ad nauseum with little change in the final result. I added oil, didn't add oil. I added sugar, didn't add sugar. I tried everybody's variation on the crust.

Happiness came when I changed the method. Recipes are the individual variations that please the eater. The method is how the cook execute the recipe. Once the method is learned success naturally follows.

As with most home cooking, the problem lies in the heat. If you have ever looked at restaurant pizza ovens they have thick stone bottoms whose sole purpose is to store heat. The basic problem with pizza is that you have a bread dough smeared with moist ingredients. The bread want to cook into a lovely, yeasty yumminess while all of the pizza sauce and moisture from the cheese slows that down. Water can simply absorb massive amounts of heat. Sometimes faster than we can add it. We have to change our dynamic.

Here is one of my larger iron skillets. It is about 14 inches across and weighs over 8 pounds. This is my pizza pan. It put it into a 450 degree oven about 45 minutes before I want to bake the pizza. All of that iron will cook my crust completely while the topping gently browns.

 Here is my oven set up. I have moved one rack to the lowest position and the other to the highest position to get it out of the way. Rack positioning is critical for most baking. By heating the pan and baking the pizza on the lowest rack, I am maximizing the amount of heat that hits the bottom of the pan and minimizing the amount of heat on the top.

I put a thin crust (with limited toppings) high in the oven.

 Here is the pizza dough "rolled out." You will notice all of the dimpling. Those dimples come from my finger tips. No actual rolling pin was used. This is a fairly "wet" dough that is very pliant.

Sometimes I will stretch the dough out to just the same size as the bottom of the pan and carry the toppings right out to edge. This will give a nice carmelization out on the perimeter that some of my eaters like. Other times I will over size the dough so that when placed in the pan the dough goes up the sides a bit. This gives the dough more holding power to keep more toppings in place.

Just before putting the dough in the pan, I add a little (2 TSP) cold oil and swirl it around. This keeps the dough from sticking and fries the bottom just a bit.

 The dough is now in the pan and it is already cooking before I can even get the toppings added. Bubbles will start to form and the edges will sizzle.

One of the things that I enjoy at this point is placing my fingers on the dough. I can feel the yeast kicking in to overdrive before it dies from the heat.

The Pizza Cooking on the Bottom Rack

Here the pizza is done. The crust color doesn't come out very well in this picture, but it is the same color as the crust below.

The finished bottom. This is a lovely pizza with a great crust and gooey, yummy topping.

Adam's Pan Pizza Crust

Makes 1 12 inch pan pizza

8 ounces of bread flour

1 1/2 cups of water

1/2 tsp of yeast

5/8 tsp of salt

1. Whisk together dry ingredients.

2. Add water and knead until silky and smooth. About 5 minutes with my Kitchenaid Mixer on #2.

3. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

4. Allow to double in size.

This dough gets a better texture if refrigerated before hand and placed cool into the hot iron.

Cook for enjoyment. Eat for life.

Making Hash Browns

Who doesn't love hash browns? Maybe I should say, "Who doesn't love good hash browns?"

If you go out to eat, sometimes you will get those nasty, frozen food service, hash browns that look like they are designed to pop into a toaster. Perhaps, you get up and go for breakfast at your local diner and get those heavy, greasy things that drip with excess oil. If you are brave, you have made them at home and had them turn out grey and gelatinous. 

Well hash browns are surprisingly easy. It is all about some simple techniques.

Here you see the beginnings. That is two small russet potatoes that I have grated with one small chopped onion. That works out to be 6 servings, or 4 larger ones. A little grated potato goes much further than you think.

There is lot of water in potatoes. To illustrate I have weighed the potatoes and onion. As you can see, they come in just over 1 pound.

The secret to perfect hash browns is getting rid of all of that water. It does nothing for the taste or texture. I put my potato mixture in a hand towel and twist and squeeze until I can get nothing more out.

When you have wrung it dry, the mixture will feel light and fluffy with very little stickiness to it. You may even wonder if it will form that pleasant patty that you associate with you perfect hash browns, but we got rid of water, not starch. The cooking process will bring that starch out leaving those air gaps in the matrix of potato and onion that gives the crispy potato taste that we long for.

All of that squeezing has dropped the weight of mixture by over 4 ounces. That is 4 ounces of water that was fighting me as I tried to crisp the potatoes.

I like to use iron skillets for most of my cooking. I turned the heat on low under this pan while I was grating my potato and onion. I want the pan thoroughly hot. I want the handle warm. too many home cooks do not understand the use of heat in cooking. They turn a pan on too high right before they want to use so parts of the pan are actually cool.

Instead, we are using all of that iron as a heat sink. We want to store heat in the pan. Then when we transfer our potato mixture to the pan, the heat will quickly heat the potatoes. The quick heat transfer prevents the potatoes from graying.

In the heated pan above, just before I add the potatoes, I add a little oil (about an eighth of an inch). The oil helps transfer the heat quickly. The weight of the pan insures that there is enough residual heat in the skillet to keep the oil hot, which prevents greasiness.

When the edges of the potatoes loose their translucence, you can use your spatula to look under the corner. 

• If the hash browns are browning unevenly add a little more oil. 
• If the onions are darkening faster than the potato, turn the heat down a bit.
• If there is no browning, turn the heat up.

Cook for enjoyment. Eat for life.