frozen pizzas

[PizzaJNKY]

Yesterday, I got my oven up to 800 during final stages of cure. I haven't even cooked in it yet, so this morning I went out and bought some frozen pizzas! Calfornia pizza kitchen's Margherita and Sicilian flavor just to see what my Pompeii can do. Man I can't wait to taste the results.

Any one else ever try cooking frozen pizzas in their oven?

Oh yeah, I also just bought a book called "The bread bakers apprentice." Since I've never really baked before, hopefully this book can give me a solid foundation.

[PizzaPolice]

Well.. I imagine that your frozen pizza will thaw around the edges first, in about 40 seconds. Next, the center will become warm & gummy. One minute 20 seconds; As the edges start to brown up, you'll see the pizza smoke a bit. You'll think the edges are the cause. NOPE. The bottom has just become involved. The sugar & oil in the commercial dough has just met it's smoking point and is now starting to char. Your frozen pepperonis are a little sweaty now and you think.. ..Hmmm another few minutes. Of course, you will be wrong and the whole thing will suddenly heave, bend, twist and spit. You'll exclaim some appropriate phrases such as "what the..." "holy sh...." Hopefully, in this one minute fifty-five second venture, you'll have gathered the sense not to throw water on the now fire engulfed former pizza and merely scoop it up with peel and deposit it on the coal bank

[BrianShaw]

Originally Posted by PizzaPolice

Well.. I imagine that ...

So, um, how do you, errr, know so much about baking, ahem, frozen pizza?

[CajunKnight]

I wouldnt advise bringing it to full heat for frozen lol. If I were you I would work between 400-500F and follow instructions on the box somewhat. I would also let it come to room temp first (about 30 minutes on the counter) Good luck with it. Remember though, this is not a good test of how your oven will work.

[jet]

I don't have a wood-fired pizza oven yet. I've been cooking pizzas on a pizza stone setup in my grill. I do the opposite of cooking frozen pizzas in the pizza oven: I cook extra pizzas on the grill and then freeze them.

When we need a quick meal, we'll heat a couple home-made frozen pizzas up in the normal oven or toaster oven. I also bring home-made frozen pizzas to work and heat them in the toaster oven.

John

[gjbingham]

Funny stuff Ppolice. I've got tears in my eyes. I can't even imagine tossing a carboard crusted, processed cheese pizza in the oven. Kind of sacrilegeous. Ok, I've considered it, for a second or two, but never come close to actually committing a violent sodomy of my wfo.

John, hang in there. Visit you're local WFO pizzaria. Once hooked, you'll give up your taste for those nasties.

[Frances]

Good thread !


PizzaJNKY, after all that I think you owe it to us to give it a try - at full heat!! And then tell us if Pizza Police is speaking from experience or not.... Enquiring minds want to know...

[david s]

If you've got a lot of people to feed the frozen bases with your own toppings is a pretty good compromise. They are so fast to prepare and handle. If you like you can make some of your own bases as well to show folk how much better they are. With ready made bases there is no waiting for someone to get the next base ready.

[PizzaPolice]

Well... I was going for the Joe Friday-esque type of explanation as evidenced in "one Fatal Second". YouTube - Dragnet Jack Webb "One Fatal Second" Classic Speech 1967

As for my personal experience, I must confess. I attempted a regular NY style dough that was oven ready. I had leftover dough from a NY style conventional oven bake. (yes... I go both ways.) I dressed it moderately and was careful to keep a close watch on it.
That experience was more IN Your Face and immediate. Kinda like the first time a 9 year old lights a whole book of matches. Huge pucker factor. The damn thing literally caught fire. It was ceremoniously folded and placed on the fire.
The pizza gods were annoyed but reluctantly ate it.

[brokencookie]

Just an idle curiosity question. Many forum members routinely freeze hand-made dough balls. What if you took the standard ( and excellent) Forno Bravo dough recipe and made pizza rather than dough balls. Does anyone think this would work ?


Bruce