first time pizza!!

[fkrall]

+1. I don't think many people use it, and it takes some getting used to, but it heats evenly as advertised and will help produce an excellent, evenly baked pizza.

[fkrall]

06/2020 update--I recently discovered Stella Culinary and highly recommend Chef Jacob. I found the preceding link invalid. Its replacement has enabled me to form pizza dough properly, easily, and enjoyably (I'm still learning): https://stellaculinary.com/cooking-v...ch-pizza-dough. His NY Style dough is my go-to--retard it for 5 days and it'll blow your mind!

[Donw]

I’m with you on this. We haven’t used a stone since our first pizza on steel.

[JeffJ]

If you are going to be cooking pizzas on your kettle and have MCS and a little cash to burn, the Kettle Pizza accessory is great.

[RonB]

I haven't checked times, but it does seem a bit longer with the steel in the oven.

[Walt Dockery]

I vote for the Baking Steel mentioned above. It's great for pizza or bread, and can be used as a griddle if you are careful with the amount of oil. I leave mine in the oven all the time to help moderate the temp fluctuations in the oven. It also works great for baking a pizza in a kettle.

There are lots of great dough recipes on the net, but I suggest you use the one that you have working now. Once you are sure you have that one mastered, then you can try others. I like Kenji's recipe for pizza dough that is made in a food processor.

Are you making your own sauce? There are lots of good sauce recipes available also. Again, I like one from Kenji, but he just gives a general idea how to make it, so you would have to play with it to get it the way you want it.

Does leaving it in the oven all the time slow your preheat times?

[Flying Fur]

Another favorite book is Tony Gemignani's, The Pizza Bible. He outlines many different types of dough recipes and sauces with suggestions for a variety of toppings.

[Flying Fur]

Skip, what type of flour do you use? Being a pizza snob from way back, I find getting higher protein flour, e.g. Pendleton's Power Flour, General Mills' All Trumps Flour, King Arthur's Sir Lancelot, etc., to be increasingly difficult to purchase locally. Many are sold locally but only to restaurants not consumers.

[Thunder77]

It is a great read as well as a good cookbook!

[EdF]

Yep, you want the principles!

[Willy]

+1 on Forkish! Do read the whole book; don't just use the recipes.

[Thunder77]

I also would recommend Ken Forkish's Elements of Pizza, if you don't already have it. Okay, I'm done.

[Thunder77]

I'm going against the grain here. I have not tried a baking steel, and I have nothing against them at all. ( Except the cost!)
But I use this pizza stone, and I really like it a lot.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DIC2SA2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Thunder77]

Chef Jacob Burton of Stella Culinary has a good video on shaping pizza dough. I use this technique a lot.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiCp5KElc7bAhUBxYMKHUCCCSwQtwIIJzAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFR2Teqs4qc4&usg=AOvVaw20Rk_nW6v_1OmLUvUGjzTT

[Thunder77]

Skip, you are spot on! I use this recipe every time I make pizza dough. It is so easy, and sooo good!