I had a very busy weekend, but I managed to do a few pizzas on Friday. First, let's look at the new equipment.
Behold! My new Lloyd 8" x 10" Detroit Style Pizza Pan:
My first impressions really are very good. From the moment that I held it in my hands, I could tell that this was a high-gauge, high quality pan. I was actually quite surprised that the inside of the pan resembled your standard, non-stick Teflon pan. The literature says that these pans are rated for up to 700F. The literature also points out that this is a commercial pan. As such, the focus is on full functionality, not aesthetics. Because of the processes they use, you can see all types of imperfections that happen during manufacturing such as weld marks, rivet marks, marks from the clamps used to manipulate the pan during construction, etc. They refer to these as "beauty marks":
Personally, I do not mind these at all. The pans are still beautiful to me. I've never owned a high-end commercial-grade pan before. This is easily the nicest, highest quality pan that I have ever owned. The lids are very nice to have, especially if you want to get several of these pans and stack them on top of one another while the dough is proofing. I also bought the 7" mini pizza peel. In all honesty, this is not something that really has much of a function. I'm not sure how often I'll use it. It's too wide to slip into the short side of the 8" x 10" pizza pan. I'll let you know if I find a good use for it. I'm excited to see how well this pan holds up over time and just whether or not they are worth the money. I can tell you they are definitely over-priced, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't buy them.
A word on the pans that I'm using: It should be noted that most of the cast-iron and baking pans are flared. Like all of my other pans, even though the Lloyd pan measures 8" x 10" at the top, the surface area on the bottom of the pan is only 6.25" x 8.25". The pan is actually much smaller than it seems in the pictures. Likewise, my Bayou Classic 8" x 8" cast-iron pan only has a bottom area measuring 7.5" x 7.5". Regardless, At 51.56 square inches and 56.25 square inches respectively, I was delighted to see that the ingredient proportions would be the same for both of them. I still think that this is the perfect size for a Detroit-Style pizza.
Now onto the pizza! I wanted to show a comparison between the products of my cast-iron Bayou Classic 8" x 8" pan and the Lloyd aluminum 8" x 10" pans. For both of the pizzas, I used about 10oz of Alton Brown's dough with a slow rise overnight in the refrigerator, and a 4-hour proof in the pan before baking. I also used about 7oz of my cheese mixture for each of the pizzas. The pizza oven was set between 600F and 650F.
My mom flew in for Mothers day, and so ended up making a much more boring cheese pizza for my wife and mom. For this, I used my tried and true cast-iron pan. Because I was not adding pepperoni, I decided to allow the crust and cheese to bake for 9 minutes, then add the sauce and allow an additional 3 minutes to finish. As usual with the cast-iron pan, the olive oil under the crust began to boil right about the 4-minute mark.
Here are the results:
I was eager to make a cheese pizza because I wanted to show a few things.
#1. You can see how the overall shape of the pizza is light and puffy in the center with a thin, jagged, crusty cheese perimeter. It's like a little square puffy pillow.
#2. This is the optimal way to apply your tomato sauce: One wide, thin dollop of sauce in the center of each individual slice of pizza. This obviously requires you to plan where you are going to cut your pizza ahead of time. Here you can clearly see that this pizza was made to have 4 pieces.
#3. You can see the caramelization of the cheese on the top. Even better when the pepperoni turns crunchy. This is one of the reasons that I have really enjoyed using the hotter pizza oven as an alternative to the cooler kitchen oven.
Overall, the crust looked beautiful. You can see the the thin crusty layer on the bottom that fried in the olive oil. Only a few millimeters in, you can see the light. fluffy-white center of the bread. I'm not sure why, but a small part of the crust did stick to the bottom of the pan this time. You can see on the bottom left where it ripped a little bit as I was releasing it from the pan with a metal spatula. My wife is not particularly fond of pizza, nor has she been particularly excited about my weekly pizza experiments. Even so, after wolfing down a bite of this pizza, she described it as "Great!".
Next I made my usual pepperoni pizza in my new Lloyd pan. I knew from previous attempts with cheap, thinner cake pans that I would probably need to alter the temperature, bake time, or both. I lowered the heat down just a smidge (closer to 600F). The layer of olive oil underneath the dough began to boil in under 2 minutes (less than half the time it takes with the cast-iron pan). I ended the first cheese-and-dough phase a minute early, allowing only 5 minutes. I piled the pepperoni on top and cautiously placed it back in for another 5 minutes. Being afraid of the blazing pizza oven now, I noticed that the pepperoni and cheese didn't get quite as much time to really crisp up and caramelize as I would have liked. It was still pretty good, just not ideal. I pulled the Lloyd-pan pizza out after 10 minutes of total bake time. Here were the results:
As you can see, even with the temperature lowered just a smidge and the cook time reduced by a total of 2 minutes, the crust was significantly darker all-around. The cheez-it crust around the perimeter of the crust was the most noticeable difference. Not only is it darker, but the smoother, non-stick finish of the Lloyd pan made it look almost glossy. Overall, the results from the Lloyd pan are not as visually appealing as with the cast-iron. The cast-iron pan seems to provide a buffer that slows down the heating process and spreads it more evenly. It is yet unclear to me if lowering the temperature when using a thinner pan will produce the same results. I will need to do at least 2 or 3 more cooks with it to properly experiment.
I also took the time to cut some cross-sections and document them in photos.
Here is a cross section of the cast-iron cheese pizza:
Here is a cross section of the pepperoni pizza done in the Lloyd pan:
You can see that the inside of the crust on both pizzas was fluffy, moist, and spongy regardless of the color on the outside. The inner consistency of each pizza was very close. I think that the cast-iron crust was a just a little bit fluffier. It felt a little bit lighter in the mouth. In the pictures, it looks like the sponge cells (air pockets) are slightly larger in the cast-iron pizza than the Lloyd pan pizza. Let me know if you think that I'm imagining it.
Despite being less visually appealing, the darker Lloyd pan pizza had a more satisfying "crunch" factor. Cutting the Lloyd pizza was a louder affair. Each bite had a little extra crunch to it. In some ways, it was preferable to the prettier cast-iron pizza. This only raises more questions! How can I split the difference for the perfect mix of crunchiness, flakiness, pillowy-ness, and sex appeal?
I wanted to take this opportunity to note that this is not a knock on the Lloyd pans. From what I can see, these pans are about as good as they come. Being a fan of cast-iron, I know how it is generally superior to even the most expensive all-clad pans when seasoned and utilized properly. Any comparisons are purely due to the fact that the cast-iron pans have significantly more mass and a better ability to store and distribute heat. My approach here has been a major departure from Detroit-Style tradition, and I will have to experiment more before I can claim any superiority over the cast-iron approach.
From here, I will continue my experiments with the aluminum pans vs the cast-iron pans. I might also try experimenting with some additional chemical leaveners to see if I can get just a bit of extra lift in the final bake process. Does anyone have any ideas about how to do that?
Until Next Week...
Behold! My new Lloyd 8" x 10" Detroit Style Pizza Pan:
My first impressions really are very good. From the moment that I held it in my hands, I could tell that this was a high-gauge, high quality pan. I was actually quite surprised that the inside of the pan resembled your standard, non-stick Teflon pan. The literature says that these pans are rated for up to 700F. The literature also points out that this is a commercial pan. As such, the focus is on full functionality, not aesthetics. Because of the processes they use, you can see all types of imperfections that happen during manufacturing such as weld marks, rivet marks, marks from the clamps used to manipulate the pan during construction, etc. They refer to these as "beauty marks":
Personally, I do not mind these at all. The pans are still beautiful to me. I've never owned a high-end commercial-grade pan before. This is easily the nicest, highest quality pan that I have ever owned. The lids are very nice to have, especially if you want to get several of these pans and stack them on top of one another while the dough is proofing. I also bought the 7" mini pizza peel. In all honesty, this is not something that really has much of a function. I'm not sure how often I'll use it. It's too wide to slip into the short side of the 8" x 10" pizza pan. I'll let you know if I find a good use for it. I'm excited to see how well this pan holds up over time and just whether or not they are worth the money. I can tell you they are definitely over-priced, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't buy them.
A word on the pans that I'm using: It should be noted that most of the cast-iron and baking pans are flared. Like all of my other pans, even though the Lloyd pan measures 8" x 10" at the top, the surface area on the bottom of the pan is only 6.25" x 8.25". The pan is actually much smaller than it seems in the pictures. Likewise, my Bayou Classic 8" x 8" cast-iron pan only has a bottom area measuring 7.5" x 7.5". Regardless, At 51.56 square inches and 56.25 square inches respectively, I was delighted to see that the ingredient proportions would be the same for both of them. I still think that this is the perfect size for a Detroit-Style pizza.
Now onto the pizza! I wanted to show a comparison between the products of my cast-iron Bayou Classic 8" x 8" pan and the Lloyd aluminum 8" x 10" pans. For both of the pizzas, I used about 10oz of Alton Brown's dough with a slow rise overnight in the refrigerator, and a 4-hour proof in the pan before baking. I also used about 7oz of my cheese mixture for each of the pizzas. The pizza oven was set between 600F and 650F.
My mom flew in for Mothers day, and so ended up making a much more boring cheese pizza for my wife and mom. For this, I used my tried and true cast-iron pan. Because I was not adding pepperoni, I decided to allow the crust and cheese to bake for 9 minutes, then add the sauce and allow an additional 3 minutes to finish. As usual with the cast-iron pan, the olive oil under the crust began to boil right about the 4-minute mark.
Here are the results:
I was eager to make a cheese pizza because I wanted to show a few things.
#1. You can see how the overall shape of the pizza is light and puffy in the center with a thin, jagged, crusty cheese perimeter. It's like a little square puffy pillow.
#2. This is the optimal way to apply your tomato sauce: One wide, thin dollop of sauce in the center of each individual slice of pizza. This obviously requires you to plan where you are going to cut your pizza ahead of time. Here you can clearly see that this pizza was made to have 4 pieces.
#3. You can see the caramelization of the cheese on the top. Even better when the pepperoni turns crunchy. This is one of the reasons that I have really enjoyed using the hotter pizza oven as an alternative to the cooler kitchen oven.
Overall, the crust looked beautiful. You can see the the thin crusty layer on the bottom that fried in the olive oil. Only a few millimeters in, you can see the light. fluffy-white center of the bread. I'm not sure why, but a small part of the crust did stick to the bottom of the pan this time. You can see on the bottom left where it ripped a little bit as I was releasing it from the pan with a metal spatula. My wife is not particularly fond of pizza, nor has she been particularly excited about my weekly pizza experiments. Even so, after wolfing down a bite of this pizza, she described it as "Great!".
Next I made my usual pepperoni pizza in my new Lloyd pan. I knew from previous attempts with cheap, thinner cake pans that I would probably need to alter the temperature, bake time, or both. I lowered the heat down just a smidge (closer to 600F). The layer of olive oil underneath the dough began to boil in under 2 minutes (less than half the time it takes with the cast-iron pan). I ended the first cheese-and-dough phase a minute early, allowing only 5 minutes. I piled the pepperoni on top and cautiously placed it back in for another 5 minutes. Being afraid of the blazing pizza oven now, I noticed that the pepperoni and cheese didn't get quite as much time to really crisp up and caramelize as I would have liked. It was still pretty good, just not ideal. I pulled the Lloyd-pan pizza out after 10 minutes of total bake time. Here were the results:
As you can see, even with the temperature lowered just a smidge and the cook time reduced by a total of 2 minutes, the crust was significantly darker all-around. The cheez-it crust around the perimeter of the crust was the most noticeable difference. Not only is it darker, but the smoother, non-stick finish of the Lloyd pan made it look almost glossy. Overall, the results from the Lloyd pan are not as visually appealing as with the cast-iron. The cast-iron pan seems to provide a buffer that slows down the heating process and spreads it more evenly. It is yet unclear to me if lowering the temperature when using a thinner pan will produce the same results. I will need to do at least 2 or 3 more cooks with it to properly experiment.
I also took the time to cut some cross-sections and document them in photos.
Here is a cross section of the cast-iron cheese pizza:
Here is a cross section of the pepperoni pizza done in the Lloyd pan:
You can see that the inside of the crust on both pizzas was fluffy, moist, and spongy regardless of the color on the outside. The inner consistency of each pizza was very close. I think that the cast-iron crust was a just a little bit fluffier. It felt a little bit lighter in the mouth. In the pictures, it looks like the sponge cells (air pockets) are slightly larger in the cast-iron pizza than the Lloyd pan pizza. Let me know if you think that I'm imagining it.
Despite being less visually appealing, the darker Lloyd pan pizza had a more satisfying "crunch" factor. Cutting the Lloyd pizza was a louder affair. Each bite had a little extra crunch to it. In some ways, it was preferable to the prettier cast-iron pizza. This only raises more questions! How can I split the difference for the perfect mix of crunchiness, flakiness, pillowy-ness, and sex appeal?
I wanted to take this opportunity to note that this is not a knock on the Lloyd pans. From what I can see, these pans are about as good as they come. Being a fan of cast-iron, I know how it is generally superior to even the most expensive all-clad pans when seasoned and utilized properly. Any comparisons are purely due to the fact that the cast-iron pans have significantly more mass and a better ability to store and distribute heat. My approach here has been a major departure from Detroit-Style tradition, and I will have to experiment more before I can claim any superiority over the cast-iron approach.
From here, I will continue my experiments with the aluminum pans vs the cast-iron pans. I might also try experimenting with some additional chemical leaveners to see if I can get just a bit of extra lift in the final bake process. Does anyone have any ideas about how to do that?
Until Next Week...
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