Baking Pizza on the woodburner

Today we experimented with baking pizza on the woodburner...and we were pleasantly surprised...with a little adjustments, we can have pizza that tastes just like it was baked in the oven...

First I mixed up the dough

Pizza Dough
4 cups flour
1/8 cup oil
2 1/4 cup warm water
3 tablespoons of yeast (one package)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Add sugar and yeast to warm water...let sit for a couple of minutes...Add salt and sugar to flour...stir in yeast water...I like to mix with the dough mixer, but this can be mixed by hand. For the end part I knead by hand for a few minutes. You don't want the dough to be sticky, so add flour or water as needed.

Let dough sit for 15 minutes, then divide dough into two parts.

While you are waiting, assemble you toppings. Pictured below is toppings from our pantry....canned bacon, canned pepperoni, canned sausage, canned pickled sweet and jalapeno peppers, frozen green/red peppers, an onion, and store bought paste (you actually need 2 cans ) and black olives, and a package of homemade spaghetti seasonings. I forgot to take a picture of our canned pineapple and the dehydrated mushrooms and the frozen mozarella cheese....but we put those on too...

Take the 2 cans of paste and put in a bowl with the seasonings....add water until you have a nice smooth sauce to spread on your pizza.

Spread dough on to two 12 inch cast iron skillets...I used one griddle with enamel coating...

Now we start putting on the toppings...

Sauce

Cheese

Finished pizza on the woodburner

I worried that the topping wouldn't cook on top, or that the mushrooms wouldn't rehydrate, so I found an all metal lid and covered one pizza and the other I placed aluminum foil over the top of it.

Now here is where I erred... It takes 1/2 hour in the gas oven to cook a pizza....so I thought I would bake it for at least 45 minutes on the woodburner....I set the timer and went on the computer and didn't check it until 45 minutes was up...I know better than that....I think the New Year fried my brain...the pizza certainly did bake....but just a little more crispy than what we like....we like a softer crust...but still edible...Next time I will only cook it for 1/2 hour...just like the oven...But overall it was a success and now we know that you can bake your own "pan" pizza on the top of a woodburner.

Lets EAT!