Can anyone come up with a good reason why I shouldn't attempt to make pizzas in a cast iron frying pan with a lid as a make shift oven on top of an open top braai ( I'm in Africa so I can call it that)
Unfortunately buying a Unni isn't going to be possible.
Give it a go - you can't die trying, the worst you can manage is a not-great pizza. If the lid is cast iron too try getting that as hot as possible before you start so that you've got good heat all around and don't over-load it with toppings, especially the cheese.
Aye there will just be universal dissapointment from the 12 lads that want pizza haha.
Going to give it a punt but it will be hard to hide my **** ups 🙂 and ingredients are expensive ere.
Maybe next week I'll go see the welder see if he cant make me a wee box out of scraps to immitate an oven on top of the braai
Give it a whirl - they might works as pizzas they might not - you could just make flatbreads and put the ingredients on top as a sort of open sandwich if they don't work out as pizzas straight away.
As I said - don't overload them and probably keep the pizza itself small relative to the pan
Put something in the pan to lift the pizza and stop it from getting "fried"
IMHO its better to use a pitta bread and top that thinly with stuff than try and do that - It never worked that well as an oven when i tried it on a hob but it was not a complete disaster either but the cheese wont really melt
Crack on. Did it in Nepal. What's the alternative?
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mine never looked that good 😳
Alternative is no pizza. We have gas hobs and the braai only.
To use pittas I would first have to make pittas .....
I'm also going to make naans in a similar fashion later interested week.
I was hoping if I got the pan hot enough prior to putting the pizza in the residual heat would heatghe inside quickly again to cook the toppings
nans are traditionally cooked in a pan not an oven so they will work - no flat bread is
Pitta is just an unleavened base so the dough cooks quicker
For authenticity you want heat from beneath (hence a stone or a heavy based pan - several Uuni users on their FB page are recommending a steel base i.o stone because it reheats faster) and then flames above for the topping. But no reason why you can't use the braai to give a hot base and then create heat above as you suggested. Caution would be that you have the two at suitable temps because if you need longer to melt and cook the toppings that it takes to cook the base, then you'll get a burnt base and that's not nice. Which is where flames come in because they're instant heat, whereas once you take the lid off then you'll lose temp fast.
But as others say - give it a go, and go easy on the topping so they do cook as fast as possible.
I've made the Jamie Oliver quick pizza in a frying pan using self raising flour (I think it was self raising flour), we love homemade pizzas in our house and this frying pan pizza was pretty good so I'd say give it a go, I had to finish it under the grill for one which was overloaded with topping
If they look a bit rubbish then just fold it up and call it a calzone.
Good idea blader.
Doughs prooving just now. Not quite my standard 12 hr but I doubt the guys will notice haha.
My sauce is made and my mozzerlla is grated.
If it works I'll be bringing back anchovies from the UK next hitch !
I reckon they'll be good, crack on.
Edit - no access to oxy-acet burning gear? That'd sort yet toppings....
Pizza Hut fry their crap. Hopefully you can do better.
Well it works.
I'm not gonna call it a pizza it's a bit more like a topped naans. But it's better than the take aways here.
It's a thumbs up from the lads
Good idea. it'll work, no problems. Get a nice thick cast iron pan hot and use a bit of self raising flour in the dough to puff up the base.
I thought naans were traditionally cooked stuck on the side of a tandoori?
they are But lacking a tandoor...well.
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Looks good. Id eat it (but that's hardly high praise!
How about getting the pan hothothot then whack it in lid on. Coals on top.
Following this just for the recepie that includes Syrup in the base..
Get the pan hot hot hot, then put the pizza on the lid and put the pan over it (as in cook it in the pan upside down).
You need heat from above and below for good pizza.
braai
Saw this on the gas/charcoal thread. Assumed you'd massively misspelt "grill". Googled. Is educated.
My understanding is the lid will stop moisture escaping so the base will never cook well. You need the bottom hot enough to cook the base quickly (and let the moisture escape) and you need some heat around the top to cook the ingredients. To get your setup to work, I would imagine you need a much bigger lid suspended over the pan to trap rising heat and cook the toppings.
im in africa so i get away with it thenorthwind
Ill stick with calling them topped flat breads. base needed more salt and a little sugar but given i am measuring by eye and texture it will be a learning curve.
gonna do naans next time the saffas light the braai .
Can give you a couple bags 1kg of caputo 00 flour if you fancy your chances going through customs next time you're going out.
I need to come see you and get some of that for my home pizzas. These lads can suffer with the west African bread flour. It's course as ****.