My son and I came home after spending a few days at the lake engaged in frivolous pastimes and various meat comas. We were greeted with family size take-and-bake pizzas from Papa Murphy’s that SWMBO purchased on sale. It had been awhile since I’d cooked one of these on Bubba Ho-Keg and I quickly discovered that something had changed since the last time I’d done this.
All of the pizza stones were broken. And we have no pizza pans that are big enough for a family size pizza. Undeterred, I forged ahead and put the pizzas on the BGE diffuser using the coated paper that they get cooked on in the oven. First up was a Hawaiian pizza. Can someone explain to me what Canada has to do with Hawaii?
I purposely kept the temperature down to about 500°F in the hopes that the paper wouldn’t burn. Didn’t work. The edges that hung out over the BGE diffuser turned to char in less than 8 minutes and ruined a portion of the pizza that was about the difference between a family size and a large. The rest of the pizza crust wasn’t even crispy; it’s a good thing we have kids around that will eat almost anything.
The second pizza went on while still in the paper and at about the 4 minute mark was removed from the paper and put on the largest pan we have. The edge of the crust hung over the pan by about 2 inches all the way around. Here’s a picture taken right before I pulled it off.
As you can see fro the pictures, portions of the pizza are drooping into the fire; trust me when I say that those parts were charred beyond my ability to enjoy them. Once again, we lost pretty much the difference between the family size and a large.
But not to despair, the meal was saved by dessert. Peach crumble (same topping as the cherry and apple crumbles but with fresh peaches as the star attraction) was being prepped, and after overcoming some misgivings from the spouse, I finally convinced her to not heat up the oven (and the house) since I had a perfectly good fire going on Bubba Ho-Keg.
As you can see, this turned out pretty good, and since I didn’t wait around for Bubba Ho-Keg to get the heat turned down it was ready to eat in about 20 minutes. 500°F fires will do that for baked goods…
As usual, it was spooned over vanilla ice cream and made a wonderful end to an otherwise disappointing dinner. The moral of this story is either buy pizzas that fit your pans or get bigger pans.
Notice I said pans. We try not to think about buying more stones around here. They don’t seem to last very long…
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Mmmm, peach crumble on the smoker…
excuse my ignorance but I have never had a Pappa Murphy’s (I don’t think we have them in Canada)…those pizzas look like they have a decent amount of toppings for a take & bake or did you add some of your own. A few too many (okay, alot too many) black olives but the rest looks pretty good…except for the burnt edges.
And I dont know what Canada has to do with Hawaiian pizza…it’s weird…I would rather have pepperoni & pineapple. Random, I know.
I’m still trying to figure out why more Canadian bacon is consumed in the US than in Canada, much less what it is doing on a Hawaiian pizza. Papa Murphy’s is a US-based take-and-bake pizza chain; I don’t recall seeing any during my visits to BC. Their toppings are pretty generous, the sauce is ok, and when the dough is cooked properly the crusts aren’t too bad. I’ve had pretty good luck on on the grill with them in the past, but yesterday not so. I think we’ve become spoiled by making our own…
Hey!
Papa Murphy’s has 7 locations in B.C., Canada
#104- 18789 Fraser Hwy, Surrey
#103-7592 Vedder Rd., Chilliwack
3507 32nd street, Vernon
#220-1210 Summit Drive, Kamloops
#101A-2111 Main St., Penticton
#45-301 Hwy 33 West, Kelowna
#102- 2127 Louie Dr, Westbank
Check us out!
That’s good to know, I’m sure our readers from the “other Vancouver” will find this useful.
Lifes a journey of learning experiences – at least mine is. The tops sure looked good.
The tops and centers weren’t bad (at least as far as store-bought pizzas with burnt edges go). I think we’ve become more than a little spoiled as those we make ourselves always seem to turn out so much tastier than anything we’ve brought home from a store or pizza parlor.
The crumble looks amazing and the pizza looks tasty despite the crust debacle.
I have gone through a bunch of pizza stones as well and finally bought a stack of them from Ross with metal stands for $5 each. I do have a big green egg stone that has never broken but at $45 each I would cry if I dropped it.
Next time you might try putting the platesetter for indirect heat and put the pizza directly on a normal grate above – it works well if your pizza isn’t too floppy!
The problem is that the BGE plate setter doesn’t fit in Bubba Ho-Keg like it does in a BGE. The grill would have to rest on top of either the plate setter or the plate setter legs (if you turned it upside down, and I don’t want to run the risk of damaging that plate setter (not a cheap accessory).
I was having some luck with the last stone by ditching the plate setter and setting it up of the grill using the stainless steel carry handle that came with one of them. At least right up to the point where the stone slipped out of my hand and broke on the concrete. I will check out the local Ross to see if they have a similar deal on the pizza stones; at $5 each it won’t bother me as much if I break one.