Wolfy, below is the Deep Dish Pizza I made in a D.O. this past weekend. I used one ring on the bottom and 2 1/2 rings on the top to obtain a high heat in the 450 degree range. No problem with the oven temp, that worked out great, but my internal oven arrangement was flawed.
As the first time ever cooking a Deep Dish Pizza in a D.O., I thought I'd raise my 10" deep dish pan off the bottom of the oven with a trivet to help circulate the heat around the pizza pan. During the baking process, the top was getting done, but the bottom was not getting the crispness I was looking for. I ended up removing the top coals, and adding a fresh hot ring around the bottom perimeter for the last 10 minutes or so, and that got me the crispy bottom I was looking for and the pizza turned out great. Next time, no trivet and just trust the coals on the bottom to do their job, just like when baking bread or biscuits.
Photo courtesy of Mannlicher
That pizza looks terrific, Greg!
The 'ring method' really does make for evenly done baked goods....the proof is in the pudding, as they say, by the perfectly finished pizza you show in that picture!
The problem of a less-than-crispy bottom crust usually occurred when I baked a pizza in a pizza pan instead of directly on the bottom of the oven. Problem there is, I don't like to do that for a couple of reasons. Number 1....I don't like cutting pieces of pizza right in the oven....it's not only hard on knives & a nicely seasoned oven bottom, but awkward to serve, too. Number 2.....I like having the oven vacant for the next pizza in line to be baked.
HINT: Use a little hook made from a piece of coat hanger wire to hook the edge of the pan so you can get hold of it with a gloved hand to remove from the D.O.
12" pizzas are usually what I bake, but pizza pans designed for 12" pizzas won't fit in a 12" Dutch oven, however most all 12" pizza pans WILL fit perfectly in a standard 14" Lodge. The biggest problem with using pizza pans in the D.O. is exactly what you ran into......it takes longer to brown & crisp up the bottoms. The top looks perfect, but the bottom, while 'done,' is not as perfect looking as the top. There are a couple of ways to remedy that situation. As you noted, the bottom ring of coals burns down considerably from the 10 minute pre-heat period to the end of the cooking period. You can get by with that if the pizza is baked directly on the oven floor, but not in a pizza pan....even if it rests directly on the bottom of the oven with no trivet in place. As the coals diminish to about half size, I just push a few more in under the edge to keep the spacing down to zero and the heat from dropping under the oven. The mostly-spent old briquettes are mostly ash, anyway.
Another thing we've done (which works, but is not as handy) is to pre-bake the crust for about 5 minutes on the pile of coals that we will eventually arrange into the bottom and top rings. That gives us a much hotter oven-bottom to start with and it gives the bottom of the crust a head start before the toppings are added. After the prepared pizza sauce & toppings are added, the normal rings are arranged, the oven's bottom-heat settles down and baking can be resumed for a normal baking time. I think it's more of a pain in the wahzoo to screw around doing it that way, though.
Pushing a few newly-lit coals under the outside edge halfway through the baking period works just as well and is, by FAR, the easiest way to go.
You really have NOTHING to complain about, my friend......your baked goods look outstanding! It took me a loooong time to get stuff coming out of my ovens that looked like that.
I hope you can gather a couple more pictures of your biscuits and cinnamon rolls from your camp this last weekend and add them to this thread. It would demonstrate just how well the 'ring method' works for those of us that use it!
