For what seems like forever, people have been touting the positives of Air Bake pizza pans. The pans are said to mimic the effects of cooking pizzas in a pizza parlor oven. Since we never made pizza at home when I was eating gluten, I never had a reason to find out what all the Air Bake pizza pan fuss was about. We made pizzas at home for two years before getting gluten-free pizza dining options in our area and still, we never had an Air Bake pan. Once we could have pizza out again, we stopped making them at home.
We eventually started making pizza at home again because I received some crust samples and mixes to review. Over the last year, I’ve made quite a few pizzas at home. Many of our pies tasted great and none were baked in an Air Bake pizza pan. The one negative thing I can say about the best tasting gluten-free crusts is that they don’t get crispy enough for me. Many crusts get crisp around the edges – some too much so – but the middle tends to sag a bit regardless of the crust used.
That all changed when Target put the nonstick Air Bake pizza pan on sale last month. The price of less than $10 was just too good to pass up. Finally, I’d get to see if all the hype about this magic pizza pan was actually true. The pan is huge compared to the personal sized Udi’s crust I put on it, but I’m glad to report that the pan definitely lived up to its reputation. The crust was browned evenly on the bottom – unlike any other gluten-free pizza we’ve ever made. Because two Udi’s crusts won’t fit on the pan well, I’m now looking into ordering two smaller Air Bake pans made by T-Fal.
It seems like making the best gluten-free dishes require not only specialty ingredients and products, they often call for specialty kitchen gadgets. The best breads are generally made in bread machines – or so I’ve been told. I never got around to getting that pricey gadget and now I’m so glad I didn’t since I’d rather buy Udi’s bread than bake my own any day. In the case of making gluten-free pizza crusts taste as good as possible, the Air Bake pizza pan is well worth the investment. If I’d been paying better attention, I would have bought this pan long ago!
For my first Air Bake pizza pan experiment, I baked the Udi’s pizza in a 425 degree oven. First, I cooked the crust for ten minutes with nothing on it. I removed the pan from the oven, added pesto sauce, turkey, black olives and cheese and baked the pie for another fifteen minutes. I also cooked the same crust on a plain pizza pan to see what the difference would be and was shocked that the difference in the crust texture was so drastic. Obviously, it helps if the crust itself tastes very good, but without question, the Udi’s pizza cooked with the Air Bake pan was the best gluten-free pizza I’ve ever made. I’ll be using the pan with the crust from Mozzarelli’s next time.
I still prefer going out for pizza to making my own, but with the fantastic Air Bake pan, we can have pizza parlor quality pies at home when we feel staying in for dinner. In fact, I might actually go to the trouble of making my own crust just so I can have a large 15” pizza for a change!
*Check out my Top 10 crust list if you’re still looking for the perfect gluten-free crust to suit your needs.
While we’re on the subject of special pans…. because GF hamburger and hot dog buns are so hard to come by where I live, I’ve tried making my own in the past with disastrous results. All of that “make a foil ring” stuff is tedious at best, so I eventually resigned myself to a life without burgers… And then, while flipping through an Avon catalog a couple of months ago, I saw something called a “muffin top pan” — six big, shallow wells, perfect for baking hamburger buns! Once it arrived, I mixed up a batch of Pamela’s bread mix, filled each well, let it stand for an hour (as per package directions) and baked. Voila! Soft, perfectly sized burger buns! While I was at it, I took the remaining dough and formed two “logs” in one of the troughs of a French bread/baguette pan and baked them along with the burger buns. Out came two delightful hot dog buns/hoagie rolls! I hadn’t had a hamburger in three years, until a recent excursion to the Outback in Roswell, and now I can indulge whenever I want without having to drive 50 minutes to do it! It’s the little things in the GF life that make me celebrate! 🙂
Oh – I know the pan you speak of or at least something similar. I don’t have one because I don’t like baking buns, but they had that type of pan pan at in the Solutions catalog. We use Katz rolls for buns now and they should be arriving at my local Ingles soon.