Cover the bottom of the pan with foil and bring half way up pan to keep batter from leaking
onto oven floor.
When that sheet pan full of vegetables hits the
super-heated oven floor — which, in most ovens, is where all of the heat comes from — they get an immediate hard sear which jump - starts the caramelization process, much as they would in a pre-heated sauté pan.
Place a thick rimmed cookie sheet or cast iron pan
on oven floor or lower shelf.
If you can't put it on
the oven floor, just put it on a low rack.
I used a 12 - cup bundt and while the cake didn't overflow and disembowel on
my oven floor, it did crater a tad which was likely due to overfilling the pan.
Came back a little less than an hour later — dough exploded, all over the oven racks, all over
the oven floor — gak!
The lip is key to keep juices from spilling onto
your oven floor.
The source of the smoke was a puddle of butter that had leaked from the pan onto
the oven floor.
They are known for their thin - crust pizzas baked directly on a hot brick
oven floor, and their gluten - free pizza crust (purchased from Still Riding Pizza in Connecticut), is also thin, and is made on a special elevated surface so that it is not touching the same oven floor as the other pizzas.
Set a large shallow pan of water on
the oven floor (I forgot to do this step and mine turned out fine).
I did have an issue with the butter oozing out and pooling on
the oven floor, and having to clean the oven.
Essentially, you're turning
the oven floor into a large, flat, high - heat burner, and your sheet tray into a large, flat sauté pan.
Toss these vegetables on to a rimmed baking sheet and place the baking sheet DIRECTLY ON
THE OVEN FLOOR.
Continue to roast on
the oven floor, taking a peek every 5 minutes or so until they are roasty and caramelized and just al denté.
Tip: We recommend finishing a filled pie directly on the bottom of
the oven floor, or on a pizza stone.