Pizza Oven Thread

[Tony Angelino]

Thought I'd start this - anybody got one at home? I have a small (basically the cheapest domesitic metal built one you can get) and am getting into it. Best thing I have done so far is to buy frozen dough from a local 'Italian' bakery, works out at around 20p for a dough ball so cheap as chuff. It comes in individual pizza size balls so defrost, bring to room temperature and away you go.

I have no issues getting the oven up to temperature (900 degrees ish) in 20-30 mins or so but my issue is keepign it at this level. Was told by the salesman that kindling is used to get the fire up to temp but then logs are used to maintain it for cooking. Really struggle to get my logs catching, hopefully it's because they aren't seasoned properly or have got damp.

Other than costing a few quid to run becuase of the kindling, it's brilliant. Pizza cooked in under 2 mins, minimal toppings are the way to go. Tricky bit is making them quick enough!

Anybody else have one?

[Tony Angelino]

Johnniem said:

I have one; a full sized beastie and I love it! I have also recently heard of the frozen pizza dough thing and I cant tell you how pleased I was. The one thing that annoyed me was that the dough I was making always failed to rise and gave a doughy effect when cooked, rather than that slightly raised finish. I shall be checking the frozen stuff out soon!

I crank mine up with hardwood. It takes around 2.5 - 3 hours to get up to temperature then the pizza will cook in around 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Once the pizzas are cooked I shove a casserole or two into the oven overnight and by morning, lunch is ready. We have done roasts as well. It is such a versatile thing and with an added barbecue slapped on the side we crack out a few rottisserie'd joints whilst we are at it. It is generally a huge faff to get the oven going enough to cook pizza but, believe me, it's worth it!

Enjoy the results. Is there a chance to wander into any italian pizza place and buy dough do you think? Never tried but I may just pop into pizza express to ask.

JM

Mine's only a mini one, one pizza at a time job and loses heat fairly rapidly - can only cook pizza during a fairly short window after firing it up (partly my issue) but it doesn't really take any charging and is a good introduction for me. I'm going to give it this summer and if the novelty hasn't worn off will look at upgrading to something a touch more substantial, maybe something stone/brick but not quite as big as yours sounds.

Strange you should say about emailing restaurants, I sent about a dozen emails out yesterday to all the local Italian restaurants. So far I've had 3-4 'no, sorry's' but am still waiting for a few to come back to me. I'm pretty happy with what I am getting from the bakery in Leeds, but wanted to know if I could improve further. If you're stuck and cannot be arsed with making dough and have none in the freezer the Gino De Campo ready made stuff is pretty good, not cheap but fine for short notice.

Will try get some pictures up of the set up and the finished pizza.

[Tony Angelino]

giblet said:

This thread is useless without pictures chaps! I want a proper oven but sadly they don't seem cheap. The leadtime on the Roccbox means it's not really an option so the Uuni2s looks like the only suitable alternative. That being said I rarely use my Weber charcoal bbq as it is and I still need to get round to making a tandoor.

[Tony Angelino]

giblet said:

That looks good. Any info on the make/model/price?

this seems like a good halfway between the Uuni/Roccbox and a fully fledged oven but still works out at around £750

£650 from memory, specialist shop near Barnsley if you live any where near. Will get all details at weekend and post. Cheers.

[Tony Angelino]

Kermit power said:

I'm staggered at the number of people on here who seem willing to spend a load of cash on a pizza oven but then shy away from the incredibly simple process of making their own dough!

There are few things easier to make in a kitchen than pizza dough, so why on earth would you buy it in?

A combination of never actually being able to nail it myself and being lazy(and they aren't exactly expensive either). It's a balle ache letting it all prove if you make it in large batches for freezing, bought it in exact size balls that work every time (not perfect, still trying to improve them but much better than I can make myself) and I dont have any of the hassle of cleaning up. I've not given up completely with the home made stuff, but until I can make something better myself I'll probably carry on.

Recipies welcome if anybody has got it sussed.

[Tony Angelino]

giblet said:

I live in Leeds so not too far. What bakery have you been getting your dough from?

The showroom is in Wentworth, very helpful chap who's got about 20+ on display ranging from the bottom of the range steel one I have to huge brick built things that take half a day to charge up.

http://www.creativeoutdoorliving.co.uk/

Costco also had a similar model at the time, but it looked like it had been specially made for them and wasn't quite the same. They said they price match whenever possible so he did me a bit of a deal, throwing in the paddle/brush etc.

The bakery in Leeds is a little back street industrial unit near Cross Green run by some Eastern European "Italians", email address as below:

[e-mail]

They texted me back with a time to collect and I dropped £6 for 48 dough balls I think it was and away we went.

[Tony Angelino]

Luke. said:

Quick question. Who'd use frozen pizza dough from the supermarket?

Used it in the past and think it's great, just not the easiest to find.

Gino De Campo dough in Asda I think it was was a perfectly good base when I used it in an 'emergency' (when I couldn't be arsed).

[Tony Angelino]

Few pics from tonight's effort. Was an impromptu one and we had no dough so relied on the Gino De Campo stuff, decent enough but rectangular shape doesn't help my set up. Anyway, really impressed with my fire this time, got the log catching and the temperature was off the scale within 20 mins.

[Tony Angelino]

sidekickdmr said:

Anyone cooked a big pulled pork joint in their wood fired oven?

Any recipies to follow?

Not pork but I tried tandoori chicken on Sunday. Took the Weber rotiserrie system and poked it in the corner, on an angle. One side awesome, fantastic crust on the outside just like you want but the back edge wasnt cooked through, even after rotating.

Think a couple of flat metal skewers resting on a couple of bricks may be the answer, but it's definately worth persevering with.

[Tony Angelino]

sidekickdmr said:

Tony Angelino said:

Not pork but I tried tandoori chicken on Sunday. Took the Weber rotiserrie system and poked it in the corner, on an angle. One side awesome, fantastic crust on the outside just like you want but the back edge wasnt cooked through, even after rotating.

Think a couple of flat metal skewers resting on a couple of bricks may be the answer, but it's definately worth persevering with.

I was imagining rubbing a huge shoulder with a nice rub, putting it in a big thick stone roasting tray, pout some cider in the bottom, put it in the oven after cooking a pizza so high temp to sear, cover with foil, and leave overnight so the oven temp slowly drops ready for it to be cooked through and warm the next day.

That possible?

Reckon it will depend on what size / materials your oven is. Mine is a metal one rather than a brick one so without actually timing it I reckon dropping from 800 degrees ish to cool would take about 3 hours but will do a test run on Thursday when I next use it, but then again it only takes 30mins or so to 'charge up'. If you've got one of the huge brick ones that takes half a day to get warm then it stands to reason it will take much longer for the temperature to drop giving you a longer window increasing your options. What oven you got?

[Tony Angelino]

sidekickdmr said:

This one, it arrives Friday so I don't know how well it will keep the heat, but being a proper brick one, that is advertised as insulated and weighs about 700KG (yes really) I'm imagining it will keep the heat relatively well.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272072332382

"Up to 3 hours" according to the advert. I'll make a note of mine on Thursday then perhaps somebody can suggest some recipes.

[Tony Angelino]

Used a bit of previously frozen cheese on the topping, seemed to burn slightly compared to when it's fresh. Garlic bread tasted lovely but needed a touch more oil on it next time.

[Tony Angelino]

giblet said:

Since we were in a rush (didn't start cooking until close to 21:00) the dough was defrosted in the microwave and rolled out. It's handy to use at short notice but I'm going to look into freezing some home made dough balls.

If your anywhere near Leeds I can give you name of a baker who does frozen dough, and it's pretty good but more importantly loads easier and no mess or fuss. Frozen balls in exact quantities so perfect for what you need. Despite advice on hear and loads of research I've never actually managed to nail dough at home so find this an easy cheat.

I

[Tony Angelino]

sidekickdmr said:

All well and good, but I’m struggling to find the time to open a tin of pizza sauce, let alone make some.

Pizza Express Passata seems to get good reviews, I'll just get that I think. 10 cans seem about right (1/3 a tin per 11-12" pizza)?

A mix of balls of, and grated mozzarella I guess? Gives people the choice then.

I use pizza express pasata and it's absolutely bang on for my taste. Just the right sweetness. I reckon your way off with 1/3 of a tin per oizza, we only use a spoon or 2 max for ours. We don't like them too tomatoey but as per others they are easy to get soggy.

[Tony Angelino]

giblet said:

Tony Angelino said:

If your anywhere near Leeds I can give you name of a baker who does frozen dough, and it's pretty good but more importantly loads easier and no mess or fuss. Frozen balls in exact quantities so perfect for what you need. Despite advice on hear and loads of research I've never actually managed to nail dough at home so find this an easy cheat.

I

I'm in Leeds, I did try emailing the doughtogo address you mentioned at the start of the thread but had no reply. Could you drop me a message with the phone number?

Sorry, just seen this. I don't have the number (or at least can't find it) - [e-mail] is the only contact details I can find. I was told by a bloke at a sort of food fair last weekend that Kabani's pizza in Woodlesford do dough and it's fantastic for a few pence a ball. He also said that Booker's where starting to sell it too. Let me know if you have any luck with these or have any other ideas as I;m only in Ossett and work in Leeds.
Hope this helps.

[Tony Angelino]

HarryFlatters said:

Dunno if this is any use to anyone here, but I think I'm going to order one...

Cheapy Pizza Peel off of Amazon

I've this one from Amazon, it's for what it is. Short handle makes it easier to move about (we take pizzas one at a time down from the kitchen to the oven sometimes when we cant be arsed moving all the gear down the garden) but it also works against you when sliding the pizza in and out of the oven as theyre so chuffing hot.

[Tony Angelino]

Looks good, care to share the dough recipe? I've messed about with a few recipes and also bought from a local baker and frozen - really going to try nail it for this season when it get's fired up.

[Tony Angelino]

m4tti said:

Here you go.

https://www.fornobravo.com/pizzaquest/classic-pizz...

I had tried a number of recipes before and bought the frozen dough from Waitrose but this is miles better. The recipe makes 5 dough balls. I freeze them up, then on a thursday evening pull one out of the freezer and put into the fridge, Saturday lunch time I pull it out of the fridge and leave it on the side.

It really is a cracking dough.

Edited by m4tti on Sunday 19th February 22:30

Thanks, will have a bash when we fire it up.

[Tony Angelino]

What's everybody's cheese of choice? Have used a few kinds of different options with mixed results including:

Cheapo Lidle mozzarella balls
Grated mozzarella
Real expensive Waitress mozzarella
Grated cheapish cheddar from Costco (tend to buy the large bags and freeze it in smaller batches, sometimes catches and burns, probably something to do with the moisture loss).
Finished with a bit of grated hard cheese

I generally subscribe to the less is more theory when it comes to cheese and other toppings normally with some cured meats added to the cheese and tomato.

[Tony Angelino]

thelittleegg said:

Tony Angelino said:

What's everybody's cheese of choice? Have used a few kinds of different options with mixed results including:

Cheapo Lidle mozzarella balls
Grated mozzarella
Real expensive Waitress mozzarella
Grated cheapish cheddar from Costco (tend to buy the large bags and freeze it in smaller batches, sometimes catches and burns, probably something to do with the moisture loss).
Finished with a bit of grated hard cheese

I generally subscribe to the less is more theory when it comes to cheese and other toppings normally with some cured meats added to the cheese and tomato.

Absolutely. Lots of the pizzas on this page look like they've got too many toppings. It's a bad sign when you can no longer see the tomato sauce.

Personally, I make homemade spelt dough, rolled out as thinly as possible. I use the best tinned tomatoes I can find, such as San Marzano, infused with a hint of garlic for the tomato sauce. Toppings are mozzarella di bufala, a grating of parmesan, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, then scatter with basil once cooked. Perfection.

They cook beautifully due to the thin base and delicate loading of toppings, even cooked in the oven, with a pizza stone, they come out really, really well.

Spelt Pizza by Gavin Wren, on Flickr

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