Pizza Oven Thread
Discussion
Had a quick attempt at Tandoori chicken in my pizza oven last year, was overdone one side and underdone the other! it's on my list of thing's to try and sort this spring/summer. I reckon a couple of bricks inside the oven with the flat type of skewers laid flat on them might just do it.
We've recently bought an extra couple of pizza paddles. This has made life miles easier for us preparing the pizzas - getting them ready on the paddle 3 at a time instead of making single ones and waiting for the paddle to be used. You can then rattle off 3 pizzas in about 5 mins whilst the oven is screaming hot, quick reload of a bit more firewood to bring the temp up to 950 ish while the next 3 are being made up on the paddles again and you have another 3 in double quick time.
£15 ish paddles off Amazon are bang on, the shorter the handle the better.
£15 ish paddles off Amazon are bang on, the shorter the handle the better.
Johnniem said:
Well, the pizza party for 20 odd people happened on Saturday and was a great success, thanks to the simplicity of the bakers trays to help with the defrosting of the dough balls. Be aware, if you venture down this route, the trays provide a sealed atmosphere when stacked, which is great for making sure that the dough doesn't harden on the outside and crack but not so great for defrosting in 3 - 4 hours, as the seal creates a cold interior. Next time I will allow perhaps six hours, to be safe.
The biggest challenge is space to do everything you need to do. Roll out the dough then move to semolina flour to ensure it doesn't stick to the peel. Load up the pizza with tomato sauce and mozzarella, get whatever each person wants on their pizza, transfer to oven, stand and cook it etc etc etc. Meanwhile someone else (with requisite skills) needs to prepare the next pizza. I reckon we were close on professional standard after pizza no 5 but with only me with the experience to do each element (apart from loading up what people want) it was quite a massive operation and we didn't all sit down together. It was, for sure, a fairly relaxed affair so that didn't matter too much, luckily.
Next time I think I will produce a select number of pizzas with various toppings and let people dig in with a slice here and a slice there, rather than bespoke for each person. I must say that, despite the manic amount of work that goes into pizza for a lot of people, we really had a great time and the oven performed brilliantly.
As the last pizza was made and doled out, I took all the left over sweet peppers, chilli, red onion, black olives, mushroom, chucked them all, along with eight chicken thighs, into my newly acquired Potjie (a cast iron fire pot originating from South Africa) and parked it on the periphery of the oven. Within 3 hours it was all done a ready to go for dinner the following day. Sadly I didn't have a shoulder of lamb or pork to cook slowly overnight, otherwise that would have gone into a casserole and taken out the following morning.
If any of you might be considering a full size pizza oven (well, it's a wood fired oven really but we call it a pizza oven) then consider no longer, just do it. It doesn't take up loads of space but should be clear of the house (smoke can be an issue when it is getting going). The base of my oven is around 1.2 m wide. The whole thing is about 1.3 - 1.5m square with the wood store underneath. Photos early in this thread.
We upped our production rate by buying another couple of pizza paddles.The biggest challenge is space to do everything you need to do. Roll out the dough then move to semolina flour to ensure it doesn't stick to the peel. Load up the pizza with tomato sauce and mozzarella, get whatever each person wants on their pizza, transfer to oven, stand and cook it etc etc etc. Meanwhile someone else (with requisite skills) needs to prepare the next pizza. I reckon we were close on professional standard after pizza no 5 but with only me with the experience to do each element (apart from loading up what people want) it was quite a massive operation and we didn't all sit down together. It was, for sure, a fairly relaxed affair so that didn't matter too much, luckily.
Next time I think I will produce a select number of pizzas with various toppings and let people dig in with a slice here and a slice there, rather than bespoke for each person. I must say that, despite the manic amount of work that goes into pizza for a lot of people, we really had a great time and the oven performed brilliantly.
As the last pizza was made and doled out, I took all the left over sweet peppers, chilli, red onion, black olives, mushroom, chucked them all, along with eight chicken thighs, into my newly acquired Potjie (a cast iron fire pot originating from South Africa) and parked it on the periphery of the oven. Within 3 hours it was all done a ready to go for dinner the following day. Sadly I didn't have a shoulder of lamb or pork to cook slowly overnight, otherwise that would have gone into a casserole and taken out the following morning.
If any of you might be considering a full size pizza oven (well, it's a wood fired oven really but we call it a pizza oven) then consider no longer, just do it. It doesn't take up loads of space but should be clear of the house (smoke can be an issue when it is getting going). The base of my oven is around 1.2 m wide. The whole thing is about 1.3 - 1.5m square with the wood store underneath. Photos early in this thread.
Johnniem said:
If the production rate was solely down to getting them to the oven then that would be a great plan Tony. In my gaff it's more about the fact that it's only me who seems to know, or care, about the intricacies of rolling out the dough in flour then transferring to semolina flour, making sure it will slide onto (and more importantly off from) the peel! I know it's not complicated but we are a two person household and pizza making isn't a common thing amongst most of our visitors!
Furry Muff.In my house we're lucky, the mrs. has rolling and adding toppings down to a tee whilst I do all the manly stuff involving fire and moving hot oven doors etc. Taken us about 12 months now but we've got it just about sorted now after plenty trial and error.
Swervin_Mervin said:
My go to recipe:
800g '00' flour
200g fine semolina
c650-700ml water (should be a slightly tacky once you've full worked the dough)
7g dried yeast (or less if leaving the dough overnight - adjust based on length of time left to itself)
1 tsp sugar
20g salt
4tbsp/60ml decent olive oil (I use 50:50 of std olive oil and extra virgin)
The '00', semolina and olive oil all make a huge difference to the end result, for the better imo.
Got this proving now for the first outing of the year for my oven. Will update.800g '00' flour
200g fine semolina
c650-700ml water (should be a slightly tacky once you've full worked the dough)
7g dried yeast (or less if leaving the dough overnight - adjust based on length of time left to itself)
1 tsp sugar
20g salt
4tbsp/60ml decent olive oil (I use 50:50 of std olive oil and extra virgin)
The '00', semolina and olive oil all make a huge difference to the end result, for the better imo.
Edited by Swervin_Mervin on Tuesday 3rd April 15:33
giblet said:
What size did they go for?
I seem to recall a PH’er having one delivered and then having a major comical issue with actually getting it in to his garden. I’m sure he started a thread about it.
I've got a 'full size' one (internal area about 2' square). I know from the DTA thread you're fairly local to me - head down to Creative Outdoor Living at Wentworth, they have a comprehensive range and the fella there can tell you absolutely everything you need to know. If you give him some notice of when your going to visit then he may even fire up the monster he has in the showroom for you that takes about 3 days to get up to temp!I seem to recall a PH’er having one delivered and then having a major comical issue with actually getting it in to his garden. I’m sure he started a thread about it.
Mine was small enough to fit in the car boot and whilst a bit awkward to get down the garden by hand, no real hassle to set up.
majordad said:
Mine are turning out took smokey, whay am I doing wrong ? I'm usung birch and some conifers I felled four years ago, chopped up smallish.
Moisture in the wood I reckon. Air drying wood takes 1 year per 1" of thickness of the piece as a general rule, and that's when its done in a professional environment. Get yourself a bag of kiln dried kindling and logs and use those, probably get a decent net of each for under a tenner. red_slr said:
Where you getting the frozen dough from?
I got my last lot from:http://www.vivaldi.co.uk
A few on here are from the Peoples Republic too so can probably give other suggestions if you're anywhere near. Some take aways/restaurants will sell you it but I got quoted about 50p a ball from my fave place, you want to be looking at somewhere around the 10-20p mark though really.
giblet said:
I’ve probably asked this before in the past but does anyone own one of these full size ovens?
eBay Pizza Oven
I’m tired of buggering about with pellets and the small size of my Uuni 2S so I figure I might as well get a full sized one this year.
I don't have this model but I do have a similar sized on, what do you want to know? eBay Pizza Oven
I’m tired of buggering about with pellets and the small size of my Uuni 2S so I figure I might as well get a full sized one this year.
giblet said:
Tony Angelino said:
I don't have this model but I do have a similar sized on, what do you want to know?
Which one did you go for? Are they worth it? How is the heat retention? Finally what sort of base have you got yours on?Cheers
https://www.creativeoutdoorliving.co.uk/fontana-is...
Depending on the time of year it takes 22-30 mins to get up to max temperature and then you get probably 10-15 mins cooking time (if you just tend to the fire and cooking and let somebody else do the making of the pizza you can do a good half a dozen in that time) before the temp drops
and takes another 3-4 mins or so to fire back up to cooking temp by using some more kindling.
Depends how often you would use it as to if it;'s worth the money but I use mine 2-3 times per month at least during the summer and have done since buying it so it's worth it for me but we do spend probably more time than the average family at home in the garden.
trixical said:
A question, particularly to those with full size wood fired ovens, how much smoke do they generate from the chimney when in use? i'm in the process of part demolishing a rather large garden pond to turn it into an outdoor kitchen area with pizza oven and bbq but before I go too far I'm wondering if it will produce an annoying amount of smoke for the neighbour on that side whos house is set back compared to mine and so will be closer to it. It is located in line with the access between our houses which can be a bit of a wind tunnel so i'd hope it just blows down the garden but given everything else going wrong for me right now i'd rather get some real world advice first.
I guess it smells better than cigarette smoke which is what blows over from her direction
Mine only makes a fair bit in the very early stages of lighting when the paper is burning. After that I've never really noticed much at all and my neighbours haven't complained and knowing them if they had any reason to they wouldn't have hesitated. I guess it smells better than cigarette smoke which is what blows over from her direction
If you are concerned, can't you just put a longer chimney on it?
Tickle said:
Messed around with sourdough starter, I didn't fancy going a supermarket for yeast at the moment and I needed a home office pet!
Used the pizza-app for measures and did a 12hr bulk prove and 1hr balled.
Looks great this, what app is it please? On the ios app store I get the choice of:Used the pizza-app for measures and did a 12hr bulk prove and 1hr balled.
PizzApp+
Ooni Pizza Ovens
Dough Recipes
PizzaPal
I'd prefer to use one that someone has joy with rather than go through them all and use trial and error.
thanks
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