Pizza ovens

Just tried garlic bread from those longer ferments. Well impressed with the results. The open texture to the crust is it exactly what I was hoping for. Cooked with the birch wood and charcoal. No effects noticed from the smokier wood.

I've put the whole one in the freezer as a test to eat during the week. I will also ball and freeze the extra dough to see how that goes.

Sorry if I'm taking over the thread. I'm trying to crack this with everyone's help👍

I don't know why, but make sure you keep the top of the ball on top, after balling up too. I see that in a lot of recipes so there's obviously something in it but I don't know what😃

If I'm taking the right meaning from this, I think the reason is that there will be a bit of a skin formed on top of the bowl of dough from the bulk ferment, so as you're portioning that out, if you can keep that skin on the top edge of the smaller balls, it will help you shape and lead to a better surface tension and gas retention in the balls when proving further.

When it comes to shaping into pizzas then the opposite is true, and you want to top of the dough ball to become the underside of the base, as the skin on top will be slightly less tacky than the underside of the ball.

Here's my dough balls after rising in the oven with the light on, I got my timings wrong as I got home later than expected and they were slightly over proofed by time I used them about 90 mins after that pic. Still turned out alright tho.

The pizza is BBQ sauce, pepperoni and sausage. No pics of the other ones.

One of the kids has it in their heads that tomato sauce upsets their tummy so we tried the BBQ. We didn't tell them what the main ingredient in BBQ sauce is tho and they love it.

It's not bad, can be very sweet depending on the sauce. One slice is enough for me tho.

Tuna on a pizza is just wrong tho, I'd refuse to cook it😂

Fresh pineapple isn't so bad on a pizza, I'd never chose to have it but I'd eat a slice if it was left over. The tinned stuff is a big no no for me tho.

I prefer to do my naan using a cast iron tava on my gas hob. I find it comes out closer to restaurant style. Wet the top of the naan, slap in on the preheated tava and cook the bottom before flipping it over the flame to cook the top. Misty Ricardo's recipe is the one I use. Happy4leader on Youtube has a Video. He frequented a lot of the BIR cooking forums back in the day.

Some fantastic looking pizzas in here!

My parents are adding a section on to their patio at home and are considering a brick pizza oven. The guy doing the work isn't so keen on it and has put them off it due to costs, he's estimating €1000+ in materials.

I'm wondering if there's any consensus here on brick vs. something like an ooni?

My brother in law has a built in brick one and it's fantastic but was there with the house when they bought it.

As above, it really depends on how much it would be used - also, they do take a good while to come up to temperature, using a decent amount of fuel I'd imagine, so those are factors too. On the flip side, if they're really into cooking/baking, the residual heat in the oven can be used to do "low and slow" cooking overnight after the pizza cooking is complete.

Fwiw, I researched the DIY approach many times over the years, and there are loads of videos on youtube, using the gym ball method, which could be followed fairly easily given the time. I've personally come to the conclusion that I'll just stick with the more convenient commercial options. Perhaps they could look at one of the Gozney ovens? Those look really well, and seem to be a step above the oonis (saying that as a proud unni owner).

I built a 36" fire brick oven over 20 years ago and there is a lot of work in it but for me it was a fun project and i really doing it but I can't see any getting one built for them under €2000. It takes 4 hours to get to temperature and needs lots of timber but remains hot enough to bake bread cook a turkey the following day and slow cook the day after. Great for a party doing 20 pizzas etc with a and you can get everyone involved.

Only two of us now so bought a Karu a few years ago and its a great piece of kit with the wood burning set op but the gas attachment for it in my opinion doesn't get hot enough and was a pain to use. Last year I got a great deal on the rocobox and its a superb option for a 12" oven. Its easy to see why it was the go to oven in many pizza trucks. I don't have any experience of the !2" Koda but all the reports here give it the thumbs up.

My son has a 16" Koda which is great but with the insulation and rolling flame I prefer the Rocobox. Ps Homemade extension table for the roccobox works a treat

€279 😐️

Ooni must think their customer base are fools

People have been modifying (non-Ooni suppliers have been making equipment to modify) this for years now. I'm surprised it has taken Ooni so long to get it to market / cash in on it. It's probably 3-4 years ago since I spotted the first modifications / circular stones for it.

The ooni spinning stone is a very expensive addition for the average home baker. If your churning out less than 10 pizzas at a time I dont think it's worth it.

Like above, there are 3rd party battery powered ones available elsewhere for a lot less money.

The reaL fun is looking inside and then rotating the pizza manually ... Once u master it, its easy