Question for the pizza oven guys and gals.

NCGrimbo

NCGrimbo

is Blowin Smoke!

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Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Location
Clayton, NC
I was in NY last week and ate a wonderful garlic sauce ribeye pizza and was looking to recreate at home. My brother has a Ooni pizza oven and agreed to cook the pizza. What I didn't know is that he's only cooked 2 pizzas in it and uses the Ooni mostly to sear his sous vide steaks. :sad: Anyway, we fired up the oven and got the back corners roaring at 900 degrees and the front was around 750 degrees. In went the pizza and it was rotated every 30 seconds or so. The pizza wasn't in there for more than 2 minutes when we pulled it out. Here's the results:
AP1GczPttgPN4TJNTzQ_td59lU8DR9Aw-54TChwEtUyFMhF9Jj3175ex6YYPE_KXRxS1ttSmlZoCEJ6eYSN1HgALaAXYGZGePfQLfmKlbOzQpAWDZAGdgzs=w800

While I enjoy a nice char, this was burnt. Right before we pulled it out, the crust was actually on fire. :tsk: We did the next one for only 1 minute and while it looked better, the crust wasn't fully cooked. Same was true for the burnt one. Some places in the crust weren't fully cooked and the bottoms were also underdone.

The recipe I used for the dough was 4.5 cups of bread flour, yeast, salt, and water. No sugars added as I read that can cause burning of the crust.

So any suggestions on what to do next time to avoid the burning?
 
After you get the stone up to temp as you did, turn the flame down to low before launching, or even off if needed until the bottom starts to get cooked. Rotate as normal, but during the cook, the flame needs to be low.

I would rather cook longer than lose control of the top.
 
Last edited:
bowhnter said:
After you get the stone up to temp as you did, turn the flame down to low before launching, or even off if needed until the bottom starts to get cooked. Rotate as normal, but during the cook, the flame needs to be low.

I would rather cook longer than lose control of the top.
Click to expand...

images
 
900 degrees is for Neapolitan pizza, with UNMALTED flour. I would suggest using the exact same dough recipe and cook at around 625-650 degrees and report back.
 
I have an Ooni. It cooks nuclear hot, and it makes great pies if you stay focused.

Make the dough thin, rotate the pie after 30 seconds, and check at 1 minute to pull.

No time for beer and jawing......:-D
 
Pizza oven manufacturers all tout how crazy hot they get — which for the type of pizzas most of us eat ends up burning the crap out of them while still managing to have semi-raw ingredients on top.

Unless you’re doing a Neapolitan one you need to cook for a longer time and at a lower temp to get good results. That said, cooked a few hundred degrees less for several minutes can yield some fantastic pies that you couldn’t replicate in your normal oven.
 
I've only used full sized wood fire pizza ovens so I can't speak to the set up of any of the smaller and/or gas/pellet set ups directly, but I can tell you that using the proper dough is imperative.

If you are making bread you use dough made to be light and fluffy and made to cook at a much, much lower temp for a longer period of time. When you're making pizza you are cooking at a higher temp for a shorter period of time and you need dough that can handle that. Even a slow cooked pie is usually done at twice the temp of fluffy bread.

When we do pizza night we usually do 12" neopolitan pies and we make about 12-20 in a night. My oven is usually around 8-900 degrees and I cook right on the fire bricks. It takes special dough to handle that.

My wife makes the dough. I can't tell you all the details but it took me learning the oven and her learning the dough and comparing notes more than a few times to really get it nailed. Her dough takes a few days to make. She buys the special flour from us chef store.

She follows a YouTuber from Italy who does pizza doughs regularly and I asked for a good example and she sent me this link. Imho if you follow him, that will make a big difference.

https://youtu.be/h-72DxHsH2A?si=1AWZHq9Yd4FRGLk4
 
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My dough is either 00 Caputo or Red Mills artisan bread flour, yeast, sea salt and water. The Ooni ovens are really small so 900 degrees has nowhere to go. Even the giant commercial ovens don’t run that hot and still cook pizzas in about 90 seconds. I stopped paying attention to temps in my oven. Mine is more of a traditional wood burning oven so I look at the flame going over the top and the color of the interior walls to determine when it’s ready to go.

It’s going to be trial and error with temps with that oven and your dough plays a large roll as well with hydration, fermentation and thickness.

Pizza with homemade dough can get finicky with so many moving targets. Get your temps in control first and you’ll at least be able to get a good cook. The dough take A LOT of trial and error to dial in but so worth.

Keep going!
 
Smoked&Baked said:
I've only used full sized wood fire pizza ovens so I can't speak to the set up of any of the smaller and/or gas/pellet set ups directly, but I can tell you that using the proper dough is imperative.

If you are making bread you use dough made to be light and fluffy and made to cook at a much, much lower temp for a longer period of time. When you're making pizza you are cooking at a higher temp for a shorter period of time and you need dough that can handle that. Even a slow cooked pie is usually done at twice the temp of fluffy bread.

When we do pizza night we usually do 12" neopolitan pies and we make about 12-20 in a night. My oven is usually around 8-900 degrees and I cook right on the fire bricks. It takes special dough to handle that.

My wife makes the dough. I can't tell you all the details but it took me learning the oven and her learning the dough and comparing notes more than a few times to really get it nailed. Her dough takes a few days to make. She buys the special flour from us chef store.

She follows a YouTuber from Italy who does pizza doughs regularly and I asked for a good example and she sent me this link. Imho if you follow him, that will make a big difference.

https://youtu.be/h-72DxHsH2A?si=1AWZHq9Yd4FRGLk4
Click to expand...

I’ve watched Vito before. I think the poolish scared me off. I was working, didn’t have time, bla, blah.
Him not talking through that video made it look so easy.

Just yesterday, I finally made my first 3-4 day ferment (00 flour, salt, water, yeast) and will find out Friday how it did.

I kind of wished he would have cooked it in an outdoor oven though.

You have no issues going that hot?
Do you par bake?
Do you turn the flame down?
 
bowhnter said:
You have no issues going that hot?
Click to expand...

With my oven, at about 30' above sea level, and the wood I use etc I have trouble maintaining that hot of an oven. It's a lot easier and less wood to go cooler. I get a little more space inside with a smaller fire too but I'm not agile enough to do two pies at once anyhow. My oven doesn't like going over 900, things warp, it seems to want to go nuclear after that point. So I just keep it really hot with out going too hot, if that makes sense. It would be more accurate for me to say my goal is 800-900. I know when it was in the teens i struggled and the pies were taking longer.

bowhnter said:
Do you par bake?
Click to expand...

No sir. My wife brings the dough out in balls and makes the pies as requested, then I cook them.

bowhnter said:
Do you turn the flame down?
Click to expand...

Here's a link to what I own (though I didn't buy from them).

I usually warm the oven up with the fire and coals in the center as it heats the bricks up nicely then when its up to temp I move the coals to the side and add oak splits as needed. Then I add splits as needed to maintain the temp

I'm certainly no expert but we really like our results :)
 
Whisky said:
900 degrees is for Neapolitan pizza, with UNMALTED flour. I would suggest using the exact same dough recipe and cook at around 625-650 degrees and report back.
Click to expand...


What he said^^^^ i run my ooni at 700 unless I make neopolitan dough.



pizzaria dough is best cooked at 6-700.
 
Smoked&Baked said:
No sir. My wife brings the dough out in balls and makes the pies as requested, then I cook them.


I usually warm the oven up with the fire and coals in the center as it heats the bricks up nicely then when its up to temp I move the coals to the side and add oak splits as needed. Then I add splits as needed to maintain the temp
Click to expand...


Ok, I was asking about the par bake because of Vito’s video.

Now I see what you are cooking on, so I still think Grimbo can just turn down the flame to low and not burn the top like that.

NC, what kind of Ooni is it?
 
bowhnter said:
NC, what kind of Ooni is it?
Click to expand...
It's a 16" propane. Not sure of the model name/#.

Going to run two experiments next time. One where we get it to 900 degrees and then turn off the flames and the other will be getting it to 700 degrees and reduce the flames to a low setting.

As you all have said, it will take some experiments to get everything dialed in. I'm not 100% worried about the dough. The recipe is from Ooni, so I'll stick with that until we get all the other variables pinned down. Might try 00 flour instead of bread flour at some point, and from what I read, they both are in the 12% to 14% gluten range so the crust should be similar.
 
NCGrimbo said:
I was in NY last week and ate a wonderful garlic sauce ribeye pizza and was looking to recreate at home. My brother has a Ooni pizza oven and agreed to cook the pizza. What I didn't know is that he's only cooked 2 pizzas in it and uses the Ooni mostly to sear his sous vide steaks. :sad: Anyway, we fired up the oven and got the back corners roaring at 900 degrees and the front was around 750 degrees. In went the pizza and it was rotated every 30 seconds or so. The pizza wasn't in there for more than 2 minutes when we pulled it out. Here's the results:
AP1GczPttgPN4TJNTzQ_td59lU8DR9Aw-54TChwEtUyFMhF9Jj3175ex6YYPE_KXRxS1ttSmlZoCEJ6eYSN1HgALaAXYGZGePfQLfmKlbOzQpAWDZAGdgzs=w800

While I enjoy a nice char, this was burnt. Right before we pulled it out, the crust was actually on fire. :tsk: We did the next one for only 1 minute and while it looked better, the crust wasn't fully cooked. Same was true for the burnt one. Some places in the crust weren't fully cooked and the bottoms were also underdone.

The recipe I used for the dough was 4.5 cups of bread flour, yeast, salt, and water. No sugars added as I read that can cause burning of the crust.

So any suggestions on what to do next time to avoid the burning?
Click to expand...
I have 2 uuni (original name) ooni's. The first was pellets and the new is the Koda 16 with gas burner. I also have an XL Big Green Egg, which I have used for pizzas for at least 10 years. My preference is to cook pizzas at about 650 dome as it makes the cook less stressful and IMO gives the crust more flavor. I always use the Trader Joe's dough which is nice and fresh. Take the dough out to a a floured cutting board and roll into 2 or balls. Cover with moistened paper towels for 2 hours on the counter. With floured hands, stretch out into 2 or 3 crusts. You should be able to almost see through them. Lightly sauce and don't go crazy with toppings. Thin crust rocks, thick crust burns
 
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