Best pizza oven? Looking at Ooni and Solo Stove but man that Gozney is sexy. No way it's worth the money though... right? That thing is $2500 with stand and cover. Its something we'd use 1-3 times per month, mainly when lod had friends over in the pool. I'd be a complete moron to not start with the Ooni or Solo Stove imo. Very recreational, not making my own dough or anything like that.
Can of whole San marzanos crushed with pits removed. Can of sauce. Fresh basil to taste, red pepper flakes to taste, a couple garlic cloves. Throw in fridge for a night, taste the next day and salt and season accordingly.
If you're spending hundreds on an oven you should be making your own dough. It's not difficult whatsoever.
I have an ooni, it’s fine. I chose wood, did not get the gas insert. Dough is good and can make or break the pie. I will say if it wasn’t for my wife I 100% would not make my own. I absolutely despise anything to do with baking, dough, pastries……..
Yea one of the better pizza shops around is 5 minutes away and they sell their dough. We just do that. I have no desire to make dough. If you enjoy it, that's cool. Right now I use my Egg but want to get a pizza oven.
nice. You remove the cloves? Or do you blend? I watched a video where the guy put a whole clove in his sauce but he didn’t mention what he did with it after.
I’m in a similar spot as you and will probably go with the Gozney. A decent Ooni is going to run you what, $800? Rather than get one then sell it later for half that before going with the Gozney, I’m just skipping to the one I know I want and will work best for me. If you’re not making your own dough that’s fine, but find a good pizzeria near you that’s willing to sell you dough.
Opened my first can of DOP certified SMs to make sauce last night and I gotta say, not impressed. A couple of the tomatoes were clearly unripe.
You're getting the Gozney Roccbox or Dome? The Dome is sexy. Just not sure I'd use it to ever justify the cost.
The Solo Stove looks like a good alternative for less than $500. Dual fuel too. https://www.solostove.com/en-us/p/pi-pizza-oven
Dome. Not a fan of the stand, although the height on it is perfect. We’re building an outdoor kitchen from scratch so I just plan on building a taller counter space for it. The plan is to pipe our houses natural gas to it since wood burning is frowned upon in the summers here. Solo looks nice. Aren’t those the guys that build the fire pits or am I thinking of someone else?
Yea I'd love to have a large outdoor kitchen but the one that was built into the design of our house is only like 8 foot so I have enough space for my XL Egg, a sink, and a small gas grill that my wife likes to use. We have a seating area that my wife is down to build some type of covering over and turn into a cooking toy spot. We already have a blackstone that we rarely use so I think a pizza oven we rarely use would fit in nicely. Yea, same people that do the fire pits. I think the pizza ovens are new but the reviews seem good.
I usually mince them and leave it. I like a chunkier sauce so usually I don't blend it, but I have done that before. When I blend it I just left them whole.
Making my first pie today. Thursday, invited a few neighbors over to try some. Made up 3 different sauces with the same tomato base, want to see if there’s a consensus on the best sauce.
They’re kind people so I’m not too worried. First attempt is tonight. Thursday will be my second. So basically, I’ll be a pizzaiolo by the time they arrive (or tonight will go horribly wrong and I’ll have to give them a rain check)
Handling dough takes practice but making it is ez Even the best of us botch putting it in the oven, Kenji had one stick to a peel and left it in the video
I think my recipe is off or I over-kneaded it. First pizza, I couldn’t get to stretch out to more than 8 or 9 inches and the portion was for a 14 inch pie. So I let my second pizza proof for a couple extra hours and I was able to stretch it out to about 12 inches but it tore in one spot. So I balled it back up and tried again- I guess in the process of doing that I squeezed out most of the air and the gluten chains reformed because I was only able to stretch that one out to about 9 inches. Will go to a local pizzeria this weekend to buy some dough and see how it behaves. That way I can figure out if it’s my dough or if it’s my handling of it.
what recipe did you use? Did you cold ferment? How were you stretching it? Also yeah - cant ball it back up and restart. doesnt work that way
too many words and not enough pics for me to fantasy about while dreaming of being on a diet that doesn’t closely resemble hell
Cold ferment- pizza 1 for 24 hours, pizza 2 for 48. 60% hydration with a 50/50 flour mix of All Trumps and an American 00. Apparently, I was stretching it like an asshole.
If I sent you pics of my pizzas they would help you stay on your diet. As a proud New Jerseyan, I shan’t post them. The shame would be too great to bear.
Was the dough still cold when you stretched it? If so - That's probably your issue. Also if the dough is fighting you. Just leave it for 5 min or so and come back to it
First one wasn’t cold, but I only left it out for 2 hours after removing it from the fridge. That one really fought any stretching. Realized that the air temp in our house was probably too cold. So for the second one, I pulled it out the fridge in the morning and put it in a cabinet above our oven. By the time I got around to it after work it had probably doubled in size and stretched easily, but I managed to tear a hole in it (probably due to poor stretching technique) so I balled it back up and it lost most of its elasticity. Waited for about an hour for the yeast to break up some of the gluten but I was so hungry and tired at that point I didn’t want to wait any longer. Had more stretch then the first one, but still not good.
Walked into a local store and came out with an Ooni, peel and cover for under $200. Time to figure out what I'm doing.
Picked up some dough from a local Italian bakery/pasta shop. Got it yesterday, sat in the fridge for a day, and tried to use it tonight. It was so incredibly sticky that rolling it out or stretching it wasn't possible at all. It just stuck to our hands. Not sure what we did wrong. Maybe it was supposed to sit out for an hour or so to come to room temp? Or add some flour?
I always take dough out of the fridge 2-3 hours before making pizza, and usually flour liberally. If it is in the fridge too long, usually I notice it is tough to stretch and springs back when stretching, not sticky. Might be too high hydration?
Heading to Phoenix for work next week. If I go at lunch, can I just walk in at Pizzeria Bianco or is that a line around the block type place?
How much time do you have? I doubt there’s going to be much a wait for lunch on a weekday, especially if you go right at open, but I’ve never tried. Could be busier now than usual with spring training starting up and peak snowbird season.
dblplay1212 drewru did either of you end up buying an oven? If you did would love to hear your thoughts. Gozney is coming out with a new oven the arc in a week that is a cheaper and newer version of the dome. I much prefer NY style pizza over Neapolitan and the arc seems to be better for that per reviews. Not sure how much I’d actually use the wood fire part of the dome but it sure is cool.
Spacca Napoli in Chicago Spoiler Pistacchio fior di latte, pistachio cream, sausage, basil Bianco di Stefano smoked mozzarella, pancetta, black truffle pecorino, rosemary, ricotta
Haven’t bought an oven yet- rain season here makes consistent, outdoor cooking difficult. But I did purchase a pizza steel- I would recommend going this route before purchasing an oven. The steels (or a stone if you prefer, but stones can break and do not give off as much heat) are much cheaper and get hot enough for NY style (I’m also more interested in NY style, which doesn’t require the higher temps you can achieve with an oven and that are necessary for Neapolitan style). I saw a YouTube review of the new gozney- it looks really nice and has a wider opening, but worried the enlarged opening will affect temp. Not a big fan of the vent on it either, but for the price, seems like a very good choice.
Yea, need to let it sit at room temp for a couple hours. Would also suggest rubbing a little bit of olive oil on your hands on initially handling the dough, then straight into some flour. The stickier the dough, the higher the hydration. I’ve had a lot more luck getting my dough to stretch at 70% hydration. That’s a little on the high end, but until my stretching technique improves, I’m going to stick with it.
Yea this might be it. Looks like the dome but the Arx XL + stand + cover is like $1250. https://us.gozney.com/pages/arc