Interesting. I occasionally make one very similar to that, my wife loves it, only real change is that i slice up some walnuts and put them on as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by j44ke
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Interesting. I occasionally make one very similar to that, my wife loves it, only real change is that i slice up some walnuts and put them on as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by j44ke
Ooni Volt arrived this week. Their first electric pizza oven- and it has top and bottom heating elements.
The gas fired one we have is great for Neapolitan pies but I want to do more experimenting with NY/New Haven etc versions.
My wife has our holiday menu mapped out to the last ingredient so it’ll probably be the 27th before our first cook.
Only splurged because a little money came our way from my folks and they demanded that my wife and I use a little for fun instead of socking it all into the college fund as I typically do in these instances. (I may or may not have also ordered a soft top surfboard…)
Simple is better. I've played with all sorts of things when creating pizzas. A new new new (think shouting dragstrip announcer) favorite to replace sauce is basically roasted eggplant/onion/garlic minced and made up with some EVO.
Enter the simple pizza :) Both are oven pizzas, so no spectacular jaguar spots. These are simple pies made on the go for a quick dinner.
Shitake mushrooms lightly sauted in salted butter with EVO base, asiago/mozzarella cheese with a pepper grind or three. Absolutely wonderful, uncomplicated and goes with a cold beer. The other pie is topped with pan roasted brussel sprouts in salted butter and a dash of EVO than chopped and cooled. Just a thin splash of EVO for the sauce and topped with curls of the king of cheese (Parm. Reggiano). A good name for this one would be "Gone in 60 seconds".
Keep it simple yo.
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First pies with the Volt the other night and this thing is legit. I used Beddia’s ~30 hour proof dough recipe and they came out perfect. I will measure the dough balls next time and toss them a little thinner, but the crust came out airy and chewy and the right amount of baked on the base plus crisp on the toppings.Quote:
Originally Posted by robin3mj
You can still do Neapolitans with it at 850 but my NJ-raised heart wants what it wants.
Anyone in the DC area who wants a crack at my gas fired Ooni is welcome to it for a very low price before my wife throws it to the Facebook marketplace wolves.
Wrapped up 2023 with a couple pies last night. Mozzarella & Fontina on the first one, and the 2nd was shiitake mushrooms + pepperoni + jalpenos on my half.
In a rush while grocery shopping I didn't bother to ask "what does Arrabbiata mean?" And it turns out it means spicy. So the kiddo wouldn't eat it, and wife ate it but didn't like it. I thought it was great though! But I won't be buying the spicy sauce again lol.
I've got six more dough balls in the freezer, very interested in seeing how those turn out, I've never tried freezing dough before. Basically I just mixed up a whole bag of flour at once.
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Frozen doughballs are THE WAY TO GO PEOPLE!! Makes it so easy for weeknight pizza.
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I often freeze one or two after pizza night and they turn out fine if you thaw them out on the counter rather than using a microwave or dipping the ziploc in warm water to accelerate the process. As you say, great for a weeknight pizza. I have also snuck them in amongst fresh dough while serving a bigger crowd and it’s hard to tell the difference once you get everything going.
Yeah I took this one out of the freezer last night, stuck it in the fridge, and then put it on the counter tonight for about an hour before stretching it out and making the pie. Worked great!
A local bakery that makes fantastic bread (flour, yeast, salt in a coal-fired oven that they say hasn't cooled since sometime in the 1940s) sells frozen pizza dough. I buy a half a dozen or so and three or four days ahead I stick one in the bottom of the fridge to thaw. A few hours before baking it sits in a bowl on the counter. I think the long time in the fridge really makes it come out great.
Atlanta recently had a few restaurants awarded Michelin stars, and some were given a 'Bib Gourmand' award, which is for great food at a reasonable price. Antico Pizza Napoletana is one of those that won a Bib Gourmand, and we checked it out last week and it was good, like really good. It also made me feel good 'cause I'd put my crust up against theirs.
The menu is almost entirely in Italian, there's no substitutions or modifications allowed to the pizzas, and they come in one size - which is pretty big. That's a full size sheet pan in the pic below. My kiddo ate a slice, the wife and I killed the rest.
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Antico's is excellent. The lasagna pie is my favorite. No trip to Antico is complete without a cannoli filled at time of order. My son recommends you take the kid to Jeni's ice cream. Its a step above the normal scoop shop shiz.Quote:
Originally Posted by dgaddis
Will definitely try Jeni's next time!Quote:
Originally Posted by gt6267a
Made the last of the frozen dough balls from a while back. This one wasn't great, the dough, I think it was in the freezer too long. Or maybe it didn't spend enough time in the fridge thawing (~12hrs vs 24hrs I've done previously). The crust was dense, but it was edible. Kiddo liked it.
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I haven’t been to Ken’s Artisan Pizza (Portland) in about four years and I was happy to see they continue to amaze. Ken is the Ken Forkish of Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast.
I was reading an article about Portland pizza scene recently and one of the joints uses Cairnspring flours. I bought four different ones and looking forward to trying them out.
We also have a newish bread maker and need to branch out beyond just the basic white loaves we’ve been using.
First pies in a while, and damn good ones at that. The white/peach pizza was good but a bit bland, it needed something. Suggestions? I'm thinking red onion. It had a ricotta base that had garlic and basil mixed in, then topped with mozzarella and pecorino romano and a balsamic glaze drizzle (which it needed more of).
The 'Hawaiian BBQ' is always awesome and a personal favorite.
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Karen had a "Pizza Sorrento" for lunch today. Thin crust, mozzarella walnuts and lemon zest. I'm making that after we travel back home. I sampled a bite. It was delicious.
Well...this weekend's pizza cook didn't go as planned. I stretched the dough too thin, maybe the toppings were too heavy, maybe both. But there was an air bubble that inflated in the center of the pie, then when I went to rotate it, the center of the dough tore spilling fluids onto the stone which then caught on fire. Ended up tossing it into the trash and picking up to-go from the local pizza joint down the street. Will have to clean the stone before the next cook.
BOOOOOO.
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I’m liking the uniqueness of your topping selections.
There's a super popular peach farm/packing/ agri-tourist spot called Dickey Farms here in middle GA. As a middle GA resident you're required to make a few trips out there every summer for peaches, ice cream, and various produce. A few summers ago a now-closed pizza spot came out with a Dickey Farm's peach pizza and it was SOOOOOOOO good. That's where the idea came from. I haven't made one as good as theirs yet...Quote:
Originally Posted by rwsaunders
Nice pie. Your child appears to be in another world ;)
For pizza ovens, is there any advantage of wood fire over gas fire? With gas, light it off, get hot, make pizzas, and shut off the gas. Wood adds complexity, but is it worth it?
I don’t own one but I’ve used our friends’ pellet version a dozen times or so…go for the gas imho.Quote:
Originally Posted by bigbill
I went from a gas version to the electric Ooni which can be used indoors and has a wider ranger of temperature controls.
Already have a smoker so the idea for the pizza oven is that it’s relatively quick (aside from 24-48 hours dough prep) and no need to fuss with getting the wood fire up to temps.
Cooking this hot and fast you’re not getting any “smoke” flavor, so IMO, no, it’s not worth it. Gas is easy, predictable, and repeatable. I went with gas and am glad I did.Quote:
Originally Posted by bigbill
A 25 degree day and an orphaned dough ball in the freezer seemed like a good opportunity to fire up the oven.
San Marzano tomatoes, sauteed bell peppers, burrata, basil. That's it.
Overcooked by about 30 seconds, but tasty nonetheless.
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I've learned a lot over my years of cooking thousands of pies. I agree that wood fired pizza is more lore and romanticism than a process that yields a better tasting pizza. While large (think over 250kg) wood fired ovens can be fun to use, small wood fired ovens are extremely difficult to use effectively. Frankly, IMO they are completely ineffective.Quote:
Originally Posted by dgaddis
I've had multiple smaller pizza ovens including the supposedly excellent ooni koda 16. I found that it lacked the necessary ability to retain enough heat to reliably cook excellent pizzas. IMO, it is just too small and is therefore hard to hold appropriate temperature through the cooking cycle. The flame is also too close to your pizza. As a result, it is easy to get undercooked or burned pizzas and very difficult to make perfect pies.
I sold the ooni for 50cents on the dollar and was happy to get rid of it. I replaced it with a wood and natural gas fired gozney dome. The dome is a superb oven.
Lacking a natural gas hookup for my initial several weeks of ownership, I broke it in with wood. Like any wood fired oven, it takes patience and time. You need to build a fire, get the oven to your favored temperature, let the fire and coals die to the appropriate size and temperature, and then cook your pies.
Cooking with wood did not impart any smoky flavor. And, with wood, you really are unable to adjust your cooking temperature on the fly in any meaningful way. It is also tricky to cook multiple pies because of the way the temperature diminishes.
Once I got my natural gas line installed, I never cooked with wood again. I anticipate only cooking with wood if my gas service is interrupted.
The advantage of cooking with gas is I know I can reliably and repeatedly get the cooking floor to the mid 700 degree temps I prefer in about 30 minutes, and then I can quickly and easily lower the flame to where I like it. I can also adjust flame size while my pies are cooking based on the how the crust is cooking (think leopard spots).
My advice--
Skip wood unless you are building or buying a massive oven and have a lot of time and patience;
But at least a gozney dome sized oven. In fact, just buy a dome. Its the perfect home oven;
Just get the natural gas or propane fired oven and save yourself $4-500.
Thank me later.
PS, I know this is an opinionated post but there is a lot of BS available everywhere re pizza and ovens and this advice was very hard earned.
Simple mozzarella and basil:
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Sauteed leeks, shitake mushrooms, and fontina cheese. This was a home run.
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That looks pro Dustin.
Here’s one I made the other night.