Pizza ovens

Anyone got a good recipe for a same day pizza dough? I usually use the Vito Iacopelli one with poolish but would like to make a pizza tonight

Try turning the gas down to its lowest setting just after you've launched the pizza. It gives a more even cook for both base and toppings overall imo

yes it does take longer, Ive never timed it but its approx 3 minutes total cooking time at a guess. But doing it that way means the base is sitting on the hot stone longer crisping up while the toppings and cheese are cooking at a slower rate and take much longer to burn with the gas flame turned down to its lowest setting. Another advantage of the gas being on low is you can throw on some basil leaves for the last 15-20 seconds and they wont shrivel up and burn almost instantly like they do when the gas is at its full flame and raging hot.

I know there is this thing in pizza folklore with the 90 second Neapolitan pizza done at 500c but in my experience with the Ooni turning the heat down upon launch means both elements of the base and the toppings come to being completed at the same time without one burning before the other is done. Like cooking Neapolitan pizzas in 90 seconds is possible in one of those giant brick ovens you see in pizza restaurants but with the Ooni yes you can cook something in 90 seconds but its unlikely that both toppings and base will be done to a satisfactory doneness, the toppings like pepperoni will be burning and the cheese will be like molten lava while the base wont be crisp enough. So give it a try with a low flame and let us know how you found it.

Try leaving the gas on full tilt for a while longer before you launch your pizza then lowering. In my experience the reason the base tends not to cook is it genuinely needs heat from below (the stone) so if possible get the middle of your stone to 430 - 440 and see how that goes. Also leave a few mins on full between pizzas for the stone to recover.

If it gets too hot the flour and or semolina and base may burn so there’s a little trial and error, especially if you don’t have an infrared thermometer handy.

I make the same recipe and use a stand mixer. But yes it is a messy, sticky dough becasue it is 70% water. I dont pour all the water into the stand mixer in one go, I hold back 100ml of the 400ml and add it gradually. Even then though it can turn into a load of gloop, I think it is to do with the relative humidity in your house which effects how much water the flour can absorb. So the same brand of flour could behave differently in summer than it does in winter when we get a lot of moisture in the air. So with that in mind sometimes Ive gone to just 67% or 68% hydration and not used every single drop of the 400ml water as I know from looking at it that adding all the water will result in an unworkable dough that then needs more flour to fix it.

Even in perfect conditions 70% hydration dough is tricky to work with. Covering your hands in oil does help though and the slapping technique he shows helps get the dough smooth. Another trick is if the dough is not smooth enough to cover it in cling film and let it relax for 45 minutes and it will get smoother. Have no ideas why that works but it works very well.

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• Portable stone floored oven
• Professional grade pizza peel (worth €79)
• Detachable gas burner
• Bottle opener
• Manual

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I add wheat gluten to my dough and it really helps with stretching etc which allows me to leave a very thin base

As mentioned check your yeast isnt dead as that is what forms gluten to make it elastic and easy to stretch. Dried yeast is so cheap it is no harm to throw it out every few months to avoid a dead yeast problem. Or use fresh yeast every time and chuck what is unused, it is only 60 cents in the Polish shops and delivers better depth of flavour than dried yeast anyway. If using fresh you need to double the amount a recipe says to use for dried.

Ive been using this recipe for almost 2 years now with great results. It is a high hydration dough (70%) but when learning it just go to 65% water as it can be tricky (sticky!) to handle. If it is too sticky after kneading cover it in cling film and leave for 30 minutes and it will smooth itself out, also cover your hands in oil to make it easier to handle. Write down all the steps in the video in a note on your phone and then follow them rigidly every time you make it. The only time that dough didnt work out for is when I didnt follow the steps fully and left it at room temperatire a lot longer than I should have. So now I have every step on my phone and I follow it to a tee.

Also what weight are your dough balls Ive seen some recipes written for 150g dough balls which is way too little for a learner to master and stretch out to a 12 inch pizza base, it will result in the dough ripping. When learning aim for dough balls of about 280-300g as that is a lot more forgiving. With time and confidence you can reduce it down to 220-240g for a thinner pizza.

yeah definitely weigh out the balls and aim for 300g, using more dough is more forgiving when it comes to stretching out, you can reduce it later with more confidence. Watch a few videos on stretching on Youtube and study the techniques, thats the important bit to get down. I find the clock stretch on the counter with your both hands and the gravity stretch the easiest. Use plenty of flour on the counter top so it doesnt stick and rip.

I use a stand mixer and then just hand knead a small bit to shape and get it into a big ball. Ive made the mistake of over mixing pizza dough in a stand mixer before and it resulted in a dough that was too elastic and very hard to stretch out, it would keep shrinking back to a smaller size. Even a rolling pin couldnt get it stretched out to a 12 inch base, it kept shrivelling back to like 6 or 7 inches. I made one pizza with it which was way too thick and bready and then binned the rest of the batch.

All stand mixers are different but I think 6-7 minutes at a medium speed generally works. My mixer has 7 speed settings and I put it on 5. Better to do too little kneading in the mixer and then finish it off by hand kneading than to over mix it so that the gluten becomes way too elastic.

What you describe there with the over-elastication is what I've run into hence the question. I would have left it running at a similar setting for more like 15 mins as up to that point the whole dough is still extremely wet and doesn't really cohere into a ball. Would you find it's still quite wet coming out after 6-7 mins? I guess it's just a case of oiling up the hands to knead it for another little bit and getting it back into the container

yeah I would recommend investing in a stand mixer and can also recommend the Aldi version, Ambiano is their brand. Cost me 60 euro and has been making pizza dough for 3 years now without a problem.Thats what 90% of its use is as Im not a big baker, the other 10% is whipped cream for the odd dessert. It saves that 8-10 minutes of hard hand kneading that used to put me off making pizza dough altogether. I dont see a need to be spending 300+ on a fancy Kitchen Aid when a 60 quid mixer from Aldi or Lidl can do the job just fine

yeah 15 minutes is definitely too long and the dough is then is over kneaded which brings its own problems and cant really be reversed. When it is over elastic and bounces back upon stretching its basically only good for the bin because it will result in thick bready doughy pizzas that are uncooked around the crust.

What Id advise on your next run is to only add 50% of the water to begin with on speed 3 setting and then trickle in the next 25% over minutes 2-3. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of flour with a spatula. Then start the mixer again and keep trickling bit by bit and watch how the dough reacts like a hawk. Wait about 15 seconds between water trickles. You wont always have to do this but its important to log in your head how the dough changes with more water being added. Keep trickling water but be mindful that at this point even a tiny bit like 25mls can be the difference between a dough ball that has formed around the hook and is slapping the sides of the bowl (how you want it) and a dough that goes all gloopy and wet again. When the dough has formed you can up the speed more to about no. 5 out of 7 speeds. Remember you do not have to use 100% of the water the recipe calls for, if your instinct is that adding all of it will result in a really wet dough then dont go that far.

With that recipe in the Youtube video the hydration of that dough is 70% so it is very high. Like in the video it is still a very wet dough but it has come together properly and it isnt total gloop. It means your hands need to be well oiled to handle it or else they will stick and you need to move fast to shape it. Id advise only going to 65% hydration on your first go, you can up it later with confidence. Also if the ball is not totally smooth cover it air tight on the counter with cling film and leave it rest for 30-40 minutes. When you return it will be a lot smoother, have no ideas how or why that trick works but it does and I almost always use it.

Unless you are planning on putting it in a permanent place, I'd try get a bottle of patio gas that will fit that connection, it's much easier to pop on and off

Yup. That's a patio gas connector

Thanks a lot for the detailed advice. I'll report back the next time I'm making a batch as to how I got on. The coherent ball slapping against the sides of the bowl is what I have managed to achieve by leaving the thing running for ages so I know what to look out for at least.

I know I won't be popular but I always put my pizza to launch on tinfoil for the first few minutes and then remove it when turning

I recently bought an Ooni so am a complete beginner.

I do use semolina instead of flour for dusting the peel and it works well.

might be worth turning down the heat once the pizza is launched.

I’ve had some good pizzas and disasters including the pizza that fell apart in the Ooni and just went on fire.

I've had my fair share of disasters, but once or twice I've had pizzas which have stuck to the peel or had holes in them and I've managed to salvage them as a "calzone".

Always worth bearing it in mind if things start to go wrong.

Ooni even have a blog post about it: https://ooni.com/blogs/recipes/the-recovery-calzone

This might be a stupid question - do you par bake in the conventional oven or in the pizza oven? And for how long?