Pizza Oven Build

[mm289]

View attachment 194534 Your fire looks like a demon on fire!

Lol, see where you're going with that one

So managed to finish this off last weekend and just made our second batch of Pizza yesterday

First job was, having laid the tiles, I then needed to grout them in and build up the rendering around so that they were flush with the edges etc. Also applied some sealant to the tiles but not sure how well this will weather over the winter.



Then made some doors for the wood store underneath. Local timber merchant only had 1 length of bead and butt left which was as twisted as a barley sugar - hoped I would get away with it but it isn't ideal



Then finished off the whole oven with 2 coats of Sandtex to hopefully keep most of the moisture from being absorbed into the render and here is the finished article.





Have to say it looks really good and very pleased with it - but boy did it take some effort

No for some pics of pizza's

Cheers,

MM

 

[mm289]

And then onto pizza making. Have to make 2 batches of dough as wife is gluten intolerant, so normal dough for us, gluten free for her.

Just making basic Neapolitans with a few bits of Italian sausage added on for interest.

Pizza station ready for "construction"


Then a garlic bread, and a couple of pizza's



After the second set (yesterday) getting better at making the bases and it is a learning curve controlling the temp in the oven (about 400deg C) but the taste is awesome, lovely and crisp pizza with a soggy middle if that makes any sense

Bit late in the season but hopefully time for a few more Pizza partie's yet this year - and a project actually finished (that makes a change)

Cheers,

MM

 

[Maker]

They look amazing. I make pizza quite a lot but in a normal oven that only goes to 250 degrees so you can't get individual blobs of mozzarella like that, I might try taking it out the oven a couple of minutes before it's done and then put the cheese on. A couple of suggestions if I may; put basil leaves on after it's out the oven so they don't shrivel up like that and spread the tomato right up to the edge, the smaller the crust the better. I make 10 bases worth of dough at a time and freeze 250g balls for later.

 

[mm289]

Yep, I am experimenting with technique, some put basil on first others later. Also perfecting making the base's - want to see if I can make up a batch of base's and have them laid out on a floured surface so people can just come along and add their own toppings when they are ready and I can slip onto the peel.

Trouble is they only take about 90 secs to cook in the oven and need turning during that time so it is a full on process meaning I don't have time to make up the base's for people and cook them.

How do the dough balls cope with freezing?

Do you use a pizza stone in the normal oven or just on a tray?

Cheers,

MM

 

[Maker]

They freeze just fine, put them in individual freezer bags and you can defrost them in a bowl of water pretty quickly.

This one's been in there three or four months, I'll defrost it in a few days and see how it is, I've not left one so long before but when its been a month or so you wouldnt tell it apart from fresh dough.
(Excuse the yellow splooge on the freezer door, it's a shared student house and they're all mingers)

I make them on the tray, two ovens on full whack and four trays, two people can prep theirs while two are cooking, they take seven or eight minutes so I've got time to help with the bases. It's quite a sticky dough (67% water) but you can get away with less as you've got a hotter oven which makes it much easier to work with.

I tried a piece of granite worktop as a pizza stone but it was more trouble than it was worth and cracked down the middle first use. I got the recipe from Alex French Guy Cooking on YouTube, he uses a bit of 10mm stainless plate as a "stone" which seems to work very well but a bit too rich for my blood.

Some people (including Dominoes) use Semolina rather than flour to roll out the dough, I cant decide if it's really any better than flour but its something to try, it might be easier to pick them up on a peel using semolina.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

@mm289 Nice work, your white paint put me in mind of a holiday I had in Santorini

On a serious note, won't the fact you sealed the flagstones make them slippery should anyone spill food or drinks on them? (I've read that in some parts of the country, people do sometimes spill alcohol )

 

[stuvy]

Ferment your dough and it will taste even better than before

I went to place that fermented there dough for 4 days

 

[mm289]

@slim, its the tiles in front of the oven that are sealed, not the patio slabs

@stuvy the First batch I left overnight but this last batch was a quick one, only 4 hours to ferment. Haven't tried a long ferment yet.

Cheers,

mM

 

[James Farrington]

only took 4 years! But got there in the end.

 

[Bmouthboyo]

Great build diary. I am actually making a similar thing for my Milan 750 but with Oak sleepers as the oven support.

Can I pick your brains on a few points?

1. Where did you buy your silver foil? Is it specially made for construction? And do you think it is worth doing?
2. How much extra thickness do you think the insulation and render add? Trying to think how much of an offset from the edge to have the oven to maximise front space for a oven height shelf.
3. How has your render lasted? Did it crack?
4. Was the fire cement you were provided Ever Build KOS? Considering getting the high temp stuff you got it you didn't get on with it.
5. Do you still use the clay chimney pot? I have the steel with the damper so considering this pot also and inserting the steel with dampener farther up so I can adjust if I wanted to do a lower temp cook.
6. Have you managed to source a way of covering the oven part? And do you recommend this? I have not seen any covers so at a bit of a loss as to if it is worth while.
7. What wood do you use when cooking pizza and how long does it take to heat up?

Thanks in advanced, huge help seeing this detailed build

 

[bourbon]

you could always make one from scratch

 

[bourbon]