Wood Burning Pizza Ovens

you reckon?

Different flour types with different protein, Hydration levels, varying temperature, over proving, under proving, yeast issues....etc

making a good dough takes a bit of effort and understanding....I’ve made some right piles of shite.

You must have the voodoo
You can solve all of those keeping ingredients and process consistent. I'm far from a pro (to say the least! :lol:) but it didn't take me more than a few efforts to nail something that gets good results. You're just following a basic recipe at the end of the day.

I do think dough making gets over complicated at times. Use that pizza app and make sure you're kneading it properly and you shouldn't really have many issues. Once you know the basics it's a doddle and you can just repeat it over and over.

Obviously understanding the level of hydration is important, and ensuring your proving it for the suitable amount of time. If anyone is interested in making good dough I'd recommend watching a few YouTube videos as well to see techniques of others. There's loads of them and they aways help.

I
I’ve had them turn out really tasty but recently they’ve been tight and don’t like being stretched. I’ve been using an online pizza calculator to make Neapolitan style ones and they do taste good but I’d say half the time the dough doesn’t stretch well and rips.

I’ll give it a whirl. I was using an online one and they were tasting better, but dunno if I’ve been under or over mixing. The trouble seems to come when it comes to shaping it.

If it's too tight you've probably got the hydration wrong (too much flour, not enough water), or you're not kneading it enough and not allowing it to proof for long enough. Could be a combination of all three!

What recipe were you using, and what flour? Shouldnt be too hard to work out what went wrong.
 


I’ve been leaving it to prove for 8-12 hours. They dough is sticky when I start to form dough balls, just seems to go tits up at this stage. Gonna try needing it by hand next time.
 
I’ve been leaving it to prove for 8-12 hours. They dough is sticky when I start to form dough balls, just seems to go tits up at this stage. Gonna try needing it by hand next time.

I would say it is always better to knead manually. My mother was a brilliant baker and she would run her wrists under a cold tap beforehand.
 
I’ve been leaving it to prove for 8-12 hours. They dough is sticky when I start to form dough balls, just seems to go tits up at this stage. Gonna try needing it by hand next time.
Proving time seems excessive - if you're making a basic white dough as long as your room isn't cold 1 hour/90 mins-knock back-1 hour/90 mins and then shape and roll will be fine.

If you overprove the structure that traps the air bubbles easily collapses and it just becomes very dense
 
being lazy I've had a delivery of sourdough pizza balls delivered from Ooni. Will let you know how they turn out - if we get something other than flipping rain over the next couple of days.
 
Proving time seems excessive - if you're making a basic white dough as long as your room isn't cold 1 hour/90 mins-knock back-1 hour/90 mins and then shape and roll will be fine.

If you overprove the structure that traps the air bubbles easily collapses and it just becomes very dense
I do about 90 mins, cut into balls then cold proof in the fridge for 48hrs.

Never roll the dough if you're making a Neapolitan either, hand stretch it or you'll push out all of the air out of the dough.
 
I do about 90 mins, cut into balls then cold proof in the fridge for 48hrs.

Never roll the dough if you're making a Neapolitan either, hand stretch it or you'll push out all of the air out of the dough.
Fair enough, I only cold prove sourdoughs tbh

And I find rolling fine but then I'm using a wood fired over that gets to about 600 degrees so probably makes a difference in expanding smaller air bubbles quickly, I dunno
 
What's a plumb line?

Sex pond is self built with decking boards, the joys of canoe joints. Then painted with Tanking Paint to make it mostly leak free. Currently heated with a Lazy spa egg.

Got a mate who is fabricating a snorkel stove for me so it will soon also be wood fired.
 
Last edited:
I've realised some asked for a dough recipe and I didn't post it. Soz. See below! Recipe for 8 Neapolitan pizzas, cooked using the frying pan method.

1110g 00 pizza flour
700ml water (63% hydration)
32g salt (2.9%, just shy of 6 teaspoons)
7g active dried yeast (2.25 teaspoons. I use Allison's, it's a quid for a small tub of it from Asda)
1hr proof at room temperature
24hr to 48hr proof in the fridge

Superb dough on this. Pizza from this evening below:

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Dough method:

1) Measure out the yeast, add to the warm water, tiny bit of syrup to get it activated (probs can skip this if your yeast is very fresh). Leave for 15 mins until it starts bubbling away.

2) Add the salt to the flour and then add half the water/yeast mix. Mix together with a spoon. Add other half of water. Mix. This will be very wet, try to knead it in the bowl for a few minutes until it starts to stick together a little bit. This will really stick to your hands, it's supposed to be like this. Leave for 5 mins.

3) Lift out of the bowl and start slapping the dough onto the counter top for another 5 mins. Just pick it up and launch it down over and over again, it's very satisfying. This will still be very wet but you'll notice its not really sticking up the side too much. It is vital that you resist all temptations to add any extra flour, it doesn't need any! The more flour you add the denser the dough will be and you want this to be very light and airy. Leave to stand again for ten mins.

4) After ten mins it should be coming together now and ready to knead. If it isn't just keep picking it up and slapping it onto the counter. Knead for a solid 5 minutes then let it rest for another 15 mins. Get your body into the kneading!

5) After 15 mins its time for a final knead. Again, get your body into it and give it a solid 5-10 mins. Once you've done this it should be very smooth now and ready for the first proof. Oil your bowl slightly, shape your dough into a nice round ball, add a tiny bit of oil on top and then shove it in the bowl, stick a tea towel over it, leave for an hour. It'll increase in size very slightly after this.

6) After the hour get it out of the bowl and divide into 8 balls of approx 220g each. You can rip pieces of dough off the balls if you've got the sizes wrong, doesn't matter, just get them all evenly sized.

7) Now you're going to need to stick each ball into individual plastic freezer bags, or if you're smart and sustainable stick them all in a big sealed container. Oil each dough ball slightly or else they'll stick to the container and potentially dry out. Leave them for 24 to 48hrs in the fridge. Remove and place on the side 24hrs before cooking. You can freeze these without hassle, they'll defrost in a couple of hours at room temperature and it doesn't affect the dough, it'll still be great.

Cooking method

1) Get out your dough, frying pan and your ingredients (pizza sauce, mozzarella, basil soaked in water, some salt and little olive oil)

2) Get the grill on full blast and get your frying pan on the hob on full blast.

3) Chuck a handful of 00 flour (this is important, other flour will burn) onto your dough and ease it out of its container onto the surface. Chuck the same amount of flour onto your unfloured side of dough.

4) From the centre of the dough, press out away to edge, retaining a solid 2cm crust. Do not press the air out of this no matter what you do. Form a circle by rotating the dough and pressing it out. It should be about half the size of the final pizza at this stage.

5) Now pick up the dough and allow gravity to stretch the dough out. Just use both hands to pick it up and let the dough droop down, rotate until you've allowed gravity to stretch all sides of your dough.

6) Now pick up and sling onto the frying pan and shape it into a nicer circle with your hands in the pan - you won't get burned as the dough protects you from the heat

7) Sling on your pizza sauce, mozzarella and basil and drizzle with a bit of oil

8) Once the crust starts to puff up, check the base is looking slightly golden then immediately move your frying pan under the grill.

9) Give it 30s or so, then rotate, same, rotate. Take it out once you've got nice colour on all sides of your crust

10) Scran it with a load of chili oil and post pictures of it on this thread
 
I've realised some asked for a dough recipe and I didn't post it. Soz. See below! Recipe for 8 Neapolitan pizzas, cooked using the frying pan method.

1110g 00 pizza flour
700ml water (63% hydration)
32g salt (2.9%, just shy of 6 teaspoons)
7g active dried yeast (2.25 teaspoons. I use Allison's, it's a quid for a small tub of it from Asda)
1hr proof at room temperature
24hr to 48hr proof in the fridge

Superb dough on this. Pizza from this evening below:

Logon or register to see this image


Dough method:

1) Measure out the yeast, add to the warm water, tiny bit of syrup to get it activated (probs can skip this if your yeast is very fresh). Leave for 15 mins until it starts bubbling away.

2) Add the salt to the flour and then add half the water/yeast mix. Mix together with a spoon. Add other half of water. Mix. This will be very wet, try to knead it in the bowl for a few minutes until it starts to stick together a little bit. This will really stick to your hands, it's supposed to be like this. Leave for 5 mins.

3) Lift out of the bowl and start slapping the dough onto the counter top for another 5 mins. Just pick it up and launch it down over and over again, it's very satisfying. This will still be very wet but you'll notice its not really sticking up the side too much. It is vital that you resist all temptations to add any extra flour, it doesn't need any! The more flour you add the denser the dough will be and you want this to be very light and airy. Leave to stand again for ten mins.

4) After ten mins it should be coming together now and ready to knead. If it isn't just keep picking it up and slapping it onto the counter. Knead for a solid 5 minutes then let it rest for another 15 mins. Get your body into the kneading!

5) After 15 mins its time for a final knead. Again, get your body into it and give it a solid 5-10 mins. Once you've done this it should be very smooth now and ready for the first proof. Oil your bowl slightly, shape your dough into a nice round ball, add a tiny bit of oil on top and then shove it in the bowl, stick a tea towel over it, leave for an hour. It'll increase in size very slightly after this.

6) After the hour get it out of the bowl and divide into 8 balls of approx 220g each. You can rip pieces of dough off the balls if you've got the sizes wrong, doesn't matter, just get them all evenly sized.

7) Now you're going to need to stick each ball into individual plastic freezer bags, or if you're smart and sustainable stick them all in a big sealed container. Oil each dough ball slightly or else they'll stick to the container and potentially dry out. Leave them for 24 to 48hrs in the fridge. Remove and place on the side 24hrs before cooking. You can freeze these without hassle, they'll defrost in a couple of hours at room temperature and it doesn't affect the dough, it'll still be great.

Cooking method

1) Get out your dough, frying pan and your ingredients (pizza sauce, mozzarella, basil soaked in water, some salt and little olive oil)

2) Get the grill on full blast and get your frying pan on the hob on full blast.

3) Chuck a handful of 00 flour (this is important, other flour will burn) onto your dough and ease it out of its container onto the surface. Chuck the same amount of flour onto your unfloured side of dough.

4) From the centre of the dough, press out away to edge, retaining a solid 2cm crust. Do not press the air out of this no matter what you do. Form a circle by rotating the dough and pressing it out. It should be about half the size of the final pizza at this stage.

5) Now pick up the dough and allow gravity to stretch the dough out. Just use both hands to pick it up and let the dough droop down, rotate until you've allowed gravity to stretch all sides of your dough.

6) Now pick up and sling onto the frying pan and shape it into a nicer circle with your hands in the pan - you won't get burned as the dough protects you from the heat

7) Sling on your pizza sauce, mozzarella and basil and drizzle with a bit of oil

8) Once the crust starts to puff up, check the base is looking slightly golden then immediately move your frying pan under the grill.

9) Give it 30s or so, then rotate, same, rotate. Take it out once you've got nice colour on all sides of your crust

10) Scran it with a load of chili oil and post pictures of it on this thread

How long does this take start to finish?
 

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