Ooni Woodfired Pizza Over - any experts?

[royalewithcheese]

I have the Ooni that takes wood pellets, its fantastic but have found you do need to be a bit careful with the first pizza on the stone as the stone does get too hot and you end up with a burnt base if you dont work fast.

My normal process is:
Fill tray with pellets but not the chute, vent fully open and get the fire started and then fill the chute 5 minute later.
Wait 20 mins for it all to get hot, top up the chute again if necessary

First pizza goes on, shut the door. Wait 20 seconds then give it a spin 180 degrees and then leave for another 20 seconds with the door shut. The base is spot on at this point but the top and crust is a little undercooked, so get the pizza on your peel and offer it up near the fire, holding it about half way up the oven so the flames kiss the top. Only takes 5-10 seconds, give it another spin and same again for another 5-10 seconds and that is normally perfect for me

The first pizza takes some of the heat out the stone so the second and subsequent pizzas go on for 25-30 seconds, spin 180 degrees and another 25-30 seconds. I find the subsequent ones dont need holding up on the peel near the fire, they just come out spot on.

Keeping the door shut is key for getting the top cooked well as thats what causes the flames to draw across the top to the exhaust pipe and cook the top.

Theres also a fine line on the amount of flour to have on your peel, you need just enough to make it not stick, but what I did quickly learn is that if you douse it in flour, that all goes on the stone as you slide the pizza off the peel and then burns, sticks to the pizza and tastes like crap

 

[Jagged77]

For years we used a ceramic pizza stone for the oven, changed for a lodge cast iron one and it is amazing. We make our own dough - easy enough Jamie Oliver recipe. Semolina for sliding in and out.

Ive got a pizza stone for the Weber but using it is just a novelty when the above works so well.

Sorry, not much of a help to the OP with the woodfired oven woes but a solid backup perhaps?

 

[bambislayer]

I have the wood pellets one , with no issue. We cook quite a lot of stuff in it, including venison kebabs

 

[NoIDeer]

Bin the wood fire and go for gas it's much more controllable and I'd bet you couldn't tell difference.

I would also recommend watching a few YouTube videos on the subject there's a real art to making the dough and building a pizza.

A member of my family has a wood fire pizza business a lesson or two from him transformed my poor efforts with my gozney oven.
One interesting lesson was to use less than a gram of fresh yeast in a kilo of dough and take a whole day to prove and ball it!

 

[SussexSteve]

500 degrees is too hot I aim for around 350. Use the door to regulate the heat if it’s too hot or cold. Should have a nice rolling flame coming over the top of the oven towards chimney. I always throw off a wooden peel and retrieve with metal

 

[Tralle]

I have one of the cheap gas fired ones, cozze.
It is absolutely doable, but it does have quite the learning curve, playing with temperature and you have to wait between pizzas.

My sister spent a lot of money on an electric one.

That is nice!

Below is the difference between pizzas made in a gas fired 4 years ago and a recent in her electric oven.





The dough is everything, and you need good flour to make a good dough.

Do not overfill the pizza, do not expect to succeed if you make a "meat lover" pizza in a small pizza oven. They are for Italian style pizza.

Technique working the dough when making the pizza is hard! But when you get it down it makes a world of difference. (I am no master yet)

 

[75]

Thanks folks - might have to get the gas conversion. I find the wood option too fickle and the "sweet spot" for cooking where the stone temp and air temp are just right is too hard to achieve consistently.

 

[shakey jake]

Thanks folks - might have to get the gas conversion. I find the wood option too fickle and the "sweet spot" for cooking where the stone temp and air temp are just right is too hard to achieve consistently.

Wood was a pain in mine, gas dead easy

 

[dogman56]

I've had an Ooni Karu and I use a mixture of lump wood and when up to temp - about 400 - 450c, I put some wood kidling in and this gets the rolling flames. Put the thin pizza in and turn regularly, takes about a minute. Give it a time to get back up to temp and more wood! It's slow to do a batch but good pizzas.