An impulse buy and new toy a few months ago, was an Ooni pizza oven! A treat to myself and something to look forward to when I broke up from Uni for the Summer. There was quite a wait for it to arrive, as I think most of the country must have ordered one too. There was also the little problem of some of the parts being stuck on the Ever Given, in the Suez canal. I went for the Ooni ‘Fyra’ wood burning oven which is the most basic oven, but there’s quite a few to choose from. If you’re really into pizza ovens there’s a pro version or you can go dual fuel.
My new toy has now arrived, the Uni books have been put down and the weather is now beginning to play ball. Not that I had to justify my purchase, but I thought it would get us doing something together, we can enjoy the results outside and who doesn’t love wood fired pizza?!
The pizza oven is really easy to assemble and when Ooni claim it is ready to cook within 15 minutes, they really aren’t lying. Before using it for the first time, it needs to be running for half an hour or so to get rid of any impurities from manufacturing. Once cool it just needs a wipe and then you’re ready to go for next time.
The kids were really excited about using it but hadn’t realised that the dough takes a few hours to do. No kids, it’s not instant and needs a bit of planning! With my youngest we had great fun one morning making the dough and our sauce. She wasn’t so sure about getting her hands stuck in for kneading the dough though. I did it by hand and I’m not sure if I didn’t knead for long enough or overworked it.
The pizzas were however tasty, despite the yeast being a little old. We need to practise our timing as the first time we burnt the first one!!! It was a family event of decorating the pizza on the pizza peel and then timing how long it needed by counting elephants(!) A few turns and the pizza literally takes a few seconds to cook. It really is that quick. I’m glad I bought the infrared thermometer as this ensures that the pizza stone is at the right temperature. We have had a few pizza nights now; I just need to experiment with getting the dough right and shaping the pizzas themselves. There are tuition videos on tossing the pizza dough in the air, making it look easy. I’m not quite there yet!
So far, I’m really pleased with my new toy. It’s not hard to clean, doesn’t make too much mess and is quite portable. It really got us all involved and was lovely to eat something we had made from scratch outside in the garden. Now I’ve just got to tidy up the garden but that’s another project in itself.
Do you have a pizza oven? Any tips on making the dough or tossing the pizzas? Let me know in the comments.
I bought the Ooni pizza oven and accessories myself and have received no incentive to mention them.