First pizzas out of our wfo in 2013
The weather in the UK last summer was awful and I hadn't taken the cover off our wfo from April 2012 until yesterday :( . It was our first pizza session and I fired the oven so that it was really hot. 534 degrees Celcius hot - that is 993 degrees Fahrenheit and I was suffering whilst I tried to move the logs and ashes to the side so that I could start cooking!
My youngest daughter (17 yo) was "starving" so I was forced into cooking her pizza virtually straight away. It took under 2 minutes and looked like this -
We went on to cook another 6 pizzas and then, as the oven cooled down to a more reasonable 260C, we roasted a chicken for tonight's dinner. It tastes lovely and moist with more than a hint of barbeque woodsmoke. I can only hope that we have some decent weather this summer so that we can use the oven more - maybe for baking some loaves as well :) .
That is just gorgeous! Boy would I love to have a slice right this minute :) Hope you daughter enjoyed it!
Beautiful! Looking forward to seeing more this summer.
Beautifully baked and topped pizza!
I'm looking forward to more of your WFO baking! The wait for good weather was certainly worth it : )
Sylvia
hopefully it will be better this year. The pizza looks great. Nothing like a WFO to make artisan anything :-) So how long did it take for your oven to go from 534 to 260? There must have been a window for some fine bread baking in there somewhere!
Nicely pone and happy baking.
Hello DA
My oven is a "lightweight" model so, although it is well insulated using modern kiln materials, it has a comparatively low thermal mass. In fact, two averagely strong people can lift it and, for the most part, it sits on a frame with wheels so it can be moved around. It took about 1.5 hours to drop in temperature, but with the front open. When we put the chicken in and the door in place it only dropped 40C in an hour. I think that when I use it for bread I will clean out the embers at around 300C and put the bread in at about 260C, with a few sprays of water then put the door in place for 20 mins or so. After that it will be guesswork on how long to continue the bake but you know what they say - "practice makes perfect" and I look forward to practicing :) .
Richard, I'm amazed that such a lightweight construction can retain so much heat.
Bake your pizzas first with the embers still burning. Then clean out your oven and bake your bread. I figure you have already worked that one out.
Look forward to seeing the bread you manage to bake
All good wishes
Andy
Nice looking pizza. I could go for a slice myself :)
I'll be putting a fire in mine tonight for bread baking tomorrow AM.
TIme for a fire in mine as well. Nice Job on the Pizza!!! Wish you the best of luck on the weather.
I'd be lining up to steal that one you baked for your daughter Richard!
They say the best pizzas bake in 90 seconds. 2 minutes is the best I've ever managed; it was spectacular!
Let's hope for plenty baking in brick ovens for us both this summer in the UK
Take good care
Andy
Thanks Andy, I did enjoy the cooking that I did in it. Best Wishes Richard
Excellent Pizza! Wow is all i can say.
-Khalid
Thanks Khalid. I hope the UK summer is good enough for me to practice a bit - unlike last year! I made a hybrid dough with a sourdough poolish and then fresh yeast in the final dough as well. using good quality pizzeria flour so the crust had good flavour as well as colour - we just need to get quicker at forming the pizza from the dough ball!
Good Afternoon:
Your food and the wood fire oven look fantastic and just perfect
. The size of your oven is perfect for us since we have only two people.
Did you buy your oven or does someone made it for you? I live in the U.S. (Virginia) and would love to have an oven just like yours. Does anyone in America has any idea of where to get a compact and "inexpensive" wood fire oven here?
Mantana
Hello Mantana
Our oven is on the large side for 2 people - the cooking floor is about 1 metre diameter and will take 4 or more pizzas at a time, so you would cope with something a bit smaller. The oven is made in the UK by Bernito Ovens (our oven is described as large commercial on their website) and I am sorry but I do not know of a supplier of similar ovens in the US.
http://bernitopizzaovens.co.uk/
I am about 30 minutes away from trying a first go at making pizza on my gas grill, BUT with unglazed quarry tiles as the stone surface to bake on. Just like my breads in the oven.
This post sure has given me the extra inspiration to get mine right tonight. Thanks for the post. The pizza looks amazing.
John
Hello Ruralidle:
I apologized for not answering your kind information above until now. I did not log in nor read anything on thefreshloaf for a long while.
I went on line to check out the oven and really wish that I can get one. It is unique, light weight and just fit my need. Unfortunately I live in America and the shipping cost will just make the cost unreachable for me. I went on line and search for something similar in America but nothing fit the bill. I hope that soon we will be fortunately enough to have it here.
Thanks again for your quick reply.
mantana