Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven .. The Amazing Pizza Party

I love BBQ, so I opened a BBQ Restaurant..

I love Fried Chicken, so The Budlong is up next...

But, for fun, in my free time ... I LOVE neapolitan Pizza!

I have been wanting a WFO for awhile now, but my dilemma has been it's size and lack of portability. My brother recently sent me a link for the Pizza Party wood fired oven. I love that it's so lightweight compared to other WFO's, and it's only about $1k including delivery...

I received it from Italy today - made by a small, independent business run by a guy name Simone.. Nice guy, fast turnaround on my order (took about 10 days to get here from day order was placed).

Here's a pic, I fired it up today at Rub..:



Here's a link to their site:
http://www.wood-fired-pizza-oven.us

I have some dough cold-fermenting right now, and will be having many a pizza adventure this summer... I'll post pics as I explore, and I would love to hear from any other pizza adventurers ....

Has anyone else used this awesome oven?

Not a bad price at all - if it works well. I would highly recommend "borrowing" Mariano's (probably not theirs originally) idea of a pulled brisket Neapolitan pizza as a new app in the restaurant. Currently one of my guilty pleasures.

Rub: Can that oven be left out in the rain, or do you have to put it under some sort of roof or awning?

Rub: Can that oven be left out in the rain, or do you have to put it under some sort of roof or awning?

It's made of 808 stainless, so leaving it out is fine...

Here I am yesterday, after a few low temp seasoning fires, getting it up to temp. It went from cold to 840 within 30 minutes.. I used very dry Beech wood. For my seasoning fires, I used Post Oak (same as my smokers), cause that's what I have stacks of - but smoking wood and pizza oven wood serve very different purpose - one should be old and dry to burn hot and fast (pizza), and my smoking wood is only aged about a year, so it burns low n slow (wet wood)...


Here's a photo of the oven on it's stand - with one of my other new toys, the Loof Lighter. This lighter gets a bed of coals, or wood, started in less than 60 seconds - it has a heating element on the end of it, and provides constant forced combustion air (think hair dryer), and gets your fire roaring fast..


Beech wood is preferred over oak for this oven due to its size. Beech wood burns with the same thermal BTU's as oak, but dries out faster - so sourcing really dry beech wood is easier..

I've got 18 (265 G) dough balls cold fermenting right now. My brother, the pizzaolo from Phoenix, has been perfecting his Neapolitan pies for awhile now - so this is directly from his book...

This recipe will make 6 dough balls of about 270g each (for a 12-13" single-serving pizza), but you can scale it to whatever size you want.

Flour (100%) 1000g Caputo 00 pizzeria flour (the blue bag)
Water (62%) 620g - USE ICE COLD BOTTLED WATER
IDY(0.65%) 6.5g - needs to be instant dry, not active
Salt (1.5%) 15g - kosher is best

1. In a large bowl, mix 65% (650g) of the flour with 80% of ice cold water (496g). Mix until all water is absorbed into flour (don't overmix)

2. Cover and place in fridge for a 30-60 min autolyse (I put a layer of oil-sprayed plastic wrap directly on the dough to keep it from losing any moisture)

3. After 30-60 minutes, in a separate bowl add 15g salt to remaining 20% (124g) of room temperature bottled water and stir until dissolved.
**Don't use cold water for this step because it takes longer for salt to dissolve in cold water**

4. Add 100% (6.5g) of IDY and stir to mix well, then add remaining (350g) Caputo flour and mix until flour is hydrated (it'll be pretty dry).

5. Add both bowls to a stand mixer bowl and use dough hook for about 3-4 minutes. The final dough should be fairly sticky, and you'll know it's ready when it barely clears the sides of the bowl but sticks to the bottom. If it's still too wet after a few minutes and sticks to the sides then add a little more flour, or if it's too dry and doesn't stick to the bottom add 1T cold water at a time until the right texture is reached.
**Don't knead it for too long with the dough hook because the gluten will have already become well developed during the initial autolyse phase. And you also don't want the dough to get too warm, it should never get above 55° because you want the yeast to remain fairly dormant during the 3-4 day cold-fermentation.**

6. Take the dough out of the bowl and place on a lightly oiled workspace - use olive oil, but not EVOO because it will add a strong taste (and never use flour because it throws of the hydration %), and knead it into itself 2-3 times. Lightly oil an airtight container about 2x the size of the dough ball and place the dough in it, roll the dough around the coat in oil and place it seam-side down, cover it, then put it in the fridge for 24 hours.

7. After 24 hours, take it out a knead it 2-3 times on a lightly oiled surface and shape it into a thick roll. Use a dough scraper and a scale to cut & measure balls of 270g (this recipe will make 6 balls @ 270g while taking into account about 1% bowl residue). I usually weight my final dough ball right before dividing it up and then divide by 6, and you'll usually get anywhere from 265-275g depending on how much bowl residue you had.

8. To cold ferment the dough balls for the next few days you can either use a proofing tray (for large batches this would be ideal), or for smaller batches of 6-12 balls - which is what I usually make - I use these 16oz deli containers which fit the individual dough balls fit in perfectly. I like these because you can take them out one by one as you use them, and they take up a lot less fridge space than a full size proofing tray. To store each of the balls, lightly coat each container in olive oil, put each ball into the container and roll to coat in oil, then place it with the seam down and put the lid on. Put them into the fridge ASAP to begin the cold fermentation, and you can start using them after 48 hours and up to about 96 hours (so a total of 3-5 days from the start of the process).

9. When you're ready to use the dough, take it out of the fridge about 2 hours ahead of time and allow it to rest at room temperature. If I'm making about 6 pies or less I'll take a half baking sheet (or whole sheet for 12), lay down parchment paper, lightly spray it with oil and dust with flour, then press each ball onto it in about a 5 inch circle, lightly dust the tops with flour and cover with plastic wrap. This will make it much easier to open the dough balls and form them after resting at room temp for 2 hours. As you get better at opening the balls and forming the pizzas, or if you're making a ton of pies at once, you can skip that step and just let them rest in their containers or proofing trays for 2 hours.

10. To open the balls, dip both sides in a pile of AP flour and then on a floured surface gently press them down from the middle working outwards - leaving about 1/2" at the edges undisturbed for your "corniche" - until you have a perfect 12-13" circle. Don't toss, throw, etc, it's pointless and you'll end up with a dough that has an uneven crust thickness. Then go VERY EASY on your sauce, cheese, topping, etc. Don't ever use more than 3-4 toppings, and only put a few pieces of each one. Too much and you'll weigh down the crust and it won't cook as well.

11. Before baking any pies, make sure your floor temp is about 700-750 and the dome temp is 900-1000. Too high a floor temp and the bottom will burn within 30 seconds, and too low a dome temp and the top won't cook all the way. When you launch your pies, scoop it up with the slotted metal peel (coated in flour), then immediately put it in the oven. If you spend even a few too many seconds on the peel it'll stick. Let it set for about 10-15 seconds before repositioning it at all (if necessary), then after about 30-40 use the small peel to rotate it 180 degrees. If you did everything right, your pizza should be done between 60-90 seconds.





I was impressed by the elasticity of this dough, without it feeling "tough" at all...

I'll post pics of the pies on sunday when we fire them up...

So far, I'm impressed with the oven's ability to heat up quickly and retain heat (even after the fire is out, it stays above 500 for a couple hours)...

Had a WILD pizza party yesterday at the Rock River BBQ Ranch ...

As a side note to my previous comments about portability - it was really easy to load this oven into my truck and haul it up to WI - and today i'll bring it back to Rub.. Love the portability of the Pizza Party Wood fired pizza oven

We made 18 pies over about a 8 hour cooking window..

It was a really fun day - keeping the oven hot is easy, and we only cooked 1 pie at a time... it's a small oven, but you don't really need a lot of space because you don't need to cook more than 1 at a time - the pizzas come out in 90 seconds.. In between cooks, you just put the front cover on and the oven stays above 700 degrees with any effort. Upon next pizza cook, throw a small split on and it's back up to 800 floor, 950 dome... I have a new addiction, I just finished some of the leftover smoked brisket n egg pizza for breakfast..

Savory pies:
MARGHERITA: Red sauce, mozzarella, finished with fresh basil and basil-infused olive oil
LINGUA DI FOCO: Red sauce, spicy italian sausage (raw), cherry tomatoes, finished with chili-pepper infused olive oil
SERRANO: Mascarpone, prosciutto, topped with fresh rosemary, (lemon juice)
FUNGHI: fontina, mushrooms, onions, truffle oil
DAR POETA: No sauce, shredded mozarella, zucchini, Italian salami, and crushed chili pepper
TARTUFO: Pesto sauce, Red & yellow cherry tomatoes, white onions, ricotta, finished with white truffle olive oil
SPINACI: No sauce, Mozzarella di Bufala, garlic slices, spinach (applied half way through), topped with meyer lemon zest and olive oil
AMALFI: No sauce, Thin Meyer Lemon slices (w/skin), Mozzarella di Bufala, finished with fresh basil and lemon juice
CIPOLLINA: No sauce, Mozzarella di Bufala, Taleggio, fresh chives, olive oil
CARCIOFO: Pesto sauce, Mushrooms, Artichokes, Buffalo Mozzarella, finished with Olive Oil.
FRAZIONE: Cheddar/Mozz mix, raw egg, chopped peppers, sausage
MEX: Salsa, Chicken (grilled with taco seasoning), peppers, onions, mexican shredded cheese
Tellegio, prosciutto, roasted potatoes, truffle oil
CREMA: Crushed tomatoes, basil, whole cream, basil, olive oil, finish with shaved parmigiano reggiano
Smokehouse pizza: smoked brisket, smoked mozzarella, onions, tomatoes & farm fresh eggs

Dessert pizzas:
Marscapone, strawberries, marshmallows, finished with whipped cream after slight cool
Nutella, Banana, marshmallows

Here are some pics of the day:






















The end.. (or is it??) I am far from finished, this hobby has a wide range of possibilities ... This was a fantastic way to spend a Sunday - it's so much fun to experiment with different toppings, and I love the instant gratification - as the pies come out so quickly.

As my friend Gary would say, "Pizza Party, count me as a fan"...

Thanks.

Great pictures and descriptions.

Looks great! Trying to figure out how to convince my wife to approve this for the backyard.

Great photos!! Looks like a blast.

Just came across this soon-to-be-released product. Smaller but that's reflected in the price. Remains to be seen as to how it performs:

http://www.roccbox.com/product/

People at pizzamaking.com say good things about the Blackstone pizza oven, which doesn't have the sexiness of wood fired, clay tile, etc., but supposedly produces an excellent Neapolitan pie at a much lower cost. (I've never seen or used one).

which doesn't have the sexiness of wood fired, clay tile, etc.,

Amen to that..

Some techniques are critical and necessary for quality - others are for keeping the "terroir" of the food...all the little things matter

Wood fired pizzas rely on wood (fuel) for intense heat, yes, but the idea of turning a dial to re-create the same temperature would only achieve the same specific results of the ingredients reacting to heat. The rolling flame across the top, the mild temp spikes, the hot coals on one side creating necessity to rotate the pie, this all adds to the character and flavor of the pizza.

I never want a dish to taste the same (to me) as the last time I made it. I want it to be at the same level of greatness, but the small differences that come from managing a variable that's hard to control (cooking with live fire) gives the food a quality that science and technology cannot reproduce.

Cooking with live fire adds character to food - BBQ, Pizza, Bread baking, grilling, etc. It, to me, also makes the cooking experience more enjoyable as the artist of the work.

rubbbqco wrote:

which doesn't have the sexiness of wood fired, clay tile, etc.,

Amen to that..

Cooking with live fire adds character to food - BBQ, Pizza, Bread baking, grilling, etc. It, to me, also makes the cooking experience more enjoyable as the artist of the work.

I'm with you on that. I've gone through every permutation of grill (charcoal, LP, natural gas, electric) and am now happily using a Hasty-Bake with hardwood charcoal and/or hardwood. My briskets are far better off for it and I feel more connected to the process (although I cheat a little and use an iGrill probe which gives me real-time graphs of internal temp).

(although I cheat a little and use an iGrill probe which gives me real-time graphs of internal temp).

Not cheating, just learning... In my BBQ Classes I teach people that the learning curve will be much easier if you use technology while you're getting a feel for it... Numbers and science teach you the format, then your developing instincts allow you to perfect it ...
Smoke on...

rubbbqco wrote:In my BBQ Classes I teach people that the learning curve will be much easier if you use technology while you're getting a feel for it... Numbers and science teach you the format, then your developing instincts allow you to perfect it ...
Smoke on...

I'm surprised that you and Gary haven't killed each other by now.

I'm surprised that you and Gary haven't killed each other by now.

Meaning Gary uses or doesn't use thermometers? For the record, we don't temp meat here anymore (last couple years) - I cook to feel... but I always recommend learning by using temps - that's a great way to teach someone what to look for... ultimately, the perfect brisket comes from a certain feel of the meat, not a specific number.... just as I would imagine seasoned pizzaiolo would stick their arm in the front cavity of the oven to test if it's ready rather than using a laser...

rubbbqco wrote:

I'm surprised that you and Gary haven't killed each other by now.

Meaning Gary uses or doesn't use thermometers? For the record, we don't temp meat here anymore (last couple years) - I cook to feel... but I always recommend learning by using temps - that's a great way to teach someone what to look for... ultimately, the perfect brisket comes from a certain feel of the meat, not a specific number.... just as I would imagine seasoned pizzaiolo would stick their arm in the front cavity of the oven to test if it's ready rather than using a laser...

I'm with you. I cook by feel as well, but when it comes to teaching, Gary doesn't exactly like thermometers. I was thinking back to this discussion.

Interesting read... . It's hard to teach instincts without basic scientific understanding.. Science is defined and tangible, and easier for most newbies to understand.... After learning the science, it's easier to develop instincts.. Training wheels, if you will...