great looking piece of work Urban Woods. Something to enjoy for many years to come! The pizzas coming out of there will taste like home made! Had pizza tonight. Not brick oven though!
Wow, that came together very quickly! The steel bowl on top must do a great job reflecting the heat. I'm sure your guests will happily gobble up your test run. Brave soul, to invite 15 for its maiden voyage! Take some pics of the pies, please, for us following along at home.
Thanks Midwinter and all following here . I will share some photos, and hopefully they will show "the thrill of victory!" and not "the agony of defeat".
Here's just a few pics of pizza oven in action as promised. The oven exceeded expectations and I must say it performed like a commercial piece of equipment! I used a mix of Mulberry, beech, and cherry and we started heating oven up 2 hours before the first pie. It cooked pizzas anywhere from 90 seconds to 2 minutes depending on size of pie and how many toppings. The only issue I had was the dough which I bought from a bread bakery was not behaving like pizza dough. Very hard to roll out since it was so springy it would bounce back once lifted off the marble it was rolled out on. As a result we kept the pizzas smaller and a bit doughy but they were still good though admittedly a bit chewy. In the last stretch we were visited by a storm. As the rain poured on the stove in this flash storm I baked a loaf of bread and it came out awesome as this was what the dough was meant for. By this time all 10 pies were made and the oven was cool enough for bread. As the oven was baking inside, the outside of it looked like a Swedish sauna with the steam coming off the bricks, but it was undeterred and kept on baking completing the loaf of bread in about 12 minutes. I had my brother in law over to help me since he built his own oven (totally different than mine) 7 years ago and he has experience making pies for parties, plus he came with his own tools which I now need to acquire for myself. It took a lot of pressure off me and I learned a lot. I will definitely make my own dough next time which I am told is very easy. Later that evening as people stayed I offered to make some burgers for the late crowed and got a lot of takers. Even 4 hours after the last pie and a severe rain storm there were still plenty of red coals in the oven so I shoveled them into my Weber kettle grill and instantly I was grilling burgers! I can definitely see roasting a pig in this oven since it holds heat for such a long time, but even using it for other applications in cooking meats and fish... hey, how bout a huge baked mac and cheese??! I cant say enough about this oven which started out as a concept drawing designed around a cast iron fire pit bowl I saw at Marshalls. I designed it to have no mortar and it doesn't feel like its missing anything. It is very solid under its own massive weight and I don't have to worry about cracking or crumbling cement as the seasons change. So far so good!
Aww, that looks great! It would have to be a pretty small pig, right? Maybe a quarter of a pig? Mulberry, beech, and cherry, you had some primo wood at your disposal. How much did you use? A pie in 2 minutes, that's pretty hot! I've had the same experience with springy dough that won't stay flat. It was sold as pizza pizza dough, too. Let me know the secret, once you figure it out. Looks like it was a great party!
It would be my understanding, that the refrigerated pizza dough would need to be at room temp to regain it's flexibility. Of course, if that it what was done, then never mind.
Yes Midwinter , Im talking a small pig or section. The inner diameter dimension is between 36 and 37 inches (I made it by eye so it's not perfect). In the pictures you don't get a sense how deep it is because most of the pictures show the logs upfront in center location since the pizzas were small and we didn't need to push the coals back. We were basically cooking the pizzas in the entrance section of the oven. When we finally pushed the coals back for the slower cooking bread it was quite cavernous in there! That said, door opening is only 18 in. wide by 11 in. height so you may need to get a little creative cutting up or sectioning a large hunk of meat in there. As for the wood, I may be confined to a densely populated area, but blessed by being in a geographical region with so much wood variety. Actually the day before I drove through the park looking for small dry fallen branches and this was the selection presented to me. The park designed by Fredrick Olmsted who designed Central Park is known as cherry blossom land and it has more cherry blossom trees than the famous Washington DC park. Shhh.....keep that a secret. Needles to say fallen branches of Cherry wood for grilling or smoking is always an easy grab for me with plenty generations of cherry trees offering their droppings. Yes MikeInMa we did leave the dough out proofing for about an hour or so, but I don't know if it ever got to room temp. To be honest I never touched it as my brother in law was handling kneading and rolling it out while I was tending to other party needs like socializing haha! Seriously, I didn't know temp could be a factor so I didn't ask, but I bet you're right and it was a bit cold. I still have a lot to learn with this pizza thing. I'm a griller and my wife is almost a professional level baker,... maybe she will have to take on the pizza dough aspect while I hunt and gather more wood..
My 4yo boy actually spotted these red maple rounds when we went out for a walk last night. I need to make that a regular event the night before trash night since yard waste is included. We brought back three rounds last night in the wagon (like little red wagon, only blue). Some of these are a little long, but I need to spend a saturday cutting up the backlog to size. I re borrowed the neighbors chainsaw, offering to change out the air filter for him.
Urban Woods if you host a GTG for car hoarders only, i promise to start scrounging wood in out Nissan Murano instead of my truck. Pizza look phenominal!
Thanks Brad, If I did host a GTG it would probably have to be small and limited to the car hoarders because my property is rather small and the house is not that big either. I could do 20 to 25 people comfortably. If weather is good I have a great porch for smoking cigars as well, but actually I am a little intimidated by people on this site who live on small "Ponderosa's" and can host much bigger parties so I would have to think about your idea. That said, if you are ever planning on coming down this way, let me know and I will have you over. We can burn some wood and make some pies!
I got another boot-full, and it wasn’t a boot-full of mulch this time. I’m 90% sure it is all yeller popple and it was pretty easy splitting. The last round gave me some consternation, but I think a factor of having a big couple knots holding the splits together. I’m thinking I’ll stack this on top of the Bradford I have waiting for next year. They should mix well, this to get it going and the Bradford to hold onto for a while. Nothing like putting a button down over a sweaty undershirt in a parking garage. I’m not saying it’s good, but nothing quite like it. Now to sneak the spoils into the stacks over the weekend. The wife thinks i’m Getting a little zealous with the wood hoarding.
Well mrfancyplants I would hate to challenge your 90% assuredness, but I'm gonna say that what you have there is Ash. I don't think you will mind that correction. Great score!
Sweet, i’m rushing to the btu chart to check on drying time. I thought it felt a little heavier. It’s nice being able to gloat about being wrong. Are those little tunnels the signs of EAB?
