Pizza

I'm having trouble getting my dough to rise. Maybe too little kneading but I don't know if I should be putting it somewhere warm or if the kitchen is okay. Any tips?

Maybe knead it a little more and put it somewhere warm.

Maybe check if your yeast is alive? Or there is an app imaginativly called the pizza app where you can input temperature, flour, hydration, time etc and get yeast weight out.

How do I check that?

Add yeast to some warm water with a teaspoon of sugar, give it a stir and leave it for 10 minutes. There should be some bubbles

The Karu got its first run out on Friday and delivered two very good pizzas (despite a bodge job on the dough as it had been put in the fridge by the baker in the house) but a peel is desperately needed to help with turning and removal, my only complaint with the oven is that the modulation with gas isn't as refined as I'd like seems to be full gas or it turns itself off as not enough gas flows through (this might relate to low gas levels).

The big disappointment was going to light it on Sunday to cook some naan breads but sadly id run out of gas, off to try and find some more gas this afternoon...

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I don’t know what the instructions say, but I go against the ones for the ooni 3, and run the gas with the door on and the chimney open. Less interference from wind, and thus better temperature modulation.

That being said, you want it hot as possible, and have a dough and amounts of toppings that suit a very quick cooking time.

Pizzas look good to me tho!

the modulation with gas isn't as refined as I'd like seems to be full gas or it turns itself off

That hasn’t been my experience, so possibly related to low gas.

I heat the oven at full blast for about 20 mins until the stone is approx 350 degrees, then turn gas down to about half when the pizza goes in.

Why turn it down? I want the oven over 450degrees when I put pizzas in.

The technical standard for a Neapolitan pizza oven is 485 centigrade

Perhaps it’s due to the smaller internal size of the Ooni I have, but if on max the dough chars too quickly without cooking all the way through.

Also, I lied above about 350. I actually start prepping pizzas at this temp. By the time that’s done the stone is over 400 and the oven even hotter, which is when they go in.

I think the gas attachment creates such a fierce rolling flame over the top of the oven when set at max and it’s this that’s causing some unwanted charring.

Neapolitan pizza should cook v v quickly but relies on thin dough and scant toppings for this to work. The best pizzas I have cooked have been on a really windy day with oak chopped into small bits of kindling. The oven got hotter than usual and the pizzas took about 60-90s to cook. It had flames shooting out the back like the old batmobile and rolling flames across the inside roof of the oven.

I tend to only suffer from charring at the edges because the pizza gets too close to the end where combustion is occurring.

This is one of the better ones to come out, and I’d argue it’s on the limit for toppings! Getting the dough just right makes the biggest difference I’ve found.

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I cook Neapolitan pizzas in the roccbox at 400 degrees on the stone, any more and I find the bottoms burn very quickly

As soon as they pizza goes in i turn down to min flame and then crank it back up when I start turning it.

I tend to only suffer from charring at the edges because the pizza gets too close to the end where combustion is occurring.

I completely agree with everything you're saying re temperature. I think that the smaller size of my Karu means that the back edge of the pizza is quite close to the flame source, so unless very careful it can catch.

Anyway, another round of sourdough pizza's tonight and I don't think I'll bother making any other kind of yeasted dough now. It's got so much flavour and the perfect texture.

They disappeared too quickly for pics.

good to know, will hopefully get a gas top up tomorrow, there's no way i could get my wife to eat pizza as frequently as you are, if it was up to me id be experimenting every day!

what are you using for temperature?

Get an IR gun

everyone in the world seems to have bought them recently....

can't think why!

there's no way i could get my wife to eat pizza as frequently as you are

I’m going to have to slow down, or everyone will be sick of pizza soon. I’m waiting on a skillet pan to arrive so I can have a play cooking some other bits and pieces using wood.

And yes, IR thermometer

Oh, and having said I had no pics from this evening, my girls took a couple.

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Doing a run so does anyone want any flour 16kg bags, white and wholemeal bread or white pizza flour. Catering tins of tomato and catering bags and blocks of mozarella. No idea of quality as I've not used it.

Maybe yeast too.

Where are you and how much?

Am in wood green but DM me.

Boom! That looks spot on. What’s your dough recipe?

It was something along the lines of: 1kg 00 flour, 615g water, 24g salt, 200g starter (100g flour, 100g water).