Pizza

There's no right or wrong, but I've always just gone with the whole lot in. Ovens vary so much it's hard to know whats best for each individual one.
Finishing with the grill means the toppings get cooked properly, in my experience.

It's good for its purposes but if you don't need the timer I wouldn't bother. I'm not a big fan of the buttons especially, but the timer is great when using it to make coffee.

We'll experiment some, plenty of pizza making in our future!

I had a terrible time with pizza stones (never got hot enough) and switched to the frying pan method. much much better ...

https://www.nisbets.co.uk/weighstation-electronic-platform-scale-3kg/f201

that's like scientific grade!

It's a good balance. Half gram increments, runs on mains or battery and it doesn't turn itself off.

I don't know if anyone else is watching Bon Appetit's series on Pizza atm, but the take home message is I must have one of these:
https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/ovens/bpz800.html

OH SHIT.

ha I've been watching ...

their yeast/sourdough combo for dough was an interesting result.

that oven is cool but $$$$, but the indoor appeal is high ...

the thing that annoys me is that their final pizza is not user friendly...
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/perfect-pizza

these are specialty flours, and it's rare that the home pizza maker is going to have a fancy oven, let alone a flour milling device ...

the series is enjoyable tho

edit: it has inspired me to spike a sourdough with some yeast tho

I hate that recipe.
For something “perfect” it manages to be pretty vague. No temperatures, no autolyse, a mixture of niche as fuck flour with a standard brand, a pretty lacklustre method etc.

Sorry, came on a bit strong, but there’s deffo better recipes out there!

As for yeast in sourdough, there’s nothing wrong with doing it, but the way you feed/build your starter can have the same effect. A lot of bakers have an overnight cold build (feed starter and into the fridge), then feed again the next morning about 3 hours before use at ambient temperature, which encourages yeast population, and stops it becoming overly lactic.

I was reacting solely to the oven, not to the recipe or that series; haven't even looked into that to be honest.

I tried Ken Forkish's biga dough (from the elements of pizza book) in the uuni ... it was good but the base was a bit chewy. Is this down to the 00 flour or the thinness of the base (i.e. doughballs too big)?

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I went to Dobar near Manor House the other day (I've been a few times now) and got to say it's one of the best pizzas I've had in London. Worth a try if you're in the area https://www.dobar.co.uk/
(It also appears to be the number 1 restaurant in London on tripadvisor but obviously I'd take that with a pinch of salt.)

Yeah looks a wee bit thick.

Had a couple of goes with the Roccbox, not 100% impressed, its struggling to get past 320 and doesn't hold its temp too well under heavy use.

Might switch to gas.

I used the wood burning part of the uuni once and have since switched to gas ... much more consistent ...

Yeah, buying gas this weekend... gave it two goes, neither great.

Overly chewy can also be from over working the dough, but yeah, it does look a little thick.

Over working the dough you say? I tend to try and kneed for as long as I can be bothered - think less is more?

I've also read stuff saying that its pretty impossible to overwork dough with hand kneading ...

not sure if this is accurate tho.

I'm stressing that my air bubbles were not large or abundant enough, might have just been the low temp.
Getting gas this weekend and then will re test.

Yeah. From the "Pizza Bible" by Tony Gemignani:

"A mistake I often see with beginners - and even some pros - is overmixing or overkneading pizza dough. Too much working of the dough makes it tough, and you'll end up with pizza that gives you a saw jaw from chewing"

Later advises to knead for 2-3mins.

He also advises making the dough 48hrs in advance and bulk fermenting and letting it rise in the fridge, to slow the fermentation.

Awesome, cheers. Will take that onboard...
I do the later already so that's good, maybe I just got carried away with working the dough.