The Official Pizza Discussion thread (was: Cooking Neapolitan Pizzas with the Uuni 3)

Soldato
Joined
17 Nov 2004
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The Republic
Hey there. Thought I would share some of tonights cooking with the Uuni. I bought the Uuni 3 around October to do some home cooked, woodfired Pizzas. Absolutely love this little oven and the results are getting better every single time.

The Dough

So for this batch of Pizza, I made the dough over night and proofed in the fridge.

- 800g of Caputo type 00 Flour
- 200g of Semolina flour
- 14g of Yeast mixed in 600 ml of luke warm water
- 1Tbsp of Salt, Olive oil and Honey

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Making the dough is pretty easy really. Mix the two flours together in a large bowl with the salt and the o. Separately, mix the water, yeast and honey.

I usually let it stand for a good five minutes until bubbles form on top of the water.

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From there I mix in the water into the flour and add in the olive oil. A gentle process of mixing and kneading. This makes a slightly dryer mix but a slightly later base in my opinion. Once all done, I grease up a container, and put in the dough mix and cover with film. In the fridge it goes over night.

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First thing this morning, I take out of the container and give it another kneading. and then shape it up

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The Pizza Sauce

I have tried a few different recipes for sauce. As with a lot of Italian food simplicity is key. I spent a little bit more on the tomatoes for a richer taste. I was recommended Zia Rosa tomatoes. A case of 12 tins is around £14.00 off the rainforest. *** You can say 'Amazon', OcUK don't sell tomatoes ***

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- 1x Tin of tomatoes
- 3 cloves of garlic minced/crushed to your liking in olive oil
- A handful of basil leaves

Once I have cooked the garlic, in goes the tomatoes and basil and again, cook on low heat for around five minutes. Let it cool for a good 30 minutes then blend to make the sauce. I make this in the morning then pretty much all of the ingredients are going on the pizza at room temperature.

The Oven

What to say about the Uuni. I love cooking with it. I can get it upto a good 480 - 500 degrees in about 15 - 20 minutes. The trick is to keep topping up the hopper with the wood pellets in between cooks to maintain temperature. 500 Degrees will cook one of these pizzas in around a minute, maybe minute and a half

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The Pizzas

So with the mix I used above, I made six medium to large size pizza tonight for the family with plenty left over for lunch tomorrow. Changing to a good flour like the Caputo has made some really excellent bases. Very stretchy bases for Neopolitan style Pizza which is traditionally thin. For this kind of pizza what I have learned is that less is more. So go light on the sauce, toppings and cheese. The heavier the pizza makes it hard to 'Launch' into the oven. When I first started using the Uuni, I put too much cheese and toppings on and it made it hard to get into the oven.

Aubergine with Sundried Tomatoes, Artichokes and Shitaki Mushrooms

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Smoked Bacon with Chicken and Parmesan

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Smoked Bacon with a Bavarian Smoked Cheese

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El Diablo - Spicy Chorizo with red chillis, spicy olive oil

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3 Cheese Margharita Pizza (Ricotta, Parmesan and Mozzarella)

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Closing Thoughts

Using the better quality flour and proofing over night, the family all said the base was much lighter and tastier. One of the best investments I have made recently is getting wooden Pizza Peels. Infinitely easier to launch into the oven than. Using the metal ones from OOni, they base will sometimes stick and make it difficult to get in the oven without losing the shape.
 
Soldato
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They look lovely. I love pizza so much, but feel like I’m missing out badly with the standard dominos/papa johns fare.

Doesn’t look like there’s an ounce of fat or grease on these badboys.

From what I have seen your making fresh dough with little bad bits in, then the toppings are miniminal so you really do get a reasablely healthy pizza I assume compared to the normal papa johns etc
 
Soldato
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13,453
I have no issues using pellets. The picture above looks more like he's using gas though as you can see the two jets from the burners.
 
Associate
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Bury St Edmunds
I’ve never had problems with temps on wood however it does take time to keep it going and if your making more that a couple of pizzas at a gathering then I have found using the gas attachment is easier.

However saying that on the Facebook group someone has made a mod for the hopper “The Johnjoe hoper extender” which makes it roughly 4 times the capacity which I am looking to get as I do prefer the taste pellets give over the gas.
 
Soldato
OP
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The Republic
I have no issues using pellets. The picture above looks more like he's using gas though as you can see the two jets from the burners.

@robj20 Deffo not gas. I have been experimenting with different ways to get the fire started e.g putting the natural fire lighters at the back of the hopper or right at the front. Tried them at the back and it was a real ball ache to keep it going. Went back to putting them at the front of the tray and it seems to start a lot quicker. Picture was took just after I started it up.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
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Posts
9,964
Location
The Republic
They look lovely. I love pizza so much, but feel like I’m missing out badly with the standard dominos/papa johns fare.

Doesn’t look like there’s an ounce of fat or grease on these badboys.

That's what I like about making home cooked Pizza. I need to be mindful of salt and fat in my food. Making your own sauces and dough from scratch, I can still have a relatively healthy treat and know whats going in. I managed to get a really decent block of Parmesan from the local supermarket just before the Best Before date. Compare that to the processed cheese full of fat and salt. In my opinion it tastes a lot better than Dominos Pizza hut etc.

Of course, you can look at a cost for cost basis and per pizza it's not actually too bad. For all of the six pizzas, it worked out at around £3.50 each.

Looks and sounds good op. Might wanna consider rotating the pizzas during cooking as it looks like one side is charring more than the other.

Yeah I noticed that as well. I think maybe pushed the pizzas back too much.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Dec 2004
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Location
the south
I've been making home made pizza every week for a while now and they are delicious.
This summers project is to make a proper pizza oven in the garden, I'll start a thread when i do :)

Interesting adding the semolina flour to the dough. I always dust and stretch the pizza on a bed of semolina but never tried adding it to the dough before, will give that a try next time.
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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32,615
I used a freind's last year and the pizzas were amazing. I just wish I had the space to store one, and somewhere to use it.
 
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