Now that you have built your pizza oven, discussed in How to make a pizza oven – Stage 1 & Stage 2, you are ready to light the fire for the first time.

Once your dome is dry you will need to do a test firing to ensure that there are no further cracks both during the firing and cooling stages. First you will need to roll up some newspaper and place it inside the pizza oven, then with a match you will need to light the paper. Once lit place the kindling (wood sticks) on top of the paper to ensure a good fire.

If everything is working correctly you will start to see smoke billowing out of the chimney.

Following the initial firing stage you will now be able to cook your very first pizza. For best results a home made one is ideal, a recipe we would suggest is:

Ingredients

For the Pizza Dough (enough for two 12 inch bases):

550g of strong white flour

7g of dried yeast (usually one sachet)

1 tsp of table salt

1 tsp of caster sugar

320ml of luke warm water

Pepper to season

2 tbsp of olive oil

For the Pizza Base Sauce:
Tin of chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp of tomato Puree

1 tbsp olive oil

Pepper to season

Coarse salt to season

2 cloves of garlic (crushed or finely chopped)

1 tsp of basil

1 tsp of oregano

1 tsp Thyme

For the Toppings:

Grated cheddar and mozzarella

Toppings of your choice

Method

  1. Light your pizza oven and ensure it has a good hour burning time, ensure you use the kiln shelf for the pizza oven door to keep in the heat. We also included a temperature gauge (see facebook pictures) to the pizza oven so that we could monitor the temperature but this is optional.
  2. Sieve the strong white flour into a large mixing bowl, add the salt and pepper. Add the water, yeast, sugar and olive oil into a jug and leave for 3 minutes to allow the yeast to activate.
  3. Slowly pour the wet mixture into the mixing bowl while stirring using a wooden spoon until everything is roughly mixed. Then, using your hands, further mix and knead the dough until it is elastic and slightly tacky but not over sticky. Place the dough in the mixing bowl and cover with a damp tea towel and leave for 1 hour until the dough has doubled in size.
  4. Take the dough and knead it for a few minutes to take some of the air out. Split it into two equal parts. If you are only wishing to make 1 pizza then you can freeze the extra dough.
  5. For the sauce, put all sauce ingredients into a blender for 30 seconds until you are left with a thick, light red sauce.
  6. Flour a work surface and using a rolling pin, roll the dough until it is roughly the size of the pizza tray (or as we used a home made pizza peel) you are using. Place the rolled out dough onto the tray and using your fingers, work the dough until it fills the tray.
  7. Brush the surface of the dough with olive oil and then add enough sauce mix to cover the base spreading evenly. Sprinkle on the grated cheese followed by your topping choice.
  8. You are now ready to place the pizza in the oven using your tray or home made pizza peel. Ensure that you fire has now turned into embers before you place the pizza in the oven, check your temperature gauge to ensure it is 200c, and then to close the pizza oven use the kiln shelf as a door to keep in the heat. Leave for approximately 20 minutes and then serve for the whole family to enjoy.

Visit our facebook page to see pictures of our first ever pizza.

For help when creating your very own pizza oven or to enquire about our pizza oven package call 01782 271200.