I created an Excel spreadsheet so that I can make the exact amount of dough that I want with no waste. It's based on the Forno Bravo recipe using Molino Caputo 00 flour. I like things with a healthy dose of salt, so the base recipe in there has the salt on the higher end, but that can be adjusted as desired - as can any other variable. Simply enter the dough ball target weight and the number of pizzas desired, and out comes an adjusted recipe. Easy!
Download the Pizza Dough Calculator Spreadsheet
Sunday, November 16, 2008
First Pizza
Well, I finally have a pizza oven that's actually been used to make pizza - imagine that! Dough and sauce were from scratch using the recipes from the Forno Bravo website. The dough was surprisingly easy to make - they have an excellent and extremely thorough PDF document that runs 63 pages just on making pizza - it's as detailed as you could ever want and extremely helpful. Overall, the entire experience was suprisingly fun and relaxing - I made 5 pizzas and they all came out really nicely. I can't wait to make 50!
Starting with a banked fire and a nice clean floor.
Pulling out the dough - the Molino Caputo 00 flour makes a really nice, extremely workable dough. Pulled out into a uniform crust with very little effort.
Sauce and cheese go on.....
...and then into the oven.
The pizza, doing its' pizza thing.
Giving it a turn to evenly brown the edges.
About two minutes after going in, it's a finished pizza. A little basil and olive oil finish it off.
The first of many. A really decent pie for a first shot.
Was it worth it? Oh yes. Good stuff.
Starting with a banked fire and a nice clean floor.
Pulling out the dough - the Molino Caputo 00 flour makes a really nice, extremely workable dough. Pulled out into a uniform crust with very little effort.
Sauce and cheese go on.....
...and then into the oven.
The pizza, doing its' pizza thing.
Giving it a turn to evenly brown the edges.
About two minutes after going in, it's a finished pizza. A little basil and olive oil finish it off.
The first of many. A really decent pie for a first shot.
Was it worth it? Oh yes. Good stuff.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Details, details.....
Really just buttoning things up at this point - soooooo close to being done I can almost taste the pizza. Actually, as I type this, first pizza is about....two hours away! Very exciting for sure. Some friends and family will be coming over, I've promised nothing in the way of edible food, so hopefully I'll at least beat those expectations. The weather is just amazing - 70's to 80's in November, so I'm typing this from the hammock (photo below) in the yard with the dog on my side. Not too bad for late fall. On with the pics!
The hammock from which I write this. Nice and comfortable, and a gift from my wife as well.
The firepit got hooked up this week by the plumber. My wife asked for everyone to pool money together for her birthday to get this super swanky outdoor sectional sofa. Two pieces were damaged in shipping, so we'll be getting another end chair, and also a free standing chair to go opposite the couch. Marshmellows have already been roasted - good stuff.
The patio is in one of the lowest parts of the property, and so drainage is an issue when it comes to sinks and such. Rather than spend ~$5k to tie a waste line into the sewer, we just went with this free standing basin and some hose bibs for hot and cold water. When the basin fills up, I take it to the side of the yard and dump it out. Cheap and easy.
The stucco is finished and painted. The grill and side burner have been hooked up and work. I spent about 4 hours removing the protective plastic film from the grill - I'd like to find the person who put that stuff on there....and uh....well let's just leave it at that. Alex the carpenter assembled the table he made today, and I'm quite happy with how it came out. Just a few more things to button up and the whole project will be done. The lighting will go in this week, and then it's just down to tiny little details on such. I'll be very, very happy to be done! Time to light a fire in that oven and cook some pizza!
The hammock from which I write this. Nice and comfortable, and a gift from my wife as well.
The firepit got hooked up this week by the plumber. My wife asked for everyone to pool money together for her birthday to get this super swanky outdoor sectional sofa. Two pieces were damaged in shipping, so we'll be getting another end chair, and also a free standing chair to go opposite the couch. Marshmellows have already been roasted - good stuff.
The patio is in one of the lowest parts of the property, and so drainage is an issue when it comes to sinks and such. Rather than spend ~$5k to tie a waste line into the sewer, we just went with this free standing basin and some hose bibs for hot and cold water. When the basin fills up, I take it to the side of the yard and dump it out. Cheap and easy.
The stucco is finished and painted. The grill and side burner have been hooked up and work. I spent about 4 hours removing the protective plastic film from the grill - I'd like to find the person who put that stuff on there....and uh....well let's just leave it at that. Alex the carpenter assembled the table he made today, and I'm quite happy with how it came out. Just a few more things to button up and the whole project will be done. The lighting will go in this week, and then it's just down to tiny little details on such. I'll be very, very happy to be done! Time to light a fire in that oven and cook some pizza!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
First Flame!
Two big developments to report. First, I picked up my chimney from RCR Fabrication in Santa Cruz this week. I think it came out really great. It's a little bigger than I had been envisioning, but that's totally on me since I designed it. It's made from mild steel so that it will rust and patina - much more fitting than the stainless steel ones that are standard. There is a functional 8" Simpson DuraTech chimney pipe in there still, it's just wrapped and hidden with the steel.
However, the really big news is that for the first time ever, there's a actual fire in my wood fired oven! I just started the curing cycle as of 30 minutes ago. For the first few days, all that gets burned is kindling, and then the fires will gradually get larger and use hardwood logs. Today I just have to burn one pound of kindling each hour, for five hours. Wooooo hoooooo!!!!
However, the really big news is that for the first time ever, there's a actual fire in my wood fired oven! I just started the curing cycle as of 30 minutes ago. For the first few days, all that gets burned is kindling, and then the fires will gradually get larger and use hardwood logs. Today I just have to burn one pound of kindling each hour, for five hours. Wooooo hoooooo!!!!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
On with the stucco!
This week Tim the tile guy finished with the grouting of tiles, and the stucco contractor got the scratch coat of stucco on. The plan is to let the first coat of stucco dry for a week or so, and then "cure" the oven. The oven elements still have some water in them, which needs to be carefully driven out with a burn schedule that runs about 5 hours a day for 4 days. I've heard of people ignoring the curing schedule, and most often the result is a cracked oven. So....I'll be getting a nice warm coat on and hanging out in my yard for a few evenings after work. By curing the oven before the stucco is complete, we'll be able to see if there is any cracking of the stucco, and make changes as necessary. Here's a few pictures of the stucco scratch coat on the oven and kitchen:
My nieces Maddie and Lucy wanted to see pictures of the Texas state flag on the hearth. Below is a picture of that tile, and also one of my favorites - a crazy looking skeleton lady wearing a hat.
My nieces Maddie and Lucy wanted to see pictures of the Texas state flag on the hearth. Below is a picture of that tile, and also one of my favorites - a crazy looking skeleton lady wearing a hat.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
First Post - Oven nearly finished
The purpose of this blog is to document my gastronomical adventures with my wood fired oven. I've spent the last six months or so building my outdoor kitchen/pizza oven - really my first big DIY home improvement project. That being the case, it certainly went much slower than I would have hoped (at some point I figured I would have the oven up and running in June, here it is October!) but the end result will be something that is not only functional, but that I am quite proud of. Some specifics and background in case you're curious:
The oven was purchased from Mugnaini in Watsonville CA. I did research before I bought, and the Mugnaini ovens came highly recommended as a "pre-cast" oven. The fact that their offices and warehouse are literally a few blocks from my place of employment were definite factors as well. They make a wide range of ovens - the one I bought is a Prima 100, which they say is their commercial quality oven, for a residential installation. They allow for a wide range of installation options, but I settled on their brand new (at the time of purchase) steel frame installation. I didn't feel comfortable tackling a masonry installation on my own, and the bids I got to simply do a box to hold the oven (no roof, no finished exterior) ranged from $7-9k. From a budget perspective, this was really a non starter, so I started exploring steel frame construction on the internet. I seem to have a habit of finding how-to DVD's of low production quality for my other hobbies (aviation related) - lo and behold I stumbled onto Willy the BBQ Coach and his set of DVD's. His BBQ 101 DVD had some of the absolute worst production quality ever committed to DVD (the first seven minutes seemed to be a hand held video camera taping a TV playing the video), but none of that really mattered since the information on steel frame construction was well presented, easy to understand and well thought out. So with that, I decided I would buy the steel frame installation from Mugnaini and then do all the framing myself. What Mugnaini delivered to me was the oven, a platform for the oven to sit on top of, and a steel stand to support the platform. That was about...March-ish. Roughly six months of evenings and weekends later (special thanks to my wife here for putting up with all this!) I had got the project to the point where I could hand it off to the tile and stucco contractors. As of today, the tile guy is nearly finished, and the stucco contractor should be here either late this week or early next to do the first coat of stucco. As my wife will attest, I'm terrible at taking pictures - not the technical part - I'm competent enough to click the button and all that - but I simply forget to take them pretty much all the time. Below are some photos, but missing are the really early ones with lots of framing detail and such. So it goes....
Here is where it all started:
And here's the arbor that covers the outdoor kitchen being built:
The arbor has been stained/sealed, and framing has begun. The house has been painted. This view is of the back of the oven - the rest of the kitchen is on the right along the big wall:
Here is the oven with the framing finished, and the dome wrapped in an insulating blanket. 24 gauge galvanized steel sheet has been wrapped over the barrel roof in order to better support the cement board that will be added:
Cement board has been added, the grill and side burner have been dropped into place to test fit one last time.
The counter tops have been tiled with a terra cotta tile. There's some tile on the front of the oven that I later decided to have removed. The appliances still fit!
The oven was purchased from Mugnaini in Watsonville CA. I did research before I bought, and the Mugnaini ovens came highly recommended as a "pre-cast" oven. The fact that their offices and warehouse are literally a few blocks from my place of employment were definite factors as well. They make a wide range of ovens - the one I bought is a Prima 100, which they say is their commercial quality oven, for a residential installation. They allow for a wide range of installation options, but I settled on their brand new (at the time of purchase) steel frame installation. I didn't feel comfortable tackling a masonry installation on my own, and the bids I got to simply do a box to hold the oven (no roof, no finished exterior) ranged from $7-9k. From a budget perspective, this was really a non starter, so I started exploring steel frame construction on the internet. I seem to have a habit of finding how-to DVD's of low production quality for my other hobbies (aviation related) - lo and behold I stumbled onto Willy the BBQ Coach and his set of DVD's. His BBQ 101 DVD had some of the absolute worst production quality ever committed to DVD (the first seven minutes seemed to be a hand held video camera taping a TV playing the video), but none of that really mattered since the information on steel frame construction was well presented, easy to understand and well thought out. So with that, I decided I would buy the steel frame installation from Mugnaini and then do all the framing myself. What Mugnaini delivered to me was the oven, a platform for the oven to sit on top of, and a steel stand to support the platform. That was about...March-ish. Roughly six months of evenings and weekends later (special thanks to my wife here for putting up with all this!) I had got the project to the point where I could hand it off to the tile and stucco contractors. As of today, the tile guy is nearly finished, and the stucco contractor should be here either late this week or early next to do the first coat of stucco. As my wife will attest, I'm terrible at taking pictures - not the technical part - I'm competent enough to click the button and all that - but I simply forget to take them pretty much all the time. Below are some photos, but missing are the really early ones with lots of framing detail and such. So it goes....
Here is where it all started:
And here's the arbor that covers the outdoor kitchen being built:
The arbor has been stained/sealed, and framing has begun. The house has been painted. This view is of the back of the oven - the rest of the kitchen is on the right along the big wall:
Here is the oven with the framing finished, and the dome wrapped in an insulating blanket. 24 gauge galvanized steel sheet has been wrapped over the barrel roof in order to better support the cement board that will be added:
Cement board has been added, the grill and side burner have been dropped into place to test fit one last time.
The mantle has been tiled but not yet grouted. I found some jumbled lots of 2"x 2" talavera painted tiles on eBay. There's a couple of odd ones in there (like the Texas state flag) but I like that it's unique and quirky.
In the upcoming days I'll be getting my custom chimney back from a metal fab shop, and hopefully the stucco guy will get started on the scratch coat.
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