This past week I was privileged to be an assistant pizza maker at my friends Carrie and Dan’s house. They were making pizzas for another friend’s going away party. When I pulled up to the curb and saw the oven they had spent hours making in their backyard, I knew I was in for a treat!
When I got there, Carrie and some other friends were chopping toppings. I jumped right in!
This is Carrie:
I was amazed at the variety of toppings.
First, though, Carrie rolled out the pita dough for making breadsticks. This is what they looked like hot off the oven:
It was my job to hand the dough to Dan, and he would put the cooked pita bread on the cutting stone you see in the upper right of the photo. Being a good chef, I made sure that I tasted it. I called it quality control. Dan called it taxation. Carrie just called it delicious. So warm and pillowy . . . .
Then we moved on to the pizzas. It was my job to be creative and to put on the toppings once Carrie rolled out the dough. Then I helped Dan by handing him the ones that were ready to go and cutting the ones that were done.
Seriously? It was THE BEST pizza I’ve ever eaten. So fresh. It had to be the oven. I think I need one.
Ever since then, I’ve been obsessed with making one of my own. Here are some links that I’ve been exploring:
http://www.traditionaloven.com/pizza_wood_oven/pizza_oven_2.html
http://www.ozarkdreams.com/BrickOven.htm
Carrie gave me a pizza to take home, and also gave me the recipes, below. Somehow I don’t think they’ll be quite as good as if I had a brick oven, but I might try them anyway.
Carrie’s Pita Bread
3 ¾ C flour
1 ½ tsp salt
1 T honey or sugar
2t yeast
1 1/4C water
2 T oil
In KitchenAid, run for 10 minutes on slow knead.
Raise in oiled bowl, rest 45 minutes.
Roll out thin.
To simulate the brick oven:
Get your oven as hot as possible, preheating a baking stone. Slide the dough onto the hot stone and bake for about 3 minutes, until it puffs up like a pillow.
Makes 8 pitas.
Carrie’s Pizza Dough
4 C flour (500 grams)
1 ½ C + 2 T water (295 grams)
4 t salt (20 grams)
½ t yeast (3 grams)
Using the dough hook in a Kitchen Aid, mix 2 minutes slow, 5 minutes fast, and another 2 minutes slow. Cover and let rise 1 ½ – 2 hours. Punch down, form into one large ball, and cut into 4-5 equal pieces. Lt balls rest under plastic wrap one hour before proceeding.
Use same procedure as above pita recipe to simulate brick oven, only bake until cooked through. Or if you have a brick oven, bake at 700 degrees for a few minutes.
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Very cool! I love brick oven pizza!
What a fun party!
For the Pita recipe, does this call for bread flour or all purpose flour?
Hey Wendy, thanks so much for writing this up! and thanks for assisting, too
don’t know what we’d've done without your help.
Dan used http://www.fornobravo.com for the plans for our oven, and we’ve tried many of their recipes too. In fact the pizza dough recipe originated there.
We buy Bakers Flour by Seal of Minnesota, in 50 pound bags. It’s an unbleached all-purpose flour, no extra gluten added to give it the “bread flour” appellation. We get it thru GFS but have to call a day ahead so they can get it in from the warehouse. Same price as bleached, and Better for you!
Thanks, Carrie. I didn’t know you could get unbleached flour from GFS. I’ve been looking for that!
YUM! Sounds so good!
Man! I have always wanted a pizza oven in my backyard and this makes me want one even more! Thank you so much for the post and the links to ovens. I want…I want…I want!
Man! I have always wanted a pizza oven in my backyard and this makes me want one even more! Thank you so much for the post and the links to ovens. I want…I want…I want!
Theresa/Living Homegrown Fresh´s last blog ..Behind The Scenes of New Garden Show
That oven is astonishing! I am envious of them.
Stopped by from SITS.
What a great pizza oven! Hope you had a great party.
Just stopping by from SITS to say hello. Hope you have a great week!
Wow! That is an awesome brick oven! How cool!!! Looks delicious! This just made me extremely hungry. I am a sucker for good pizza.
that is my kind of party! looks like you guys had a great time and wonderful eats!
How cool is that! Brick oven pizzas are the best.
Stopping over from SITS. Happy Monday!
I love homemade pizza. A brick oven would be awesome!
I was just saying I wanted to try making pita bread. I will have to try the recipe!