Welcome to my pizza oven blog!

Hello:

Are you here because of the article in the Post-Gazette?  If so welcome!  A lot of information gets buried in this format of blogging.  So be sure to go back some of the older posts, it will give you more of an idea of my pizza journey.  And if you decide you would like to try and build an earth oven in your backyard, please get informed by reading books and blogs and most of all be patient.  

Here's my  dough recipe:

Pierina's 24- hour Pizza Dough

4 cups of  Pizzeria Caputo Tipo "00"  source:  Penn Mac
1 teaspoon of active dry yeast 
4 teaspoon salt  (I use sea salt or kosher)
1 1/3 cup of  warm water

 Mix  all of the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl--- then take out one cup of mixture, set aside.

Start mixer on lowest speed and slowly add the water till mixture become a wet and looks like a stiff matter, about two minutes.  Stop! Let the dough sit for 20 minutes, this process is called autolyse--- allowing the flour to absorb the liquid and get the gluten strands to develop.

Then after the "rest" start your mixture (KitchenAid) on the 2 setting, adding just enough of the flour slowly, to form a ball, err on the side wet, till you get the feel for your dough. Let dough hook knead the dough for at least two minutes or more.   Immediately form your balls (about 3) , flour well, place in dough boxes or something similar,  like these containers or even freezer bags, lay flat  and let rise in the refrigerator over night.  

Before using to make your pizza, take dough out of the refrigerator and let rest for at least an hour.

Some Pizzas!

On Memorial day I fired up the oven, since I need to pratice getting the heat right and to also try the   three different kinds of dough I made--- my regular wheat Tipo 00, a rice flour (gluten free) and a no knead that I found on Facebook. They all were good but I'll stick with the dough made with the  regular Pizza Caputo Tipo 00.    

This is a brief post--- but soon I will  be putting on my final (finishing) layer on my oven.  That layer will be decorated and I'll have lots to share about that expereince.  In the mean time enjoy this picture of a truly delicious pizza--- yeah... a bit charred on one side but still yummy never the less.

 

Horno on the Horno---can you say fire me up!

Horno (/ˈɔrnoʊ/ AWR-noh; Spanish: [ˈoɾno]) is a mud adobe-built outdoor oven used by Native Americans and early settlers of North America. Originally introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors, it was quickly adopted and carried to all Spanish-occupied lands.^[1] The horno has a beehive shape and uses wood as the heat source.^[2]

Fire in the Hole (OVEN)!

Keeping the dough rolling and the sauce red... I got a plan!

I am ready, yes I am!

 The summer plan is to start firing up my baby at least once a week!  Yes, that's the goal.  So many friends want to try my pizza, and I want them too so I need to get rolling here.  The plan is to have a few people over at a time since I prefer to make my dough in small batches---mostly because I have a small mixer---but also because  I want to keep it fun, I would hate for my "love" to become a chore.  As you may know, sometimes the thing you love can become the thing you despise and I never want that to happen.  One time in my life it did.  I ate so much pizza in college, yes a lot of it was bad pizza, then after I graduated I could not eat pizza for almost two years.  It took my mother's pizza to bring me back to my senses, now I am a happy pizza eater who preaches "Pizza is LOVE!"  

A Re-Posting.

I know a lot of you probably will not read my first post...so I am posting it again for a little background.

About two (plus) years ago I became obsessed with pizza. My love affair with pizza actually started as a child. My mother made homemade pizza most Fridays along with pasta fagiole. My maternal grandmother made lots of pizza in her basement kitchen on Catalina Avenue in Youngstown Ohio. She was known for her pizza a variety of what is called "Briar Hill Pizza" in Youngstown. Briar Hill Pizza uses grated Romano cheese instead of mozzarella.

 I do not make that kind of pizza, I go for the thin kind and the recipe I use is a variation of my mom's which I have to say I get a lot of compliments. I love pizza so much, that now I want to make pizza as they do in Naples. So I am building a wood fire oven by hand. This has been a process. Each step from the slab up requires me to do a lot of reading and preparing but even with that, it is not as perfect as I would like it to be. I am a producer for a TV station, I shoot, write and edit my own work. It is a job I love and do well. But I do not know too much about building things, so I take my time and do each step in my head. Now the slab is down, the plinth is built and the oven floor is laid, and I am building the form out of sand and thought this might be a good time to share my experiences.  

OVEN DAY! January 1, 2013

I am late, I know... almost four months later and I am finally blogging about the awesome pizzas I made in my handmade clay oven--with the help of my pizza angels!  The day was cold but Bob and Jody where there to help me get the oven up to 800 degrees and ah, the pizzas we made!

I got a chainsaw for Christmas!
That's Jody!

The fire is getting hot---took a good hour!

 The pizza took about 90 seconds! We made four!

Bob got the fire going really well.

This the finished pizza from above.

Oh...my! The look on my friends' faces when they took their first bite will stay with me forever.  The best feeling in the world!

Briar Hill Pizza

I found this video on YouTube "Briar Hill Pizza" explaining "Briar Hill" pizza.  It is worth checking out, though the interview is a little long.  "Briar Hill" pizza is similar to the pizza my grandmother used to make, it's was created by the Italian immigrants that settled in Youngstown, Ohio in a section known as Briar Hill   This is where my mom's family grew up---a small hillside facing a working steel mill.   The pizza is still made today, and the local church, St. Anthony still sells the pizza on most Friday's mornings.

Finally! The Insulation Layer

Finally... I got the time and some decent weather--- not too hot but still a chance of rain---to put the insulation layer on the oven.   And three friends came over to help too! Dave, Sherry and Sandy! I call them my pizza angels, but they are simply angels!  Without their help, I would be building this oven till next year and then some.  

 Sherry, me and Dave!

 Truly though...there is joy in working in mud...with friends!

Always handy is  Kiko's book-- the bible of oven making! I cannot tell you how many times I read and reread this book!

I am enthralled by clay ovens! 

Please send me your comments and links if you made one!

This is the clay mixed with sawdust.  I used cedar sawdust designed for hamster and other animal bedding.  It expands when water is added--- we thought at first it was best to soak it but later we learned that was not a good idea. And proceeded with  adding dry  saw dust to the clay mixture (1 part clay to 2 parts sand). 

  This looks like a monk's head!












The insulation layer was quick work since not a  lot of time is spent packing it down down as the first layer--- and with friends it only took 2 and half hours.  I plan to do a  final "plaster" layer but first I need to get comfortable firing this up.  I am so afraid of cracking it but I need to trust the universe...so to start... I will be doing 2-3 slow curing fires--- then a bread trial and then... the holy grail...PIZZA!