A Slice of Italy - Our Wood-burning Pizza Oven

Today I am going to take you along at our home

for a pizza party.  In my last post I showed you

our remodeled kitchen and said that our favorite

item was the wood-burning pizza oven imported

by Mugnaini from Italy.

Our family had been having make-your-own pizza parties

for a long time using a pizza stone in the oven, so this

was a natural for us to graduate to this wonderful pizza

oven. 

When we went to our cooking class in Tuscany, it was made up of

all owners of this brand of pizza oven.  We were the only

ones who had installed it in the house.  The others all had

it for seasonal use outside.

It can get a little hot during the summer, but we just turn

the air conditioner down a few degrees and it works

out great.

Like a pizza stone in your oven, the pizza oven has to be heated

for a long time.  I begin by building a fire about 2 1/2 hours

before I plan on serving the pizza.  I also mix up my dough

then so that it can have 2 risings.

About 6 months after we had our pizza oven installed we went

to a class in California on how to use our pizza oven.  It was

a one day class held by Andrea Mugnaini, owner of Mugnaini

(pronounced moon-ya-een-ie).

We had been letting the dough rise and having people pull off

the size of dough ball they wanted.  They taught us that it

was much better to shape the dough into balls and then let

them rise a second time, then to hand-stretch the dough balls

into pizzas.  This kept the air bubbles in the dough and created

a much better crust.

The second rising takes between 30 and 45 minutes, so it is

perfect while you are setting our your ingredients for the

make-your-own pizza bar.

(When my husband previewed this post he said to tell you

that he had made the dough balls and that I would have

made nice round ones!  Who is going to complain when

he helps so much.  He also stand at the pizza oven and

does most of the baking.)

We place the ingredients going around the island, starting with

dough balls, and flour to dust the pizza peels with.

Everyone shapes their own pizza crusts then moves on for

sauces and toppings.

Fresh tomatoes from the garden this time of year,

Also a fresh bruschetta sauce with red and yellow tomatoes,

And a variety of prepared sauces, from left to right -

salsa, Thai peanut sauce and pizza sauce.

We usually include BBQ sauce, Caesar Dressing, and

pesto as other optional sauces for the base of your

pizza.  Most people make more than one and try

out several sauces.

Then come the meats including grilled chicken, sausages, pepperoni,

shrimp, canadian bacon, prosciutto and ham.

Our meno varies every time.

Before we top it off with a variety of cheeses, we generally offer

mushrooms, pine nuts, peanuts, fresh basil, fresh cilantro,

caramelized onions, artichoke hearts and whatever other goodies

we might be having that day.

I prefer to come back and put the fresh herbs on after cooking,

but some like them cooked on.

(This is a BBQ chicken pizza with fresh corn.)

Then its off to the oven where hopefully the guest has put

enough flour on the pizza peel so that it slides off onto

the hot oven flour. 

The coals have been pushed to the back of the oven and the

oven floor has been swept with a metal brush.  The floor

of the oven is now about 650 - 700 degrees and the

dome of the oven about 1200 degrees.  It is important to

keep a log burning to create the overhead heat to melt

the cheese.

The individual pizzas are about 8 - 10 inches across so you can

cook quite a few at a time.

Cooking time is usually less than 2 minutes - so super fast.

We use a long-handled pizza peel to retrieve the pizzas from the

oven.  The crust has puffed and is crisp on the bottom, the

cheese is melted and everything is so hot and delicious.

You never get a pizza this hot and crispy from a restaurant.

Time to go back and try another variety - this one is a Thai Chicken

pizza.

Remember the old Lay's Potatoe Chip commercial - "no one can

eat just one."  That's how our pizza parties are.

Just when everyone can barely move, my husband breaks out the

ingredients for dessert pizzas.  He generally makes them, cuts

them into tiny bite size pieces (so you can fit one more bite in)

and hand serves them to the crowd. 

We usually use a frosting or a curd for the base, then top with

chocolate chips, marshmallows, nuts, etc., bake and

finish off with fresh fruit such as raspberries, strawberries,

and bananas.  You can drizzle chocolate, caramel or fruit sauce

on top as the final touch.

This one is lemon curd topped with white chips and then

finished with fresh raspberries.

Hurry and grab a piece before they are all gone!

This one is a coconut pecan frosting topped with pecans,

chocolate chips and white chips.

The same pizzas can be done at home with a pizza stone.

Be sure that you preheat the stone at 500 for an hour and

a half.  Don't cheat on this.  This is what makes the crust

crispy.

We were using the crust recipe from the California Pizza

Kitchen cookbook which has a little sugar and oil, but

at Mugnaini kitchens they advised that the oil and sugar

make the crust burn easier in this hot of an oven.

This recipe comes from Mugnaini Kitchens

Pizza Crust Recipe

4 C. flour

2 tsp. yeast dissolved in 1/2 C. water

2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 C. warm water

Mix all of the above in your mixer with dough hook and

let knead for about 5 minutes. 

I use SAF yeast and so I don't dissolve the yeast first

in warm water, I just place the yeast and the full

amount of water (1 3/4 C.) into the mixing bowl first.

 Spray the dough with Pam and cover with plastic wrap to

let rise, about 1 1/2 hours, until double.

Shape into round dough balls, spray with Pam and let

rise for 30-45 minutes or until doubled.

Don't roll the dough, hand shape it.

We have served up to 70 pizzas in one evening.  We have 8

pizza peels and everyone just visits while waiting their

turn to create and bake their pizza.

Hope you try a pizza party in your home soon.

When we took our cooking class in Tuscany, Italy, we made

everything in these ovens, breads, cookies, meats, fish,

vegetables, using methods from broiling, baking, slow

roasting to grilling on the hot coals. 

At home we have done roasted turkeys, grilled meats,

lasagne, breads, slow roasted meats, everything but

dessert, which I will try baking a dessert someday!

Hope you enjoyed your pizza party here today at

Purple Chocolat Home.

I will be posting this with

Just Something I Whipped Up Monday

and

Tasty Tuesday

and

Take a Look Tuesday.