It Took Me 368 Days To Make This Homemade Pizza (Oven) | Claire Saffitz

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It Took Me 368 Days To Make This Homemade Pizza (Oven) | Claire Saffitz
We’ve got a special episode for you this Thanksgiving. Over the past year, I’ve dedicated myself to constructing an earth oven in my backyard, drawing inspiration from the renowned Kiko Denzer. From renting an excavator to building the foundation, installing insulation, constructing the oven floor, and adding insulation layers – this project has been a labor of love. In this hour-long journey, sponsored by the fantastic King Arthur Baking Company, I take the newly crafted oven on its maiden voyage. Join me as I attempt to create a classic Neapolitan wood-fired pizza, inspired by the techniques of Jeffrey Hamelman.

Throughout this video, I share the highs and lows, successes, and lessons learned. From the initial stages of building the oven to the final moments of savoring a homemade pizza, every step is documented. Learn from our experiences as we encounter challenges and celebrate small victories. While the journey is ongoing, we successfully craft dough, prepare pizza sauce, and assemble a pizza entirely from scratch.

Ingredients:
BIGA
100g 00 flour
60g water
¼ teaspoon instant yeast

DOUGH:
415g 00 flour
290g water
8g salt
1⅛ teaspoon yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil

DOUGH:
415g 00 flour
290g water
8g salt
1⅛ teaspoon yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil

PIZZA SAUCE:
One 14-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes,
drained, pierced and drained of seeds and inner liquid
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano
Generous pinch of red pepper flakes

TOPPINGS:
Mozzarella
Top with: more fresh oregano, olive oil, spoonfuls of stracciatella

Chapters:

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:48 Day 368
00:06:50 Make the Biga
00:11:54 Make the Pizza Dough
00:18:05 Portion and Refrigerate
00:24:48 Build an Oven
00:37:57 Make the Tomato Sauce
00:45:00 Cook the Pizza
00:56:19 Day 369
01:02:12 Verdict
01:03:47 Chicken Cam

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Video Series:
Producer/Director: Vincent C.
Camera Operator: Calvin R.
Editor: Hal M.
Assistant Editor: Andrew R.

Animation Credits:
Character Designer/Animator: Jack Sherry
Character Rigger: Johara Dutton
Background/Prop Designer: M. Cody Wiley
Background Illustrator: Jagriti Khirwa

did you turn it
on it’s on but there’s like two key
positions okay so now it’s
off
oh
why isn’t anything
[Music]
happening oops hi everyone I’m Claire
saffitz welcome to what is the beginning
of my outdoor kitchen that I built
myself Cal helped pretty professional
looking my God thanks this is
so
heavy I have no idea what I’m doing I
should probably say that first I just
like read a bunch of stuff on the
internet and watched a bunch of YouTube
videos what could go
wrong today I am taking my outdoor oven
for its made in Voyage I’m so excited
also super nervous Harris I’m so nervous
what’s the Julie child thing the courage
of your conver yeah thank you that’s
helpful I’ve never done this before and
I’m going to make some pizza in it I
mean just seriously nothing’s happening
it looks like raw dough I’m like not
Reinventing the wheel here I just want
to see if the oven works I don’t know
there some cracks we’ll see anyway
fingers crossed
[Music]
for the first bake ever in the oven I’m
going to go with a Neapolitan style
pizza I’m not really like Reinventing
the wheel here kind of classic neolan
style dough little tomato sauce little
mozzarella nothing fancy I just want it
to work this particular style of oven is
really built for bread baking it has
this beautiful Dome it has a door that
is a very specific height relative to
the height of the Dome where you get
this cool sort of like induction style
heating with the air flow um but you can
still make pizza in it pizza ovens
actually are less sort of technical you
can do something like flatter with a
bigger opening so this is super
versatile you can do pizza you can do
bread you could do like anything that
you put in your oven at home you can
bake in here cookies and you know
vegetable so I’m just super excited I
feel like this is going to really change
how we live in this space but there’s a
big learning curve I’ve like done so
much reading about it like hours and
hours and hours not to mention the
actual building of it I just really want
it to work I started this building
process 370 days ago it was right before
welser dessert came out that was last
year on November I was like I got to
start this oven project before the
ground freezes so late October I dug a
huge hole I rented a mini EX
avator and then I took a an enormous
pause for the entire winter a book tour
and everything I was away for a long
time and then I picked it back up in the
spring and summer so I built a
foundation I laid concrete brick I made
poured a concrete slab on top it’s I
designed it so that it’s has wood
storage underneath that was really
important to me to keep everything dry
then I built a bed of insulation then
laid the brick the fire brick for the
oven floor created a big dome of sand
that was the form then I built this sort
of mixture of clay and mud and sand in a
dome around it I built a brick Arch and
then you have an oven I put a chimney in
I still have actually more work to do
it’s not quite finished this is really
rough looking and kind of ugly so I’m
going to like stucco over the the base
of it I’m going to add a layer of
plaster to the outside so it’s like
super smooth that helps to make it a
little more water resistant and I have
to build a roof it’s not this cannot get
exposed to moisture or rain
so would I do it again if I really fully
understood the complete extent to
which like this was going to require so
much time and research and frankly money
I don’t know but the point but I built
it so here we are and I love it and I’m
so proud of it and I learned a lot but
this was a lot of work I think that this
oven is getting hot the Dome is warm to
the touch the top of the insulation so
you know it takes several hours to get
it fired up
literally um one thing that’s happening
though is there’s a breeze that’s kind
of going this direction and the breeze
is actually like pulling oxygen away
from the fire so I’m going to put up
something called a firing door where I’m
going to basically close off a lot of
the opening but leaving a gap at the
bottom so it can pull air in and there’s
this kind of system based on the way the
fire moves and the and like the Dome
where it’s going to pull in air through
the bottom pull it to the back it’s
going to come up to the top of the Dome
and then up through the the chimney so
that’s the kind of air flow so you know
we’ve been I mean Vinnie and Cal started
the fire actually without me while I was
inside like SP a few hours so I’m hoping
that we’re almost at that temp I want it
to be I would love it if it got around
700 800 is really better for for
pizza but I would be so happy with 700
even 600 I wanted to just get past 600
maybe one quick note one thing I learned
in this process is like it’s not really
going to achieve these really high
temperatures until everything’s super
dry and it’s not dry yet it takes quite
a bit of firings to get it dry so will I
get there possibly not all I want you
know what let me revise my goal I just
want it to get hotter than my oven
inside can get so like over 550 new goal
I keep I keep lowering my
expectation but I think we can do it
while I get my fire really in a good
place I’m going to show you how I made
the dough how I made the sauce and I
really hope we make some pizza out here
so before I get into the dough recipe I
want to thank our friends at King Arthur
Baking Company based in Vermont King
Arthur is America’s oldest flower
company all of the wheat flour is grown
and melt in the US and if anyone’s seen
any episodes of dessert person you know
that King Arthur is my flour of choice
for all of my baked goods from cookies
to cakes to breads they have a full line
of flowers including gluten-free and I
also use the bread flour for all of my
breads it has a high protein content so
it makes the most sort of beautiful open
crumb chewy bread today I’m using the
double zero flour which I’m super
excited about this is a mix of hard and
soft wheat flour this is specially
formulated for Neapolitan style pizza
crust you’re going to get like a super
bubbly Edge and really thin crust all
across the surface so I’m really excited
to use it if you want to learn more
about double zero and all the flowers
that King Arthur Baking Company makes
you can go to the link in the
description below so thank you to King
Arthur and I’m super excited to make our
pizza
dough so the dough for Neapolitan style
pizza ideally is made with a style of
flower called double zero so that refers
to the way that it’s grated in Italy
double zero really is a wheat flour
that’s just very very finely miled and
when flour is at fine it basically
allows you to produce a dough that can
be stretched very very thin and that’s
what you want with a Neapolitan pie it’s
like an ultra thin crust so I have my
King Arthur zero flour here and I am
using a recipe with instant yeast and
this is a recipe basically taken from
Jeffrey Hamil’s bread book which is kind
of like a Bible for bread Bakers I
totally trust his formulas and Jeffrey
Hilman was also the head Baker at King
Arthur flow for like years and years and
years so definitely a try andrue recipe
I feel like I have enough variables
going with the oven that I just want
something that I know is going to
produce a really good result so I’ll
show you how to make his recipe for
Neapolitan style pizza dough it starts
with something called AA which is a
style of preer so like sourdough starter
is a preferment anything that is a
portion of the dough that has already
been allowed to ferment with yeast they
gets added to the dough that’s a
preferment and Bec is sort of like an
Italian style so the ingredients for the
dough super straightforward I have my
double zero flow I have a little bit of
olive oil that goes in at the end kosher
salt yeast water that’s it sometimes
neolan style dough doesn’t even have oil
in it but I like a little bit of oil in
pizza dough because it helps produce
something like a little crispy on the
outside special equipment for the dough
you’re going to want a stand mixer for
this it’s just so much easier to make in
a mixer you need a dough that’s pretty
welld developed meaning it has like a
lot of gluten to that so that you can
get something stretched really thin and
a pizza oven and the pizza oven and like
a peel and gloves and a rake and a
bucket and bunch of wood lighter
infrared thermometer your like number of
your local pizza place that delivers
doesn’t
work so to make this I’m going to start
by making the Bea and this is left to
ferment overnight and then you use it
the next morning to mix the dough I have
one that I already prepared but I’ll
still show you how to mix it together
so basically a preferment is like a
portion of the flour and water of the
recipe are like set aside and mixed with
whatever the like yeast is whether it’s
natural souro starter or instant yeast
like I’m using and then it’s left to sit
so I’m starting with a/4 teaspoon of
instant
yeast I often use active dry that’s just
like how I learn to work with yeast but
I’m kind of slowly migrating over to
instant yeast because it is more
reliable and it is easier to use so you
could use active dry here though in
place of the instant the your
fermentation times will be a tiny bit
different but it basically works the
same way so that’s going to go in just a
little bowl that I have 1/4 cup of water
I’m going to give all of the quantities
in grams which I converted from jeffy’s
recipe which was actually in ounces just
going to add that
together kind of get that mixed around
the water is room temp so there’s
something called desired dough
temperature which is kind of the
temperature at which you want the dough
and it changes depending on the style of
dough you’re making um but that’s like
the optimal fermentation temperature and
for this recipe it’s 75 fah so it’s
about that in here probably maybe a
little cooler but should be fine then
I’m adding 100 G of flour this is my
double zero it’s going to go right in
and Bea as far as preferments go is a
pretty stiff dough sometimes with a
preferment like sourdough starter or
something like that it can be it can be
liquid actually this is more of like a
dough so I’m just going to kind of work
this together just using my
hands and I’m going to mix just until it
comes together and is smooth and I don’t
have any unhydrated
flour the whole thing came together and
I have this kind of Shaggy dough but no
unincorporated flour no dry spots this
is your Bea super simple and so this I I
made last night and at room temp around
75 I would say warm room temp the Bea
take depending on the temperature it
takes between 12 and 16 hours to kind of
reach that optimal point of fermentation
so this I put in a core container and
it’s
been like 13 hours for this Bea so you
can see that it has like that yeast in
there has activated it’s like feeding on
the starches and the flour and it’s
producing gas so it has grown to even a
little more than doubled in size and
it’s slightly domed on the surface this
I just left out on the countertop
overnight it’s probably between 70 and
75° and depending on the temperature
it’ll take between 12 and 16 hours to
kind of reach that optimal point where
you want to mix it into your dough so I
think my Bea is actually ready to go you
can see that it expanded it got super
bubbly the surface is slightly domed
that’s how you know it’s ready so this
I’m going to set aside and now I can use
my Bea to mix my final
dough we’re ready ready to mix the dough
because our Bea is basically ready so
I’m going to start by mixing all of my
ingredients except the olive oil and the
Bea in my stand mixer I have the hook
fitted to the stand
mixer this is like a very manageable
amount for a home recipe so I have my
instant yeast one of the advantages of
instant yeast is that you don’t have to
dissolve it first and often I don’t
really even dissolve active dry because
the mixing action when you’re kneading
dough does that for you but it’s just a
super convenient yeast to use so that’s
that then I have my kosher salt this is
2% by weight of the total
flour then I’m going to add my liquid my
water also broom
temp so I’m going to get this going on
low speed and as that dough is coming
together I’m going to add my Bea but in
pieces because it’s going to be it’s
like a little on the firm side so just
breaking it up to help it incorporate
into the dough a little bit more
easily lots of bubbles beneath the
surface super light
voluminous I I tapped it and it
collapsed a little bit that’s how you
know it’s ready see how it’s now pulling
see how it cratered yeah that’s how you
know it’s
ready you don’t want it to crater on its
own then it’s a little bit past but if
it’s so tall that it can barely support
its weight with the little Bubbles and
then like you knock it and it collapses
that’s
ready so perfect
timing so low
speed lowest
speed so just as that last bit of flour
is hydrated I’m going to start adding
the
Bea in like spoonfuls say that again one
more
time what just happened it did sound not
good okay so as the dough is coming
together I’m going to add the Bea in
pieces like this try to prevent that
sticky I just don’t want to add all at
once cuz it won’t it’ll be hard to
incorporate so I’m just going to kind of
pinch off pieces and put them into the
mixer oops get in
there last
piece so I’m going to continue to mix
this on low speed until the dough has
come together it should be sort of like
medium developed and I’ll show you what
that looks like meaning like there is
some kind of like visible gluten
development and then I’ll add my oil oh
I know what the problem is the hook
isn’t really
attached I was like why is it going so
slow there we go first time using it no
there we go that looks better yeah and
it sounds better sounds a lot better too
oops so I think maybe like a couple
minutes of mixing and then I’ll add the
oil but it’s coming together
nicely after a few minutes of mixing
I’ll show you what the dough looks like
so this is kind of a good example of
like some some development but not full
development kind of medium somewhere in
the middle so there’s visible gluten
here like you know when I pull it
there’s some strands but this has more
mixing to go but I’m going to add the
oil and the oil is actually going to
kind of work against the development of
the dough so after I add the oil it’s
going to take like a nice long pretty
slow mix maybe 5 minutes or so and then
we’ll come back and check this is going
to go
[Music]
in five minutes mixing maybe a little
more 10 10 okay so
after a nice long slow mix this is what
the dough looks like so see how it’s
like pulling itself down off off the
hook but also tearing a little bit so
that’s kind of like medium development
if it were fully
developed it wouldn’t really do that
tearing but it’s also a fairly wet dough
I want to now get all of this out of
this mixing bowl and onto the
countertop I have another Bowl here so
now we’re entering this phase in bread
making called bulk fermentation and that
is where you take your full mass of
dough sometimes you’re only making one
loaf so it it’s calling bulk sort of is
like
a not really a useful term but when
you’re making several different portions
of dough bulk just means you the whole
dough is together instead of divided
into its portions so I have my scraper
here I just want to get everything out
of the bowl and then into this bowl so
because the dough is pretty sticky I’m
going to just very lightly
oil this
bowl little olive oil just to help
prevent
sticking
I’m going to see I’m going to try to
gather this into a ball and get it into
the oil Bowl oil on my
hands okay so I’m going to lift this
whole piece of dough up get it into my
bowl so I’m going to cover this bowl
this is going to hang out at room temp
for about an hour 75° is ideal but like
a couple degrees cooler is fine and it’s
going to get start to get kind of bubbly
and then we’re going to come back and
divide it into its portions and then it
can go into the fridge so there’s a lot
of flexibility with the timing on the
recipe because the dough can just kind
of hang out there for up to 24 hours so
what you can do is prepare this in the
morning let it hang out in the fridge
all day and then bake at night once you
have that 1 hour bulk fermentation and
then you divide the dough and it gets in
the fridge that’s when you can start
heating your oven and getting it fired
up so the dough has been in that bulk
fermentation phase for an hour it has
risen it I did give it a peek a little
sticky so now I want to divide the dough
I am going to get it out onto my work
surface and I’m going to grease lightly
so everything’s a little
sticky get my hands nice and
oiled I think with a dough especially a
dough where you already have some olive
oil added better to use oil than flour
as your like greasing agent
because if you you know you can like
sort of slowly add
flour and then you kind of throw things
off a little bit so I have my kitchen
scale
so Jeffrey hamman’s recipe says one
pound portions or 16 oz because I am
working in an oven that has a relatively
small door it’s does not have the shape
of a traditional Pizza Oven which has
like a short but wide
opening I think I’m going to go smaller
I’m also going to go smaller because I
am not an exp experienced like Handler
of a peel and getting the pizza to slide
off the peel I think like working with
something too large would be a huge
mistake so I’m going to do 8 oz portions
and I’m going to be making kind of like
mini
pizzas good place to start I think I
don’t really know what 8 oz is going to
look like
see all right I’m I’m comfortable with
that that’s
6.4 I think this is going to be more
than enough dough in an 8 O portion
almost
there okay so that’s eight set that
aside it’s a little
big
eight all right so actually they’re
going to be more like 7 and
A2 because I don’t quite have enough to
get
four very close so call it 7 and 1/2 o
each just so I can get them all equal
I’m good with my scale at the moment now
I just want to do a kind of shaping step
so I want the pizza the individual balls
of dough to be nice and round and I
always say this about like pastry dough
or pie dough it’s like whatever the
shape of the dough is when it rests is
the shape it’s going to want to be when
it gets rolled out because you have this
kind of orientation or like
directionality to the gluten so I want
to get these into nice smooth rounds and
then I’m going to put them seams side
down on my oil OED baking sheet so
having a little oil on the surface is
super helpful and the dough has
definitely become less sticky now that
it has had a chance to bulk ferment so I
just kind of did that without even
talking about it sort of a little muscle
memory but I’ll explain how to get it
into a nice sort of tight even round
like this you definitely want to use
your bench scraper so let me grab a
portion I’ll show you because I have
lots of little pieces that I stuck on to
the portion so here’s what you’re going
to do you’re going to take
your piece of dough and then I kind of
like it’s not really turning it inside
out but I’m basically taking one Edge
and pulling the dough up and over itself
and folding it over so that I have that
kind of
stretched surface of the dough then I’m
using my dough scraper at an angle in
contact with the counter and I’m pushing
the dough into itself and kind of
rounding over it and that’s going to
help me shape it into a ball with this
kind of nice tight smooth Dome to it so
same thing so you’re kind of moving it
toward
yourself in this kind of circular motion
so then after a couple rotations where
you’re really tucking the dough under
itself and then it’s sitting there and
like kind of sealing because the weight
is helping that happen then you have
this nice sort of little like dope
packet make a little space the baking
sheet for myself one quick thing you
don’t want to have too much oil on your
surface you want I mean because again
the dough is a lot less sticky than it
was upon that initial mix so you can
have a little bit but you need friction
between the dough and the surface in
order to do that sort of tucking the
dough under itself so you can always add
more oil but don’t go with too much I
have just a little bit here in case I
need to pull so I’ll show you again so
I’m trying to take all these loose bits
on the surface and like incorporate them
into the ball and kind of in the
interior so I’m going to kind of pull up
and over creating this
smoother like covering to the portion
then taking my scraper if you need to
you can add a little bit of oil to it
and working at an angle in contact with
the
surface like pulling the dough toward
itself and then into a
circle and then it’s going to move
around the AL surface so if you need to
push it back toward the
center and you can see that it
immediately forms this
nice tall
Dome and then that’s it here are my
portions I’m going to rub just a little
bit of oil onto the surface of each Dome
because I’m going to cover this and I
don’t want that plastic to stick so just
like a little
bit onto each one prevent
sticking it’s a lot easier to oil the
dough than to oil the plastic oiling
plastic is just messy and
annoying
so I’m going to Loosely cover
this I don’t need to pull it tight just
want to make sure that it’s sealing out
the any air and now this is going to go
into the fridge and I can let it sit
overnight so we can bake tomorrow
morning you have all this flexibility
once he’s going to the fridge you could
let them go for like 2 hours and then
bake them in the evening if you make
them in the afternoon or they could go
overnight so you could bake them up to
24 hours later which I think is what
we’re going to do because it’s going to
get a little too late around here for us
to be like building a whole fire that’s
going to take a couple
hours where is this going to go what a
fun
game don’t please try to not show this
whole like
meat situation which is not my
[Music]
favorite this is my oven I’m so proud of
it but I’m also super nervous because
I’ve never really used it and I just
only recently finished building it
and anytime you’re doing anything for
the first time like baking is a good
example it’s just sort of like you’re
like well I follow the directions it
seems like everything’s good but like
you never really know there’s such a big
learning curve when cooking in anything
Wood Fired you have to like understand
how to like judge the heat how to sort
of use the oven and it stages as it kind
of comes down in temperature but today
we’re just going to bake super hot and I
hope it works guys it’s not that hot in
there
that’s our issue that’s what that’s the
problem what’s the
10 you don’t want to know
180 no we’re in like the
twos we’re growing we’re in the twos we
started two hours ago so do we want
let’s see what the what the ah what does
o l
mean over the limit over limit maybe
that would be good did you point it
directly at the fire yeah
was I not supposed to do that Keo dancer
how to build an earth oven get the
book it’s a little light on detail in
certain parts the good news is that I’ve
been working on this for a year but the
pizza only takes 2 minutes to cook so
hopefully we’re nearing the end of this
like first project how many day Pizza is
this going to be yeah this is a 367 day
Pizza cuz Cal looked on his phone and
saw today is October 27th it was October
24th that I dug the hole for the
foundation so it’s been
368 days roll back the footage there’s
like 200 hours of it of how I built this
oven there we
go oh my god it worked oh that’s a root
is that a
root so today is dig day have to dig a
huge hole for the oven so that we can go
below the frost line fill it with gravel
reinforce it with concrete blocks and
then we have a super solid base for the
oven and then there’s no concern about
heaving when the ground freezes so
that’s the whole purpose of digging that
deep and so we have to go like around 4T
and hence the mini excavator cuz like I
was not digging a huge 4ft deep hole
with a shovel the idea is to line up the
oven right in line with the stairs so I
can come straight off the
deck come right to it and then kind of
Center
it
in Center it
along the garden we probably should
stake it out but I also just feel like
starting to
dig everybody Watch
Out ooh that’s a big piece of something
okay that was almost pure
stump yeah I love this I’m having the
best time my God so many worms ew
look so many worms the chickens would
love that wow there’s so many worms all
up in all over all in here I guess they
like the dead
tree and some grub this is a beetle
larvae I think anyway let’s get back on
on topic um oh God I don’t feel like I
should be standing let me get out of the
let me get out of the pit oh
God I’m 5’4 53 so if I lay down yeah
almost 5T probably probably five and and
then maybe four this way I think if you
came down straight on it and pinched it
you could lift it straight and I just
lift it up like the like the stuffed
animals in
the in the
thing like
that oh my
God bye
stump oh that was that was so satisfying
oh my God now it’s smooth sailing for
the rest of the entire
project we did have rain overnight so
it’s kind of filled with water at the
moment but um the hole is dug so it’s
about 42 in down the problem is there’s
like a couple inches of water in
there so maybe we have to wait till a
dry day to do the uh the foundation
there here you will you come look at the
hole that I dug it’s
magnificent it’s it’s it’s
magnifical it’s really good Felix
where’s he going I don’t know he’s never
gone that way come here kitty cat kitty
oh come
here look it’s the Great Outdoors Felix
oh yeah great makes makes great footage
but I’m really he smells like you me
yeah he has like hair
smell hi Kitty why Earth Heaven well so
the concept is the following bricks are
made of
mud so we we’re just skipping the part
where mud is made into bricks and then
making a brick oven and just using the
Earth directly to essentially make one
oven shaped brick that makes sense
everyone you know most people are
familiar with a brick oven that’s what
we’re making we’re
just cutting out the making brick part
and going right to the oven part oh God
don’t we have a machine that can do this
Ser to get all the water out
yeah I I started off loving this project
I’m loving it less
now so once I’m down to just maybe an
inch or so of water like to the point
where I can no longer kind of
effectively fill up a bucket I’m going
to start adding gravel oh my God it’s
really it’s very muddy over
here all this for an oven it’s for an
oven that’s going to last 1 thousand
years I really wish they gotten closer
with this pile of gravel
my God this is
so
heavy it’s kind of a lot of rocks it’s
pretty good coverage so I’ve basically
filled in the Bottom by I think a couple
inch of the gravel
and actually now might be a good
stopping point it’s also getting late so
I think I’m going to let this sit
overnight come back in the morning and
see if there’s been any like water
seepage and if not then I kind of think
we’re good to go I’m going to do sand
and start to level it and get a base for
the cement blocks so I guess that’s the
water line and we’re just going to fill
in with more gravel I shouldn’t have dug
such a deep hole but once you got the
excavator going it’s hard to stop
so theoretically the sand helps to kind
of comp
everything and fill in the Rocks but
it’s a really relatively very small
amount of sand but I will say that it
feels much more stable cuz yesterday
with just that thinner layer of gravel I
could feel the kind of Muddy ground
underneath moving and this feels very
different much more
[Music]
solid
I’m going to finish filling inside and
outside with gravel and then we will
reinforce the rebar and pour the
[Music]
cement didn’t get to the concrete but
Cal and I both agree probably not the
best idea for me to mix my first
concrete ever in the
dark
I was kind of joking when I called it an
egg beater but that literally is what
it’s called it’s so smooth no
[Music]
lumps probably should have had the yeah
yep probably should have turned it
around look at the wheels if I had to
buy one more bag of
mortar I’m going to do it but I’m going
to be really annoyed about it you know
what it’s called when you put the mortar
on the side of the brick do you know
what it’s called you butter
it what I’ve learned about mixing mortar
is you want it
workable but not soupy so obviously this
is too
dry and definitely better
to add little by little so you don’t
overshoot it and that a good test of
when you’ve hit the right consistency is
if you pick up some with your Trel and
hold it at a 40 45 degree angle it
should not fall off the first couple
batches like one I I slightly under
hydrated one I slightly overhydrated but
I think I have
the knowledge
[Music]
now and that’s buttering that’s
buttering
[Music]
it
[Music]
and now I’m going to put in some
insulation so that is basically some
wine
bottles I’m going to sandwich in between
layers of sand and then on top of the
sand goes a layer of fire brick and that
is the floor of the oven the point of
the bottles is that they’re there to
trap air and air is a great insulator
some of these haris and I are not huge
drinkers so some of these bottles are
from us just saving them and some of
them are from
asking around Chelsea Market where
Harrison’s restaurant is if anyone
there’s a wine bar I think he went to
the wine bar and asked them like hey can
we can we grab your
[Music]
recycling I now have like a thing here
instead
of like a pile of a big mess which is
what it’s been up until this
point looks very honestly like pretty
professional looking my God
thanks oh my my god look oh my
God this is so satisfying this whole
project
I’m
so pleased so far oven is going to be 16
in the dome is going to be 16 in in the
middle and you need that proportion of
10 over 16 is like a important
proportion in oven building that is a
proportion of door to dome height for
that circulation of the
[Music]
air I really have no idea how much water
it’s going to take I think a lot to
really get it
mixed so the sand will get scooped out
it’s temporary but that is what is going
to become the void inside the oven
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
it’s definitely going out the chimney
mhm so now most of the work is done
we’re still bringing the oven up to Temp
and I have my dough in the fridge I want
to just prep everything else that I need
for pizza so I’m going with something
kind of in the classic margarita realm
I’m not trying to like do anything too
fancy with this sort of first attempt so
I have some whole peeled caned Tomatoes
here I’m going to do a quick sauce not
cooked kind of keeping it in that like
Neapolitan realm I have a food mill here
which is a really handy tool for pizza
sauce because it leaves a little bit of
texture which I like um and then I have
everything else I need for the pizza
some fresh mozzarella I have we have a
local store here where you can get this
really good stratch aella cheese which
I’m going to put on top after it’s
baked I have some additional double zero
flour for stretching out the dough plus
this is semolina for dusting over the
peel it’s going to help the dough to
slide off into the oven for the rest
rest of the sauce in addition to the
Tomato I have some salt some red pepper
flake a little dried oregano olive oil
and then basil for finishing off the pie
the food mill is definitely a piece of
specialty equipment this is something
that is we don’t use it that often in
our house but when we do use it it’s
like kind of the only tool for the job
so it is basically a tool looks like
this and it’s a way of kind of like
pressing something through these fine
holes and it it helps to separate out
any like seeds or skins and it leaves a
little bit of texture and it has these
discs in the bottom that with different
size holes so you can get different
textures it’s really handy you can use
it for like potato puree or making
applesauce or that kind of thing okay so
the first thing I want to do is drain my
tomatoes in my experience with pizza
making I need a can opener so in my
experience with pizza
making I have definitely spent too long
assembling the pizza on the peel and you
have this really thinly stretched dough
then you’re putting something wet on it
and it’s immediately going to make it
want to like stick to the peel and
that’s really bad because then you can’t
get it off into the oven and you have to
do that in like a pretty quick fluid
motion and I’m not trying to make like a
calzone that like folds over onto itself
in the oven so to that point I want to
make a sauce that’s not very wet so I’m
going to drain the
tomatoes this is a 20 28 Oz can this is
probably more than I’m going to need it
definitely is I’m making like max four
pizzas some
difficulty God having a real hard time
with this can opener here’s how you use
this can
opener there you
go close
enough so I’m going to drain them
because peeled whole tomatoes come in
this kind of like tomato puree liquid
kind of
thing so not only am I draining them
from the liquid that’s in the can but
I’m going to split them open I’m going
to use my hands let me wash them
first like the Tomato shouldn’t be a
tomato sauce in a sense it should be
like Tey tiny shreds of tomato that you
spread out across the surface of the
dough so I’m going to use my hands and
just kind of like open up the tomato and
drain them of that liquid that’s
inside so that I’m just pureing the
flesh there’s quite a bit of liquid in
the Tomato you can also take out any
seeds what I really need is a collander
something less fine this a very fine
strainer here I’m going to save this
liquid because I can add it to like the
next time I make a cooked tomato
sauce so now I have my tomatoes drained
split open I’m going to put my food mill
over my bowl Tomatoes go in working a
food mill is kind of
fun
so these are obviously already peeled
but if they were not peeled this would
be taking out the
Skins okay so now I have my puree tomato
make sure you get everything off the
bottom of that
disc puree but still with texture which
I’m happy
about so here is the texture of that
sauce still like very liquid I just
didn’t didn’t want any more liquid in
there than there had to be so now this
needs to get seasoned I’m going to
season it to taste this is some actually
it’s like sea
salt I’m going to do a pinch of red
pepper flakes maybe just a little bit of
dried
oregano but like not even a/4 teaspoon I
think it’s pretty strong that’s the
thing then maybe a tablespoon of olive
oil maybe that was like more like
two so I’m just going to stir this
up
good like it little more
salt a little more
oregano it’s nice it’s bright it’s
acidic but not not
overpowering and I like the texture this
needs a little more
salt a little more olive
oil but I’m happy about the sauce I
think mostly it’s like a obviously it’s
a flavor thing but a lot of it’s texture
too I go pretty light on the Tomato one
thing that I think people don’t really
think about when it comes to pizza is
that it is a bread dish like pizza is
about the crust the toppings are there
to like enhance it and make everything
delicious but like I’m not I don’t want
to overload with crust cuz I want it to
be about the dough
so sauce is looking good give it a final
taste good nicely seasoned I’m going to
get everything on my board we’re going
to go outside I’m going to grab my dough
and we’re going to keep feeding the fire
and get things ready for baking so
nervous do you want to preheat your
oven no I don’t want to breathe the oven
I think that it’s like it’s like if you
show then it’s like I’m showing fear I
preheat the oven inside the baking gods
are not going to respect
that so I’m not going to do
that I’m going to cut myself some
muts oh you know what maybe instead of
slicing it I should just be tearing it
I’ll tear
it damn it I had a log cabin going
getting the like mid
threes which is better than it was but
let me put on a firing door so I’ll show
you what that looks like it’s not really
a door it kind of
is well you can make an actual door but
I just haven’t yet basically you want to
cover the front of the oven because it’s
going to lose heat out of it and you
want to create like a draft where it can
pull air in but that’s not such a big
opening where Heat’s going to be lost
you can actually make a door out of
metal which Kiko recommends the idea is
that you’re covering it and leaving a
couple inches I probably have 2 in here
at the bottom where the air is going to
be pulled in and this is especially good
if it’s windy ah that was there’s a
certain type of wood I think it’s soft
wood that it’s moisture pops like that
yeah that seems good that’s pretty far
back I’ll tell you it feels hot in there
maybe not 600° or 500° but still feels
hot you guys my peel came thank you red
cedar creative from Ben Oregon
why did you have to special order one
the timing could not have been better I
had to special order a peel on Etsy
because the oven door opening is so
narrow and I really wanted a wood one in
my
experience a metal peel is a lot harder
to use than a wooden one and I found one
at Etsy it was so beautiful and I was
afraid it wasn’t going to come in time
but it arrived like literally just now
oh my God it’s so beautiful look at how
beautiful it is it’s perfect right it’s
perfect you think it’s too small it’s
small it’s small this it’s not a big
opening I think it’s good see how it is
like tapered at the end so you can slide
under has a long handle this is perfect
it’s so beautiful I love it so much what
were you thinking about doing up until
this
moment you know what I had like 14 ideas
in my head but none of them were good
and I didn’t think any of them were
going to work okay after like several
hours feeding the fire getting the
firing door on I it might be ready I
have my dough I have everything ready to
go I have my peel so plan is I’m going
to check the fire I can take the firing
door off and if we’re at like a good
place with the coals everything’s kind
of burned down and is like glowing plan
is push it to the back of the oven kind
of along along one side around the curve
and maybe give a little sweep so I have
a clean floor for the pizza because in
this style of oven the fire brick floor
that is your baking surface just like to
be very kind of clear about like the
style of oven and then I got to build a
pizza and I know I got to work fast fast
cuz like the longer that pizza dough
sits on that peel with toppings on it
the harder it’s going to be using my
little dough blobs they’ve been hanging
out hopefully not over proofing so what
I want to do is I’m going to go like the
top of the blob down into the flower so
get it coated a little
bit then flip it then onto my work
surface or I can start to get it worked
out into something roundish and I
definitely know that with Pizza
especially high temperatures you do not
want a lot of excess flour everywhere
cuz that will burn so then you kind of
start to
stretch so once you get it to a certain
thickness SL thinness I guess you can
put it like your fingertips are really
going to want to tear it so you can kind
of stretch it on the backs of your hands
like little fists this is not something
where I’m super skilled I might not want
to do this any further the middle 50% is
like really thin I could probably do a
lot to work on these
edges and thin them out but I don’t
think I want to do
that oh God like it’s getting a little
thin there so now I’m going to get my
peel going to get my semolina
down and one thing that I like to do is
like rub it into the peel I think that
that tends to really help all right so
then once it’s here you can stretch it a
little more onto your peel so I’m
basically making like a pizza exactly
the same size as the peel so I’m going
to pre-red a little pieces of mozzarella
so I can get them on really fast and I’m
just going tomato sauce Ms because I
don’t want to delay any further getting
this
into my oven and I can put everything
else on top when it comes out really
minimal tomato
sauce I would say that was like not even
2
tablespoons I have statch aella for
topping when it comes out ah I’m so
nervous ready ready oh my God oh my God
ah oh my God it got in it went in hold
on I think that I should put the baking
door fully in
right which
means and like that we’re baking this
pizza at
350° and we’re kind of smoking it
because it’s pretty smoky in there so
the B door is designed has a handle on
it it’s designed to be fit at an angle
into the entrance to the oven on inside
of the chimney so it’s basically cutting
off the chimney as a means oh but you
know what that’s only if you have no
coals in it cuz otherwise I’m literally
smoking it open it up had air actually
yeah so maybe I should go back to
this
yeah that’s only if you don’t have
any wood in it anything burning in it
never mind just got excited to use it it
fits I cut it by hand so we don’t have a
saw this does make me really glad that I
put in a chimney cuz otherwise all that
smoke is coming out the front
I mean seriously nothing’s happening it
looks like raw
dough the front is really cold this is
raw dough I’m not I can’t spin that look
at the texture when I try to touch it
with the peel I mean it’s literally
sticking to the I I cannot turn it the
back is cooking but I can’t the rest of
it is too
wet I need it just needs to maybe
another 10 minutes 30 to 60 seconds it’s
like the first Pancake we make a
sacrifice these tongs suck there’s like
no
leverage I’m getting very
frustrated I Need Just A Better pair of
tongs than these
P
sorry where’s the glove my hand’s
getting hot where’s the glove here’s
right here
okay oh this one is this one
is we we’re halfway to calzone on this
one the dough didn’t puff guys King
Arthur we’re so
sorry I made like a like a slow steamed
flatbread we got to get it hotter this
dough is going to overproof it already
has overproofed a little bit oh yeah it
is rising because it’s in the direct sun
over there yeah why don’t I make it
inside I’ll run it out here really fast
what do I do can I just take this one
out it didn’t really work is that okay
yeah take it out observe
it now there’s mozzarella cheese on the
bottom of the oven I’m just taking the
whole thing
out this is a total disaster the dough
was too thin where’s the left hand
glove
sorry sorry this is a little taste of
what Harris has to deal with sometimes
when I get a little
cranky
[Laughter]
let’s see
[Laughter]
it it’s pale it’s torn it got no bubbles
and it has stood all over it and there’s
a
fly other than that it’s
perfect Harris look what happened I just
started yelling at everyone I feel like
it was what you
experienced do you me me I just I just
started like nonstop complaining you
know on account of your rage yeah Harris
what’s your uh
review it wasn’t hot enough it wasn’t
hot enough I think people one B I’m
tasting it I think people spend
thousands of years trying to learn how
to make ovens and how to make pizza and
that there’s going to be some trial and
error he just throws up in the
back it tast Wood Fired yeah doesn’t it
that’s that’s about all I can say about
it the dough is not
cooked good yeah
[Laughter]
not Are You full blast right
now what like I have to turn the knob up
what do you mean am my full blast is it
really hot are you holding back no how
hot is it holding back we’re trying to
get it as hot as possible it’s just not
getting that hot that was like 350° in
there it’s be 800° so why I know thank
you so what was the purpose of this
pizza I don’t know we thought maybe the
thermometer medum medium rare Pizza we
thought the thermometer was wrong maybe
you know what that’s a much more likely
reason than anything else Vinnie told me
to do it I love the chili tast delish I
feel like there’s a lot that went right
today sort of the cracking is minimal
things are really drying out it’s
looking good we put the oven under a lot
of stress today with that amount of that
level of fire for that long
however it just did not get hot enough
for us to really successfully make a
Neapolitan style pizza plus we had
another sort of variable working against
us which is the over proofing of the
dough as we were waiting for the oven to
heat up so I’m not I am encouraged but
not satisfied with this attempt so we
are going to do it again going to make
some more dough tonight you’re going to
come back tomorrow with an oven that
we’re going to let this cool and like
further dry out there’s no rain in the
forecast there’s a little breeze we want
to try again tomorrow try to get it
really hot and make some proper pizzas I
can save I’m we have more mozzarella I’m
going to save the sauce like we’re good
got everything we need we just need more
heat and some fresh
[Music]
dough
[Music]
we took a beat we’re trying again the
next day I have some fresh dough that
looks really good I have like more room
to work C Vinnie really took a lot of
care and a lot of time to get this thing
super hot so I feel a lot more confident
now and we’re going to try it the dough
is not overproof the oven is up to Temp
so I want to push all those coals back
put a couple fresh logs around that
perimeter get some Flames going kind of
like up and around the Dome and that
should be really ideal Pizza conditions
I can take the temp just on that like
floor area where the pizza’s going to go
but I can just tell it’s way hotter than
yesterday and I think that’s just from
it dried like yesterday I had like a
nice long fire but it was still holding
on to moisture in a couple layers so
drier oven hotter
temps oh it is like it is hot I mean I
have enough coals that they’re like all
around the entire perimeter of the
oven so toward the front it registered
seven something like the very front of
it is in the 600s and anything back
there is over over the limit of the
thermometer which is what 750 all right
so it’s it’s super hot in there so I’ll
stick a couple more logs on although we
have some active Flames already kind of
dancing up and
around ow my hand got hot even in the
glove Ow like it really did so now I’m G
to get some of this Ash off the
floor oh God like it like the skin on my
face is tightened cuz it just got like
super dried out it’s hot I’m going to go
upside down into the
flour oh God already
right see you do really want to keep it
in a in the ball shape because that’s
going to make it easier to roll it into
a round but oh well and onto my work
surface I’m going to use Vinnie’s
technique
of like kind of dimpling it and pushing
the bubbles outward and helping to
establish a bit of like a
rim and this also helps to prevent thin
spots all right now I can begin to
stretch I don’t want to go so much
thinner than
this some semolina on my
peel working against a breeze here
here not too
much we’re making Square
pizzas okay now race against the
clock
haris prepped in my tomato sauce it’s a
little
chunky how am I going to get this how am
I supposed to get this to spread
out so I’m going to tear some
mozzarella I felt like yesterday we
could have used a little salt so I’m
going to add a little
salt on
top and into the OV
[Applause]
oven nice it’s already bubbling oh my
God oh my God it’s already bubbling and
it’s already setting I think I should
move it now yeah where those tongs
go like it’s already actually pretty
done on the
bottom
should do
180
yeah oh my God and the cheese is getting
it’s getting cooked on the top too oh my
God it looks so
good I kind of feel like
it’s almost almost
done looks like a pizza it does look
like a pizza crust is bubbling
nicely oh my God I made a
pizza oh my God it looks so good so some
red pepper
flakes a little olive
oil
I still have a little bit of this Stella
so I’m going to put some of this on cuz
it’s so
good some freshly torn basil this
seriously looks like a pizza right I
still have so much more to do on this
oven though I got a patch L cracks I got
it do the plaster I got to make a a
whole like roof for
it go away b
OO good crunch through the crust well
that double zero flour it’s going to get
it really
crispy oh o
look ooh looks pretty good looks
fantastic smells really
good like really
good
M bottom look at how thin the crust is
but bottom is so crispy
M the cheese pool it’s still so hot a
little too much salt but it’s really
good you guys should taste this here
well let’s close it up we’re done here
okay
okay I will
say this oven project has been very
humbling
but also super empowering because I had
to like teach myself a lot I kind of
absorb a lot of knowledge fortunately I
had a whole year to get to this point
from the starting point and I’m not done
yet I have a couple more things I have
to do but it works it’s an oven it gets
really hot and I can make pizza and I
can make bread we’re definitely going to
bring you more episodes from the outdoor
oven now that can you guys come back and
build the fires when I need to do it
again okay thanks such a learning
process but I feel like bread and oven
building baking are all learning
processes and when things don’t work you
just have to try again do something
different I want to thank King Arthur
for sponsoring this episode I feel like
King Arthur is a comforting like
familiar presence like all the flowers
are so reliable make such good pizza
from the allp purpose to the bread is
always in my kitchen I love it so much I
do feel like supported by King Arthur
and all their products so thank you so
much for watching we’re going to cook
off a couple more pizzas and don’t
forget to like And
subscribe
[Music]
d