Gourmet Pizza for a Wood Fired Oven

Most people are very familiar with your standard pizza: tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sausage and a few other key ingredients make up the majority of pizzas you’ll see in your standard home. Gourmet pizzas, however, don’t necessarily follow these rules. Gourmet pies can contain almost any ingredient you can imagine and are really only limited by your imagination as a chef. These types of pizzas range from breakfast pies with bacon and eggs to vegetarian pizzas with exotic vegetables and spices from lots of different types of cuisine.

Of course, like any pizza, gourmet pies are best cooked in a wood fired oven like the Forno Premium or the Forno Classico. This is because wood burning ovens can bring enough heat to create a distinctive flavor in your pizza. When building a gourmet pie, pick only the finest ingredients. When cooking, make sure the get the temperature up high enough in your oven so that the cheese and toppings can form a nice caramelized crust that will greatly enhance the flavor. There’s no need to go out for gourmet pizza any longer when you can build delicious pies in the comfort of your own home with your own indirect wood fired pizza oven.

How to Cook with Your Wood Burning Oven

If you are new to working in a wood fired oven, the prospect of cooking for the first time can seem daunting. Cooking in a wood burning oven, however, is much easier than it may seem. The first thing you should probably do is watch a few of the videos that Dolce Vita offers on its site going through the parts and process of cooking in a Forno wood burning oven. Once you know the basics of how the oven works and how it is prepared, it’s time to start cooking.

The type of wood you choose to burn when cooking is very important. It is essential to use hard dry wood so that the oven doesn’t crack and so that you don’t get the foul taste of smoke that tends to come off more wet woods. Good choices for hard dry woods are oak, almond, fruitwood, walnut and pecan. The type of wood you select will impact the flavor of whatever you are cooking. Once your wood is burning in the oven, you can adjust the temperature by dampening or increasing the flame. This be can accomplished by adding more wood, closing and opening certain vents and other actions.

Bread Recipe for Your Wood-fired Oven

If you haven’t heard, your Forno indirect wood burning oven is great for making bread. From sourdough to whole wheat and even Challah, a wood-fired oven will turn out fantastic baked bread time after time. The following is a quick and basic recipe to get you started, but there are basically no limitations on what kind of bread you will be able to bake in your wood burning oven.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 1/2 cups whole meal flour
3 cups lukewarm water
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon yeast
2 1/2 teaspoon bread improver (for faster preparation)
1 teaspoon olive oil

Preparation
-Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together well. Make a well in the center of the mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Gradually incorporate the dry mix into the wet until you get consistent dough that feels consistent and a little tacky.
-Place a sheet of saran/cling wrap on the dough as well as up the sides of the bowl. Leave the dough and let it rise for about 30 minutes. It should double in size.
-Remove cling wrap and place the dough on a well-floured table surface and cover with flour.
-Using a knife or spatula, take your desired portion of the dough and shape it into a round ball, then flatten it with the palm of your hand.
-Place the dough directly onto the wood-fired oven floor
-Monitor the bread and watch it bake in a few minutes. The time it takes to bake will depend on the heat of the oven and where the bread is placed. The most important thing is to watch it and make sure it doesn’t burn.

Learning about Your Wood Fired Oven: Terms Part Two

Last blog post we discussed some of the terms associated with some wood fired ovens. This is a continuation of terms that will help you to appreciate your oven even more.

Insulation - The layers that enclose a wood fired oven and stops heat from escaping. Without proper insulation, heat will conduct through the Oven Hearth and Oven Enclosure, making the outside of the oven hot to touch. A poorly insulated oven will not retain heat well and will make baking and cooking inadequate.

Oven Firing - The fire inside the oven chamber that heats the refractory material that comprises the oven. Make sure you know how long it takes to fire your oven for the type of cooking you plan for so that you can fire your oven at the right time.

Pizza Peel - The tool you use to set and turn pizza, pots and pans to put in and out of your wood burning oven. They can be either wood or steel, short- handled or long-handled. Take a look at some of the other accessories for pizza ovens.

Refractory Materials – This is material that is design to withstand heat and high temperatures. Unlike a typical fireplace, where all of the heat goes up the chimney, a refractory fireplace uses refractory material to absorb and reflect heat into the space in front of it.

Retained Heat Cooking - This is a style of cooking where you rake the fire and coals out of the wood burning oven and cook using the retained heat. You can cook a wide range of foods this way, taking advantage of the various levels of heat the oven goes through as it cools. For example, you can cook bread at round 500F, roasts, cakes and other Dolce around 400F, then beans and soups overnight as the oven temperature falls.

Learning about Your Wood Fired Oven: Terms Part One

A great way to get started with a wood burning pizza oven is to learn the common terms associated with this marvelous piece of equipment. If you are not familiar with details of how the oven works, you can learn a lot of things by looking through this list of common words used to associate with different aspects of a wood fired oven.

Arch – The Forno Rustico oven has a number of pieces that can be constructed using arches, including the dome itself, which is a circular, arched vault. Arches can also make up the opening into the oven chamber, which can use either a flat or arched top, and the opening into the vent landing.

Carbon Burn-Off - When the inside of the dome of a wood burning oven reaches about 650 degrees, the black soot, or carbon, begins to burn off, giving the impression that the oven dome is turning white. You can see the detail of the dome interior, and know that your oven is nearly ready for cooking pizza.

Chimney - Unlike a normal fireplace, where the chimney is in the back, a wood burning oven has the chimney outside of the fire chamber. The oven draws in cold air through the opening for the fire, and exhausts hot air back out through the top half of the oven door. The exhausted air is collected by a Vent, which is in turn connected to a chimney. Outdoor ovens use a short chimney run to safely exhaust smoke, while indoor ovens can be connected to an appropriate chimney system to exhaust smoke outside of the house.

Curing - After your oven has been installed, you need to bring it up to heat slowly to allow the oven itself, and the installation materials to dry. Failure to do this could result in damage to your oven. You should allow your oven to sit for seven days after installation and then begin a series of seven small, then growing fires.

Wood Fired Ovens for the Holidays

The holidays are a great time to get together with family and enjoy a great home cooked feast that reminds everybody how good food can actually be. Wood fired ovens make cooking for the holidays a delectable experience that simply can’t be duplicated from any other piece of equipment. The key to cooking with wood burning ovens comes from the time honored tradition of gaining heat through natural wood burning techniques that maximize flavor above all else.

Nearly any holiday dish you can think of can be cooked better with a wood fired oven. Turkeys can be cooked at an initial high temperature to generate a flavor sear and then cooked at a lower burn in order to create a succulent and tender bird. The natural flavors from the wood will infuse natural flavors to the meat that will be unforgettable. Desserts can develop a delicious caramelized crust that will have your guests eating far after they’ve become stuffed with all the other great food.

Wood fired ovens are also a great showpiece to present to family and friends during the holidays. The spectacle of a wood burning oven will have people gathered around and wondering at the marvel of traditional wood fired cooking. Fires are a natural, primordial curiosity for mankind, and ovens that use traditional fire to cook will have people realizing the true roots of human cooking and fully realizing the amazing flavors that come with it.

Cooking Techniques with Wood Fired Ovens

Wood fired ovens are capable of huge variety of cooking styles. With most types of cooking, the oven should be fully brought up to heat, and then prepared for differing temperatures by moving the fire and coals until the desired level of heat is reached. The amount of wood you need will depend upon how long you will be cooking, so make sure to plan ahead and know what you will be using the oven for before starting it up. The following are three different techniques for cooking with your wood fired oven.

Fire in the Oven Cooking - This type of cooking is done at temperatures about 650 degrees and is used for baking pizza, pizza like flat-breads and some appetizers, all of which only take a few minutes at most to cook. This type of cooking requires a larger fire and should be maintained with more wood as long as you need those temperatures for cooking.

Roasting - cooking at 450 to 600 degree is considered roasting. This technique is best for searing meats, browning vegetables and placing the finishing sear on casseroles and other dishes. Roasted can be using in conjunction with baking to create a sear on your dish that helps seal in lots of flavor.

Baking - baking is done at temperatures lower than 500 degrees. Baking is great for bread, desserts, smaller roast meats, beans and legumes and a wide variety of pasta dishes. Baking is what we usually think about when talking about traditional ovens. Wood burning ovens can do this and so much more.

Grilling - a wood fired oven can make a great grill. By raking a layer of hot coals across the cooking floor at the front of your oven, and sliding a free standing cast iron grill into the oven, you can enjoy grilling that sets seared grill marks, and seals in moisture for food that is crisp and not dried out.

Pizza Margherita for Your Wood Fired Oven

Pizza Margherita is a classic Italian style pizza that focuses on high quality ingredients and traditional Italian flavors. If you are looking for a heavy or complicated pizza with lots of toppings, look elsewhere. This simple yet delicious style of pizza is great for people who want the fundamental flavors of Italian cooking without a bunch of extraneous items blocking the flavors.  Pizza Margherita is a very adaptable recipe. The following is just a guideline, so feel free to make changes in order to make it perfect for you.

What you will need:

• Pizza Dough – you can use store bought, but you will get better results with our pizza dough recipe.

•  Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• Garlic

• Fresh Basil

• Fresh Roma Tomatoes

• Fresh Mozzarella Cheese

Preheat your wood fired oven to 450 degrees or higher. The higher the temperature the less time it will take to cook. Mix in garlic, salt, olive oil, and sliced tomatoes in a bowl. Use this mixture to lightly brush the pizza dough. Then layer thin sliced fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and rough chopped basil over the pizza. Place in heated oven until the crust and cheese is a golden brown.

Great Deals on Forno Wood Fired Ovens

Now is a great time to get a high quality wood fired oven made in Italy that can be used for authentic Italian cooking. Dolce Vita Specialty Imports has three lines of high quality wood fired ovens that will have your food tasting better than ever.

The Forno Classico series is a wonderful addition to any kitchen, patio or backyard. Its professionally made steel and cast iron construction makes it durable yet elegant appliance for authentic Italian cooking. The Classico oven can also stand free in your backyard and features wheels for easy moving. It can also be built into your indoor or outdoor kitchen. Check out our specials now. You can get a Forno Classico wood fired oven for as little as $2750.

The Forno Premium is a higher quality wood burning oven with tons of useful features for cooks looking to go the extra mile in flavor and presentation. Forno Premium ovens feature things like heat and corrosion resistant paint, removable interior for easy cleaning, stone bottom for pizza or bread, steam valve for greater humidity control and three cooking surfaces for multitasking. Check out our current specials on these amazing Forno Premiums. You can get one for as low as $2950.

The Forno Rustico line of ovens are created with modern technology but use traditional and proven cooking methods to allow for authentic Italian cuisine. The Rustico wood fired ovens are designed to combine traditional cooking methods with highly technical design and construction. These ovens not only cook well, but they look fantastic in or outdoors. We’re now having a sale on these Forno Rustico ovens and you can get one for as lowas $950.

Informative Videos about Wood Fired Ovens

If you are looking for more information on high quality Forno wood burning ovens, or for recipes and ideas for use of the ovens, then take a look at the links to videos below for a wealth of information regarding these top of the line wood fired ovens. You can find all of the wood fired oven videos here, or click on the links to some of the individual ones. 

Cooking in the Forno Classico

This video shows how to load wood into the wood fired oven and then goes on to show the delicious results that come from cooking pizza and bread in the Forno Classico. You can see how the authentic Italian pizza cooks to a beautiful finish while the bread develops a wonderful charred crust.

Porchetta Preparation and Cooking

Porchetta is a savory, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast of Italian culinary tradition. The body of the pig is gutted, deboned, arranged carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin, then rolled, spitted, and roasted, traditionally over wood. Porchetta is usually heavily salted in addition to being stuffed with garlic, rosemary, fennel, or other herbs, often wild. This video shows the preparation and cooking of this delicious and traditional Italian dish.

Summer Fruit Pies

This video features the preparation of several summer fruit pies including peach and blueberry. The pies are then placed in a Forno Classico and bake into a golden brown flaky crust. The pies look so delicious you will barely be able to watch without getting hungry.

For a demonstration on the Forno Premium wood fired oven, watch this video.