Sweet Cherry Pie for Wood Burning Ovens

Wood burning ovens are as good for baking sweet dishes as they are for savory ones. The unique and tasty flavor profiles that come from wood burning ovens allow for more rich and textured flavored desserts than you would ever get from a gas or electric oven. The reason for this comes from the wood smoke and the natural components of the wood that get released upon burning. Anything baked with certain types of wood will naturally absorb some of the flavors. This results in unique but exciting tastes and an even more flaky crust than you've had before. Below is a great recipe for Sweet Cherry Pie which would turn out wonderfully in a wood burning oven like a Forno Classic.

Sweet Cherry Pie

Makes 1 double-crusted pie 

Dough:

2 2/3 cup flour

1 tsp. salt

1 cup shortening

7-8 Tbsp. cold water 

Mix flour, salt, and shortening; cut in with pastry or fingers. Add water

and roll into a ball. You may refrigerate or roll out right away. 

Filling:

6-7 cups halved and pitted sweet Bing cherries, fresh or frozen

2 ripe plums, washed, halved and pitted

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

3/4 cup sugar

3 Tbsp. cornstarch 

Process plums and 1 cup of cherries in a food processor until smooth;

strain through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl. Mix in remaining cherries,

lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch, and stir until thoroughly mixed. Let rest for

10 minutes. 

Putting it together:

Extra flour for rolling out dough

2 Tbsp. butter, cut into small cubes

2 Tbsp. milk

2 Tbsp. sugar 

Preheat oven to 350OF and place a baking sheet or large metal casserole

on lowest rack of oven. Divide dough in half and roll out one half on a floured

surface. Place in a 9- or 10-inch deep dish pie plate. Pour in filling and even out

on top. Place butter cubes over filling. Roll out second half of dough and place

over filling. Trim top crust to 1 inch of overhang. Trim bottom crust to 2 inches

of overhang. Fold bottom overhang over top overhang and crimp as desired. Cut

small slits in the center or poke all over with a fork. Brush with milk and sprinkle

with sugar. Place pie on another oven rack above the baking sheet or metal

casserole. Bake for 1 hour or until top crust is golden-brown.

Traditional Italian Quality Cooking

Italy has a long and rich tradition of culinary greatness. Italian style cuisine is a staple all across the western world with restaurants in nearly every city and town you can think of. The reason for this is simple, their food is delicious and simple to make. While most Italian dishes across the world stick to the key ingredients (tomatoes, garlic, onion, olive oil, etc) the method of cooking has ventured far from the traditional route. Most Italian cuisine around the world is cooked in normal electric or gas ovens, but in Italy it is a tradition to cook things by wood fire. This is a time honored and tested method that produces delicious authentic flavors and aromas.

Due to the long history of using indirect wood fired ovens in the country, Italy has some of the best manufactured wood ovens that money can buy. They range anywhere from small ovens that can fit in nearly any space in your kitchen to large outdoor wood ovens that can cook multiple dishes and pizzas at a time. These ovens not only have great functionality but they are expertly designed to have an elegant look that can fit in with any home. Dolce Vita offers three lines of Forno wood burning ovens that are suitable for a wide variety of artisan cooking applications.

The cooking possibilities of a wood fired oven are nearly endless. These ovens are most famous for cooking pizzas at very high temperatures, but they can be used for many other purposes. Temperature can be controlled with dampeners and vents to suit any type of cooking need. You can lower the flame and temperature for slow roasted pork or lamb and then raise it later in order to fire roast some vegetables and put the perfect caramelized crust on a lasagna. There are simply no limitations to the amount and quality of Italian cuisine that you can get.

Pizza Dough Recipe

Baking pizza in a indirect wood fired oven can produce some of the best tasting pizza you will ever eat. The only thing that will limit the flavor of the pie is the ingredients you use within it. That it why it is so important to get the highest quality pizza ingredients possible. Good cheese, sauce, and toppings are not usually much of a chore, but finding the right kind of dough can be nearly impossible. You can buy the already formed pizza dough that is sold in a lot of grocery aisles, but these products are typically tasteless with a rather tough texture. Some stores even have cold uncooked pizza dough near the dairy section. The problem with these kinds of dough is that they are packaged to last quite a long time, which affects the flavor profiles and textures of the finished product.

The best way to get great authentic tasting dough is to make it yourself. This is what the high quality pizza restaurants do because it is really the only way to get perfect results. Below is a great recipe for fresh pizza dough that will have your pizzas coming out with a perfectly tasty crust. Don't be intimidated by making fresh dough if you haven't done it before, it is not that hard.

Pizza Dough

Makes about 4 large or 7 small pizzas

Ingredients:

5 ¼ cups lukewarm water

7 tsp. salt

2 ½ tsp. active dry yeast

¼ cup oil

½ tsp. sugar

14 cups all-purpose flour

Mix everything together in a standing mixer. Cover mixer bowl with

plastic wrap; cut several hole in plastic. Allow to rise for about 1 hour. Knead

lightly on a floured surface; divide into 4-7 equal pieces and form each into a

round ball. Place dough balls on a floured surface, cover with a linen cloth and

let rise for another hour or two. Roll out each, drizzle with olive oil, and top with

your favorite sauce or topping. Bake on a stone surface until crust is golden

brown and crisp.

For the best results, cook in a wood burning pizza oven a temperatures above 500 degrees.

Better Pizzas with Wood Burning Ovens

Have you ever marveled at the difference in taste and quality from pizza to pizza. Even pizzas that seemed to have identical properties varied greatly in quality, with seemingly no explanation. In fact, there is only so much variance you can get with ingredients alone. The truth is that the ingredients you use when making the dough, sauce and toppings only account for half of the flavor you get from a cooked pizza. The real secret of most pizza makers, what separates their product from the rest, is the way they cook it. They key to most great pies is cooking at very high temperatures, typically above 500 degrees. There is a reason that wood fired pizza places are popping up all over.

Most normal ovens are not capable of reaching very high temperatures. This has to do with the way they are constructed. Electric ovens often have heating coils that are not capable of going above certain heat levels. Gas ovens are limited in temperature by design, either because they cannot be insulated properly or because the materials used in manufacturing are not capable of handling such high temperatures. Some people try to modify their existing ovens in order to get to much higher temperatures, but this can be a dangerous and unpredictable thing to do and is certainly not a good idea without the proper knowledge and experience.

The best and safest way to get high temperatures is through a wood burning oven. These types of ovens have a long history in Italy and they produce very high quality results, especially when it comes to cooking a pizza. Cooking pizza in a wood burning oven will produce unique and delicious pies when compared to a traditional cooking method. The flavor attributes associate with wood burning ovens are unmistakeable and there is simply no substitute for the texture and bursting flavor you get with one. The high temperatures produce wonderfully bubbly cheese and a crispy crust that will make you never want to have a normal oven cooked pizza again.