8 Ways to Stop Burning or Undercooking Pizza in the Ooni
Вставка
- Опубліковано 3 чер 2024
- Royalty Free Music: Bensound.com/royalty-free-music
License code: ZWXKTYMNCUOINBKK
When I’m talking to Ooni owners or scrolling the pizza Facebook groups, I see people saying over and over again that they are burning their pizza, many times before it cooks all the way through. So, lets diagnose your problem and go over some of the reasons you could be having this issue. These tips will work in any high-heat oven and can help you with your home oven bakes as well.
1. Dough must be room temperature. Make sure you dough is at room temperature before you make pizza. This typically takes me three hours to get my dough to room temperature after taking it out of the fridge. You can speed this up in warmer environments or in warmer spots in your house. If your dough is cold its going to be tough to stretch, it will shrink, rips easily and won’t cook properly. With cold dough the top of the pizza could easily burn before the bottom and middle cooks through.
2. Stretch out your Dough to an appropriate size: Piggybacking off the first point, your dough needs to be stretched out enough. For instance, I use an 8oz ball for an 11” pizza. You can go a little bit thicker or a stretch it thinner. But if you are only stretching that 8oz out to like 8”, your pizza will need more time to cook all the way through and will be a more doughy pizza.
3. Store bought dough. Store bought dough likely has sugar and oil in it to help it perform better in regular ovens, but this can cause it to burn to quickly in a high-heat oven. If you do have one of those store bought doughs, lower the flame to medium or low right before launching the pizza so it’s a longer back time. “Neapolitan Dough” which is just flour, water, salt and yeast is suited to handle the high temperatures of an Ooni.
4. Your stone needs to be properly preheated. A stone should be preheated for at least 30 minutes at high so that the bottom heat can keep up with the top heat. If you are doing Neapolitans, you want to get the middle of the stone to over 800 degrees. If that stone is not hot enough the top of the pizza will burn before the stone cooks the pizza all the way through and you’ll get that soggy crust no body loves.
5. Pre-shredded cheese. Don’t use mass produced, pre-shredded cheese. Pre-shredded cheese has anti caking agent called cellulose that will cause the cheese to burn too fast and turn black especially at high heat. This is not a pretty or tasty char on the pizza. This will make you want to pull the pizza before its cooked all the way through. Get block cheese and shred yourself or cut yourself, get shredded cheese from an Italian deli that either shreds itself or has pre-shredded cheese for pizza shops, or just use fresh mozzarella.
6. Semolina flour. While many pizza experts recommend Semolina flour for stretching your pizza, if you don’t use it right it can scorch the crust and bottom of your pizza. Semolina is more flammable than an all purpose flour, 00 flour, bread flour, or rice flour. If you use Semolina, make sure most of it falls of before you launch the pizza, which can be a challenge, especially with stickier doughs or humid environments. I like to use 00 or all purpose flour for stretching my pizza and use some rice flour or a touch of semolina to get the peel nice and slice.
7. Rotate your pizza constantly. The OOni, just like a wood-fired oven has a spot that is by far the hottest. in the Koda 16 it’s in the back left corner, in all others its int he back. If you are doing a Neapolitan pizza, Let the pizza settle for like 15-20 seconds, and than keep rotating so that sections of your crust do not catch fire or turn black and evenly rotate the pizza every 10-15 seconds or so throughout the bake.
8. Don’t overtop the pizzas. Making pizza is a balance of ingredients and pizza dough is delicate. Heavily topped pizzas can put too much weight on the dough or moisture in your dough and toppings may struggle to cooke before the pizzas burns. Also toppings like vegetables can carry a lot of moisture that will seep into your dough. You may want to consider precooking them.
If you keep these 8 tips in mind, I think you’ll have much better luck getting a perfectly charred crust and toppings, a fully-cooked middle, and some nice charring on the bottom. Cheers! - Навчання та стиль
Great tips! Thank you! I had no idea on a lot of those, especially the preshredded cheese and the oil and sugar in the dough. Thank you!
You’re welcome. Good luck 👍🏻
Thanks for the tips! I just got a Ooni and can’t wait to experiment with it!
No problem. Awesome, good luck!
Incredibly valuable advice. You highlighted just about all of the pitfalls in this short video and should be viewed by anyone new to pizza making. Thanks for making it and sharing it with us.
Really appreciate it. That was the goal!
Hey Kevin, thank you very much for all the time and effort you put into making this video. The funny thing is most of those things you suggested I did and now when I make my pizzas, they are solid thank you very much.
You are welcome! Great to hear!
Top man! Thanks very much mate. REALLY useful. Subscribed
You're welcome. Thanks for the kind words!
I find that using flour only when stretching the dough can burn more easily and cause a bitter taste to the crust. I use a 50/50 mix of semolina and flour for stretching my pizzas, and I put just enough semolina on my peel so that I can easily rub my hand around on the peel before I put the pizza on there.
Thanks for sharing.. I've had the oven for 1.5 years now so learned most of this the hard way. But you are spot on with all of your advice.
Thanks a lot. Me too!
Thank you so much! We are going to use all of your advice as our first run with the wood fired Mexican grill didn't go so smooth
Awesome, good luck!
Very Helpful - Thanks
You're welcome!
great video with succint and clear information. most videos are a waste of time; yours are not. thank you.
Thanks! I'm not an overtalker :)
Thanks for the tips...
No problem!
thank you. hoping this solves my recurring issues
No problem. Good luck!
thank you so much
You're welcome!
Thank you ❤
You are welcome!
Always mix semolina with a mix of 00 to stretch your pizza, the nice thing about a semolina is it gives you a bit of a roll or slide off the peel - vs. a cornmeal which really smokes in your home oven. I actually use 60% (00) and 40% semolina for my dusting (same dusting for fresh pasta)
I'll try that. My mix usually has a little bit of Semolina in it. It is definitely slick.
Great tips. We are new to this game. We have a Blackstone pizza oven that rotates automatically. We use Boboli pizza crust for now at a low heat, but the bottom of the boboli seems to want to char up too quickly before everything else is melted. We are using precooked sausage for now. How do we get it where we don’t burn the bottom of the Boboli crust.
Thanks! Cook it in a lightly oiled pan. If you want it crispy on the bottom, sear it directly on stone for last minute or two. Pre-cooked can be on a stone for the length of a pizza bake.
Forgot to add adjust the dough’s hydration. Higher temp cooks than home oven.
You got the vegeta guy in the background - how come / are aware?
Our bottom always burns on our pizza how could we fix this
Hmm, what are you using to slide the pizza off the peel?
Great video. Just got an Ooni and not a beginner bread baker. Struggling to figure out why my high hydratino dough was a bit doughy in center. I think it's your tip of the stone needs to be over 750! Thanks!
Very helpful tips but what a really weird speaking cadence.