Finally, spring is in the air! This weekend we had some friends over and had our first pizza party of the year at the Houston bar. Pizza parties are fun for a few reasons. They provide a casual atmosphere for people to hang and graze, the kids run around, have fun, and sometimes even pitch in! It’s also fun to cook outdoors and leave the mess out there.

Last year I got a Uuni 2 portable wood-fired pizza oven. It is powered by hardwood pellets and cooks pizzas in under 2 minutes. I did an initial run-through last fall and was smitten by it. Since then I’ve been looking forward to finding an excuse to use it again!

So the plans were laid and the dough was prepared.  Using the dough calculator found at pizzamaking.com I prepared 6 dough balls and put them in the fridge after covering.  These were about 320g each.

The next day I got the Uuni ready to go and prepped the sauce and toppings for which there is a very good guide at brooklyncraftpizza.com.

This thing heats up quickly!  In about 15 minutes it was ready to go.  Now to stretch the pies, top, and bake!

That’s my friend Brooks doing the work

These were great!  They ended up being puffier than I had originally planned for.  For some reason we ended up not stretching them out to 12” and they ended up at about 8” instead.  Next time I’ll be sure to go the whole way but that didn’t matter much.  They were still delicious!

In conclusion, the Uuni2 is definitely an awesome addition.  Summer and camping is going to be very fun this year!  It heats up quickly and evenly, is super easy to maintain, and when it’s all said and done it just goes back to its place in my basement once it’s cooled.  The pies that it makes are top notch and any failures in the pizza are my fault, not the oven’s!  The only things I would do differently next time will be to feed the oven more pellets after each pizza (just so it doesn’t have a chance to cool down as it did a couple of times) and to definitely pay attention to the diameter of the pies before topping.  Minor issues aside, I’m looking forward to the next bake!

Check out their website at uuni.net for more information and enjoy your baking!

Pizza Dough Recipe (yields 3 dough balls for 12” pizzas)

Flour (100%):     583.48 g
Water (64%):     373.43 g
IDY (.3%):     1.75 g
Salt (2.5%):     14.59 g
Oil (1.5%):     8.75 g
Sugar (1.5%):     8.75 g
Total (169.8%):    990.75 g
Single Ball:    330.25 g

• Add flour and sugar to your stand mixer and stir to combine.
• Add most of the water (save about 30mL) to the bowl and stir until the dough is formed.
• Cover and let sit at room temp for about 15 minutes.
• Add the yeast, salt, oil, and remainder of the water and knead for 10 full minutes.
• Cover the bowl and let sit at room temp for about 45 minutes.
• Divide the dough in to 3 and make balls.  Place on oiled cookie sheet and cover loosely with plastic wrap.  Alternatively, put the balls in individual glass containers like these and place in the fridge for at least 12 hours.
• About 2 hours before bake, remove from fridge and let acclimate.
• Prepare your pizza sauce and toppings, and get your Uuni (or other cooking oven) ready!
• Stretch your pies, top the dough, and fire away!