Not going too heavy on toppings is important when you are baking at higher temps. They don't bake as well if you overdo it. We do pizza 4 ways here -- indoors on a stone or a steel, outdoors in a wood burning oven or using a Bakerstone pizza box on our gas grill. We tried the stone or steel directly on the grill and found it hard to get the right distribution of heat with short bakes.

I wanted to mention the Bakerstone because while it is limited to pizza or flatbreads by its size, it does a nice job at higher temps than the oven indoors allows. Not quite the same flavor as a wood fired stove, but probably comparable to these gas fired ovens with less cost and not having to have another cooking appliance. We still use ours after having the wood fired oven -- it makes more sense for a single pizza.

Just found there is one you can use on an indoor gas stove too.

https://www.amazon.com/BakerStone-Pizza-Stove-Stainless-Steel/dp/B07BKJLZDD

Just wanted to add to the options and encourage you to try one.

I used the Ooni recipe for pizza Margarita today, but I baked it in my regular oven here in L.A., and it was extremely different from the pizza made in the Ooni oven. In the regular oven (which will only get to 500 - 550°, the pizza required 8-9 minutes to bake, and I baked it directly on my pizza stone. The crust was crispy - almost cracker-like, and very much inferior to the Ooni baked pizza, which cooks in one minute and comes out soft, even though it is brown on the bottom.

There is nothing wrong with a cracker-like crust, but the Neapolitan pizza is far superior IMO. I'll be making more pizzas when we get back to Cathedral City, but if I make any more here, I'll cook them in the Big Green Egg, as it will get extremely hot, and I would like to give that a try.

The good thing about baking in the oven is that the pizza does not have to be rotated. The same will be true in the BGE.

We have a Big Green Egg and my Hubs makes pizza in it and it always turns out perfectly cooked.

I made another pizza in the regular oven tonight, and it came out much better, but the dough had been in the fridge for 24 hours, which may have helped. Anyway, I knew that the pizza would take at least nine minutes to bake, and so this time I did not open the oven every two minutes to check it. I think this made the biggest difference. The pizza came out very similar to what we make in the Ooni, but it does take 9-10 minutes to bake.

I really need to adjust my dough recipes to the climate. I had to make a similar adjustment for altitude when I made pizzas in Mexico City.

I thought a "regular peel" IS a "pizza peel". No? What is a "regular" one typically used for?

I appreciate your thoughts on the pizza oven. It would be nice some day to make pizza here.

What is the minimum thickness you'd guess for a good pizza base? (I dislike bready pizzas - in fact, I give the pizza "bones" (outer crusts) to the chickens.)

Artemis, several factors have an impact on your crust - thickness is just one. A very thin crust can support a pizza if the dough has good structure (good gluten development and less or no oil -- oil makes the dough softer and can burn at the higher temps), you bake on a well heated stone at a higher temperature and you don't overload the pizza with toppings, especially the ones that give off moisture as they cook (raw vegetables like peppers and mushrooms -- you can saute them to reduce the water content -- same for meats). I put a very light coat of olive oil on the dough before adding sauce or toppings as a barrier to moisture sogging the crust. I found that necessary when DH wanted to add everything as toppings. He likes what we call "garbage" pizzas, but heavily topped pizzas don't bake as well at higher temperatures.

I agree with what Laxcatx said, and I also add a small amount of oil to the crust before adding the sauce, but I do not add oil to the dough when I cook at high temperatures (above 800°). My kitchen oven will not get above 500° or 550°, and so I do add a very small amount (3.5 grams) of oil to the pizza dough.

The last pizza I made was very thin - I stretched it to where the center was almost translucent, but I did not want to make any holes. The edge was thicker, of course, but I do like eating that as well.

I think you can add some toppings, such as sautéed vegetables after the pizza is cooked, which is what I plan to do in the future. I do not add Parmesan until the pizza is cooked because it can get hard when baked.

A "regular" peel is generally square in shape, although the leading edge may be rounded, like my wooden peel, and must be larger than the pizza. A "turning" peel is round and quite a bit smaller than the regular peel. I don't turn the pizza when baking it in the kitchen oven, but in the Ooni, it is very necessary to turn the pizza so that it bakes evenly. Spinners are good for that, once the crust has baked for about 15-20 seconds, but I turn the pizza after 10 seconds with the turning peel at the beginning of baking in the Ooni.

Lars, I wasn't familiar with this pizza oven until I read your post recently. Did a little more homework and decided to bite the bullet. I ordered the Koda 16" gas model from a Canadian company yesterday and it has already been shipped. Should be here by this time next week. I also ordered a perforated turning peel off of Amazon. Hopefully it will arrive around the same time.

Ann, I think you will like it, but you have to use it outdoors, and I notice that it's already cold in British Columbia, I think. It's in the 80s in Palm Springs/Cathedral City, where we will be next for Thanksgiving and for the month of December.

I was going to post a video of us using the oven, but the lighting was not good, and so the video quality was bad. I'll try again in December.

I do like using the turning peel, but I haven't taught Kevin how to manipulate it yet. I also use the pizza spinners, but you don't really need them if you have the turner.

Until now, I've been baking large pizzas in L.A. on pizza screens, but after some experience baking directly on the stone, I have started making smaller ones here on the stone, but since my oven will not get above 550°, it takes 9 to 10 minutes to bake a pizza, and the result is extremely different - at least for me. The 1-2 minute pizza comes out with a fully baked crust with a crisp edge, but it is still foldable. The 9-10 minute pizza comes out rather stiff, and the texture is very different. I very much prefer the 1-2 minute pizza, and not just because it is so much faster.

I'm looking forward to using it for the first time. Once I know the day it will arrive, I'll have my dough ready to go.

I'm not worried about the cold. Until now I have been cooking my pizzas on a stone on my grill which gets up to around 700. The weather hasn't made a difference since I have it on a covered deck.

The Ooni will easily get above 900°F, and that will be a game changer. We had to turn our pizzas every 10 to 15 seconds to prevent them from burning. The turning peel is very helpful for that, especially for the first turn.

I can't wait until we can have another pizza party! Maybe next Spring.

We made pizzas again today - I am more comfortable making two 12" pizzas than trying to make one 16" pizza, plus my peel for the Ooni is only 14". I left the two larger peels in L.A., but I think they are both too big for the Ooni opening, which I believe is exactly 16".

One thing I noticed today is that it is necessary to stretch the dough over a floured surface and get some flour into the bottom of the crust, so that it does not stick. Also, it is not good to try to do much in the way of stretching, once the dough is on the peel. I had one pizza stick to the peel, and it would not come off, and so it did not make it all the way into the oven and ended up burning at one end. It wasn't a total disaster but close to it. In addition to that, Kevin was making a video of this, but fortunately I had more dough to make a second pizza, and it came out perfect.

We have used our Ooni 12" three times now and have made about 15 - 11" pizzas. The first pizza was a total disaster with the pizza sticking to the peel, piling up in the oven, and burning on the stone. What a mess! Yes, a nice coating of flour is definitely required on the bottom of the crust to allow it to slide off the peel!

The second time we used it we decided to try pre-baking the crust for about 45 seconds before adding the sauce and toppings. This method worked very well and the resulting pizzas had a nice, crispy crust. Turning every 10 to 15 seconds is a must and the 2 pizza spinners work perfectly for this using one to push on the right front side and the other to pull from the back left. The spinners also work well to pop any bubbles in the crust.

I think pre-baking the crust allows more toppings to be used. We have used pepperoni, Italian sausage, onions, sweet peppers, sweet basil, black olives, Portobello mushrooms, bacon, and Canadian bacon so far. I don't think we have made the same pizza twice. Partially pre-cooking any raw meat toppings is a must I think since they may not cook through in just a minute or two in the oven.

I want to try making a chicken, bacon, artichoke, and basil pizza using a white sauce. There are several recipes for a white sauce on a Google search and most are very similar. If anyone can recommend a good one that they like, please do. I may just try a canned Alfredo sauce too.

I've also had a take-n-bake Thai chicken pizza a couple times from Papa Murphy's that is very good. I'd like to try to duplicate it. It uses Thai peanut sauce as the base, finely chopped chicken, some kind of chopped hot pepper, and Thai basil I think.

The pizza sauce I made from my garden tomatoes was a bit disappointing. Since I added olive oil when making it I had to freeze it and after thawing it was quite a bit thinner than it was when I put it in the jars. I'm going to dump the remaining 11 pints back into a pot and cook it down more. I may add some tomato paste to thicken it up and then freeze it again. I think I will add some more Italian spices as well.

Sorry, no pictures to share. My buddy took a couple but I did not.

Recently, I've used a sprinkling of corn meal on the bottom of my pizza crusts as a slip to prevent sticking, it works well.

Lucille - I'll have to try that. We used the Semolina flour that Lars recommended at first which is probably somewhere between AP flour and corn meal in coarseness. AP four seems to work just as well. I wonder if corn meal would burn on the bottom of the pizza at such high heat though.

By the way, Ooni has a 20% off sale going on right now. Not sure how long the sale will last.

I used bread flour on the bottom of the crust (when stretching it out on the counter top) and then I sprinkled semolina flour on the peel. Cornmeal will work, if you do not mind the flavor of corn in your pizza crust. Cornmeal is commonly used in the U.S. whereas semolina flour is used in Italy, from my experience.

You can make naan bread in the Ooni and then make a pizza out of that later. I am definitely planning to make some pizzas or naan with no toppings to use for pizzas later, as the pizzas with toppings are not the best as leftovers, but I think untopped pizzas might work well.

I have to look at the Ooni recipe book - it might also have a recipe for pita bread.

I did take pictures of the pizza I made yesterday (not the partially burned one) and will post that later. It might be a while before I can edit the video, and it might be boring. I did a video of me stretching the dough and topping it, but that was of the first pizza, and so it was not done exactly right, since I did not have flour on the board as I was stretching the dough.

In the future, I plan to use a less watery sauce and spread it very thinly. I think I may have put too much cheese as well, but probably now, as it tasted right.

In the future, I plan to use a less watery sauce and spread it very thinly.

I think that is very good advice. I love tomato flavor but if is too watery the flavor doesn't assert itself. I tried using just chopped fresh tomatoes one time and it didn't work well. Many pizza aficionados like a very light sauce, but I cook my tomatoes down a bit so the sauce isn't runny but also so the tomatoes stand up to everything else that is going on.

I wonder if corn meal would burn on the bottom of the pizza at such high heat though.

IDK. I love my Breville pizza maker but there is no question that the Ooni is at the top of its class and a whole different way of making pizza because of its high heat. However, I spent years as a child in Manhattan loving pizza 'by the slice' and the commercial establishments did use cornmeal.

You could always try it on half a pizza and compare? Or, if you are successful now, don't change :).

I reviewed the videos and decided to upload them without any editing. I was aware that my voice was rather monotone and boring or monotonous, but I will make a point to be a bit more animated next time. The problem with that is that I can get overly dramatic, and I wanted to avoid that😵

Here's the video of me stretching the dough without putting flour on the table, which was a mistake. I should have made another video showing the correct way to do it:

Next, I will show how NOT to launch a pizza.

This is how to burn a pizza and make a mess:

We at most of it anyway - just not the burned bits.

The next video shows a better pizza.

This one came out pretty much the way I wanted:

You can see from this video exactly how long it takes to bake the pizza. We saved about 1/3 of this pizza to eat later, as one of these pizzas is too much for one person at one sitting.

Note also how easy the pizza is to turn using the spinners. I really like those.

You can notice the remnants of my Texas accent in these videos, which to me sounds a bit Southern. I do not like listening to my voice, but that doesn't stop me from talking or making videos.

Here's a photo of the second pizza, after we had eaten a couple of pieces:

Hi Lars.. first, i think you sound great :)

My real question though is if you had considered the wood pellet version-- I ask because my sister is planning to get that version. It is the only version the local dealer carries.. are there strong reasons you recommend the gas version?

Yum, that looks tasty! I can almost smell the wonderful pizza scents. It was good to see the whole process including the burnt scene. It shows that it isn't always as easy at first as the product promotions make it sound. Definitely some learning along the way. The burning video had us laughing for much of the time. Good to see no one got hurt and that you could still eat most of it.

I almost didn't upload the burning pizza video, but I thought it might be helpful to show how things can go wrong.

Lars, I was impressed that no one went into a panic or started yelling when the pizza got stuck and when toppings caught on fire. I bet similar things happen to others when using the oven and they do not react nearly so well. Maybe your video will prepare them for the unexpected. I thought is was great that you just calmly commented, "good thing we have more dough." And using that dough, you crafted a pizza that made me hungry hundreds of miles away.

Lars, I laughed so hard at that burning pizza video!!! I’m so glad you posted it. Now I feel like I really know you and Kevin. :). Wish I had been there with you and some cold beer. That was fun. Lol!

Funkyart, I did consider the pellet version, but it is a lot bulkier, and it takes a lot of pellets to get to the right temperature. If I want a smoky flavor, I can add wood chips to the sides, but I haven't done that yet, although we do have the wood chips.

I think the gas only version is more efficient, and it gets the job done very quickly and easily. The pellets would be too fussy, but if you are mostly interested in the smoky flavor and plan to cook other things than pizza or bread, then it would be a good option. We have several other options for smoke flavor, however.

Party_music50, I really did not think the video was funny, but then I was on the other side of it. I wish you could have been here too. We ended up having wine with the pizza instead of beer, however. It is definitely fun, and Kevin is a good sport about it.

Lars, I think it was funny to me because everything was going wrong for you and you both stayed so calm about it. I would have been freaking out. lol! That, and I had just had a rough afternoon/evening because my boiler wouldn't turn on and I needed to have an emergency visit from the heating company.... the service guy walked in, tapped a dial, and it started working. "That will be $100 + tax for the emergency visit." lol!

Lars - thanks for posting the videos! I was surprised to see the fire on the side of the 16" oven. On the 12" model the fire is in the back which seems a little safer for the cook when turning the pizza. Your burning pizza scene looks familiar! In most of the reviews I read before purchasing, just about every one mentioned that the first couple attempts were a disaster. I don't recall any of them saying that they had to call 911 for a fire emergency!

I may try your dough recipe next time since it doesn't require making it 2.5 days ahead of time. The Neapolitan style recipe I've used says to mix the dough and let sit at room temp for 8-12 hours, then divide into 4 dough balls and refrigerate for 2-4 days. The end result is the best tasting dough I've ever had though so I'm hesitant to change. I guess I can have a backup recipe that I can use when we don't plan far enough ahead.

In the past, I have made pizza dough that I kept in the refrigerator for two or three days, but I've never kept it for four days. I think I could keep this recipe in the fridge for a couple of days as well - I'll have to try that. I could make a double batch and then have extras for later that I could save without toppings. I often make pizza dough with 50% whole wheat.

So far I've only made this one recipe, and so it would be interesting to try some variations.

Here's another recipe from the Pizza Making Forum.

Lars - this is the recipe that I am using for Neapolitan pizza crust. It makes four 11" pizzas.

Serious eats - Neapolitan pizza crust

That's an interesting recipe. The ingredients are the same as what I use, although this may use less yeast. I have never let dough rise for 8-12 hours at room temperature before, and so that would be something new for me. I don't mind planning ahead!

You are the funniest chef I’ve seen . It’s because you are SO low key. Jack Benny and George Burns style humor. I know you said you were trying not to lose it but the restraint and commentary are hilarious. Thank you for a great laugh. I’m going to show this to my son the chef I’m sure he will love it! c

LoneJack, I made the recipe for the dough that you linked to, and I use 00 flour and weighed all the ingredients very carefully. However, after 8 hours, the dough is more like a crumpet batter and would not form balls at all - in fact, I practically had to pour the dough/batter into the plastic bags. Is this what you experienced?

I noticed that a lot of other people had problems with the dough/batter being too sticky as well. If necessary, I can add more flour, but I used up almost all of the 00 flour I had left, although I imagine that bread flour could be used to make up the rest, if necessary.

So far, I am very disappointed in this recipe. I think the proportions are off. I wish now that I had cut the recipe in half.

If you want to see a funny video, I should make one of me trying to use this dough in a couple of days. I'll try to make one, but it goes against my better judgement.

What is odd is that the recipe I normally use is 67% hydration, and the one you posted is only 65% hydration, and so I am thinking that I must have made is mistake when measuring my ingredients. I know I used 13 oz. of water and weighed it twice, and I also weighed the flour twice at 20 oz.

I wonder if the 00 flour made the difference. If I have to add more flour, I will, but I expect that I will have to go back to my previous recipe.

I’ve used “00” flour many times. It doesn’t require nearly as much water as bread or AP flour. I’m sorry you didn’t know this. You can add more reg flour to the recipe but add a proportional amount of salt and any other ingredients so the final product will be essentially what you are looking for. If you don’t add more flour etc you will end up discarding the whole thing. I’ve saved dough from disaster with this method . good luck and I look forward to another video! c

Lars - I haven't used OO flour with that recipe because I couldn't find any large bags at the stores I've shopped at. I've been using regular bread flour and it seems tp have perfect hydration using that. I didn't know there was that much of a difference between the two. I hope you were able to salvage the dough by adding more flour.

I did salvage the dough by adding more flour to it.

I discovered that I measured the water incorrectly - this was my first time measuring water on a scale, and I don't think I will do that again. Anyway, I weighed all of the packages of dough together to determine how much excess water I had added, and I then added the correct proportion of flour (mixed with yeast and salt) to correct it. It is still sticky and wet, but at least it now forms balls and will not have to be made into crumpets, which I do not particularly like.

Since I added too much water by accident, I now have more dough - enough for about six pizzas or naan. I plan to make 2-4 pizzas and then make naan with the rest. Or I might make 2 pizzas and four naan.

Lars - I'm glad you were able to salvage the dough! One fluid oz. of water weighs just slightly over 1 ounce by weight (28.35 grams) so you can just use a measuring cup for the water and that should be close enough. But I'm sure you knew that already.

I'm a little late to this pizza party Lars, but just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the videos! I looked at the Ooni ovens a couple of years ago, and now I want one all over again! I would love to have a wood fired oven, but I think that would be a hassle. I like the idea of adding wood chips using a small smoker tube.

Thanks for posting the videos!

We made several more videos, but this is the only one that I have felt like uploading to Youtube at this time:

The other videos show me working with dough that is several days old and making it into a thicker pizza plus part of it into some thicker flatbread. The thicker pizza did turn out nicely, and we saved it for later. Because it was thicker, it reheated better.

As you can see, we need to work on our cinematography. That's for Kevin to do.

The thin flatbread was very good, as was the thicker flatbread, although it was different from what I expected. The thin flatbread came out like the flatbread we get a Syrian restaurant, except that I did not add the herbs/seasoning that they do, although I had considered doing that. I will next time.

Lars, bumping this back up and hope you see it. My son asked for the 12 inch gas oven for Christmas. It’s back ordered and won’t arrive until Feb 1-3. I’d like to send him some accessories as a “ place holder” , for Christmas.

Which accessories do you recommend? Doesn’t necessarily have to be manufactured by Ooni Koda. Thanks!

PS I am still laughing at the burnt pizza video!

He'll need a 12" perforated pizza peel. A perforated pizza turner would be good also. I use them together, and the turner is much easier to use for turning the pizza after 10 to 15 seconds. Without the right tools, the pizza can easily burn, as you may have noticed.

I still don't see why people think some of my videos are funny, but I guess I do have an odd sense of humor.

I don't have the pizza turner that Lars mentioned. I just use these pizza spinners and a 12" peel. I good 15" square cutting board is also very useful for rolling the dough out.

Pizza spinners

Thank you so much, Lars. I’ll look for the pizza peel. Your link leads to a story about Seattle! I hope you know I was laughing with you, not at you, on the videos. I know you didn’t intend for them to be funny but the one is pretty entertaining.

Thanks, lonejack, the pizza spinners are sure in the right price range, so I’ll get those.

ordered the oven through Williams Sonoma and it will arrive first week in January. Pretty good!

The spinners are good to have, and you can see me using them in the video in which the pizza came out the way it should. I have another video that shows me trying to use the spinners too soon, which should be avoided because the dough has to be cooked sufficiently before spinning the pizza. The spinners are easier to use and more efficient once the dough has cooked enough, but for me, the first turn needs to be done with a turner.

If you do not have a turner, you can remove the pizza after 15 seconds using the peel and then turn it on the peel, but it's very difficult to use the peel as a turner without removing the pizza.

I know you weren't laughing at me, but for me, the video is painful to watch. I have another video that shows what happens when you try to use the spinners after 10 seconds (another mistake), and so that one might appear funny to others, although not to me. I'll see about uploading it later, as it does have some good information.

I don't care if people laugh at my videos - I'm used to it by now. It's just that it is never my intention to make funny videos. However, I've looked at some of my videos later and did find some of them funny. Sometimes I seem to say things without really thinking, and then I wonder later what possessed me to say them. I'm pretty good at ad libbing and can be very spontaneous, but that can be dangerous also. A lot of times I catch people off-guard when I say things that even I don't know why I say. Most of the time I try to control myself, but some people are amused when I don't.

I don't know if I mentioned this before or not, but I was in a short independent movie that a friend of mine in Hollywood wrote and directed, and he also did the video editing. He's done video editing for Blind Date, The Robin Leach Show, and many others, and so he's quite good at editing. Anyway, he was using my house in Venice for a location shoot and happened to ask me if I wanted to be in the movie, as he wanted to flesh it out a bit and had decided to add another character, which I was to play. I said okay, but was never given a script, and so I had to ad lib my lines in front of the camera, which took a little bit of getting used to. The movie was a mystery/crime story and therefore not meant to be funny, and so I tried to play my part very seriously. However, when the movie was shown on the big screen to an audience in Hollywood, everyone laughed when I was on screen. I found out later that I was the comic relief, although no one told me that before. After the movie was over, there was a reception in a patio behind the theater, and I got to meet people from the audience who told me that they loved my performance and wanted to know if I had been in anything else. At least they liked me, even though they thought I was funny.

P.S. I fixed the link so that it does not take you to Seattle.

Lars - I agree that the spinners shouldn't be used on a fully topped pizza until the crust has had a chance to cook a bit. They do work fine after about 10 seconds if you are pre-cooking the crust before adding the toppings. We pre-bake the crust for about 30-40 seconds. The prongs on the spinners work well to poke holes in any bubbles that form in the crust when cooking.

Lars, please never change. Love you the way you are.

Here's a cover I finished making today for our Ooni oven: