Pizza on deck

[dlapointeus]

We've had our pizza oven (following, for the most part, the plans provided here) for a couple of years. We live in Vermont and fire it up all spring/summer/fall, and the results are always great. The one thing we've never had much success with is being able to pre-shape the dough and have a handful of them ready for topping to put in the oven. This summer we'll be having a family reunion, with a pretty large crowd. Any advice, tips, or resources that can help us figure this out would be greatly appreciated!

[Gulf]

Hi Diapointeus,

Welcome to the forum. I can't help you with your question, but here are a couple of google searches of the site that you may find interesting. "cold fermenting fornobravo" and "preforming pizza dough fornobravo" I think that I remember david s describing a pre-baked pizza dough here while back .I don't do a lot of pizza, but that was interesting to me.

I really like your igloo oven under the open cover. Is that a bottle opener notched into the beam on the left?

[david s]

One method that some restaurants use is to build the pizzas on trays. They can sit there preprepared until ready to cook. As you've no doubt found,if the dough is left on the placing peel for more than a couple of mimutes it begins to stick and is then difficult to slide off. Using the tray method overcomes this and pizza and tray are placed in the oven together. The disadvantage is that you get a soggy bottom where moisture is trapped between the base and the tray. This can be overcome partly by using perforated trays or better to remove the pizza after around a minute when the base can be separated from the tray and placed directly on the oven floor. This requires double handling though. If catering for large parties 40+, if I'm prepping and cooking on my own I prefer to use frozen par cooked bases. Not quite as good as fresh dough but if you buy quality ones it certainly beats paying for an extra hand. Some operators I know fire their ovens up and par cook and freeze their own for later use, when they can then increase their speed when under the pump. Most folk find that it takes a little longer to prep a pizza than it does to cook one and therefore only cook one at a time even in a large oven.

[Toomulla]

I agree with Il P above just get someone to help with the prep they will be able to prepare pizzas faster then you can cook them