Our chimney and our first pizzas

[aikitarik]

The oven was too hot of course, and I should have removed more wood...

My wifes crust was a little thick, mine was hand tossed and paper thin (so it didn't matter that it was TOO hot).

It was still AWESOME!

We also burned the hell out of some breadsticks trying out cooking in the oven before adding the pizza. Insides still raw, outsides burnt.. yet somehow still tasty.. a bit.

[paulages]

looks great, but you gotta get yourself a peel! it's not quite the same cooking with a pan as it is straight on the cooking floor. glad to see your oven in operation. bon appetit!

[arevalo53anos]

Tarik:

Glad to see you enjoying your pizzas!
Nice oven.
In a brick oven with a brick hearth the pizza MUST be done directly over the bricks :-)
Better oven spring, better taste and shortest time to be done.
Try it!

Luis

[aikitarik]

My wifes we did directly on the bricks with only aluminum foil under it (no parchment). For mine, I got lazy and used a perforated pan.

Actually my problem is mastering getting the darn thing on and off the peel when the dough is raw without the dough sticking to the peel and creating a sloppy calzone.

Once it cooks a little, np. I'm sure I'll learn this in much the same way as I learned to toss my pizza dough...

[vitoduke]

Tarik- One of the things I learned on the pizzamaking.com web-site was after putting flour on the peel, lift the edge of the pizza up and blow a little air under the pie and the pizza will almost float off the peel. Good luck ---Mel

[paulages]

also, if you are using a wooden peel, you can give it a quick scoot--to get the front lip onto the cooking surface--then pull the peel out from under it, using quick but short jerking motions. with my aluminum peel, i have to do it all in one motion, almost like throwing it off the peel, but it's really easy once you get the hang of it. either way, just make sure the peel is TOTALLY dry.

[aikitarik]

also, if you are using a wooden peel, you can give it a quick scoot--to get the front lip onto the cooking surface--then pull the peel out from under it, using quick but short jerking motions. with my aluminum peel, i have to do it all in one motion, almost like throwing it off the peel, but it's really easy once you get the hang of it. either way, just make sure the peel is TOTALLY dry.

I just got a 5 foot aluminum peel (my normal peel for inside the house was just too short for how hot we had the oven) and we tried again.

It's not so hard after all, but I did shove some breadsticks back into the ashes in the very back of the oven. Need to practice!