Planning my 32" cast oven

[MarkJerling]

Need to figure out a good pizza dough recipe. The one we have used with our BBQ before is really hard to stretch.

Thanks to this forum and some further reading I now only use one dough recipe:
1kg Caputo '00' or "pizza" flour.
635g water at room temperature.
6g Caputo dry yeast.
20g fine sea salt.

Mix all the ingredients together. Dough should be easy to work but not too sticky. Lightly knead through for a minute or two once fully mixed. Let stand for 15 minutes. Knead through again for a minute or two.
Place in an oiled dough box in the fridge for minimum 24 hours. Remove from fridge 1-2 hours before making pizzas so as to allow the dough to come to room temperature., but leave dough in closed dough box so as to keep dough moist.

For each pizza, grab a hand full of dough or roughly 225g-250g. (The recipe makes 7x 235g dough balls) These, if stretched carefully, will make 10" to 12" pizzas, depending how thin you go. Stretch dough on a bench using about a tablespoon of flour per pizza.

Any "00" grade flour will work but I prefer Caputo. (From Naples)

[AndreasP]

I'll have to try that, thanks

[david s]

Normal bread flour creates a dough that is very rubbery and hard to make the thin bases. Replace it with pizza or OO flour and you'll get much better results. Also, because of the much higher temperature in a pizza oven, the dough should not contain oil or sugar. They are both browning agents more suited for lower temperatures.

[AndreasP]

Russell, yes, I didn't mention that, but I was going to insulate wiih fiber blanket before starting the curing fires.

Planning on a week of larger and larger fires as I've read in other posts

[UtahBeehiver]

I would not do any type of fire cure until the dome is insulated. Then you can start with briquettes for a couple heat cures, then "really" small live fires, this is the point where builders get impatient and fire too hot, too soon and too fast and end up cracking their ovens. PS, nice cast job.

[fox]

Looks great!, it seems most folk have to experiment with a few dough recipes before they find one that works for them.
Mixing by hand can be hard work when you first start, it takes practice to get a good consistent results.

[AndreasP]

Here are some photos.
Covered it back up and will let everything cure wet for 7 days. That brings the curing of the dome to 11 days.
Then dry for a week in the sun and after that the 7 days of ever larger fires.

Need to figure out a good pizza dough recipe. The one we have used with our BBQ before is really hard to stretch.

[david s]

The gallery does not see the kind of temperatures the dome gets, so insulation thickness can be reduced there. 2" should be plenty.

[AndreasP]

David,

Thanks! I just took the mould off. Actually looks pretty good, a bit thick at the top where it meets the chimney, but not too bad.
I'll have to see how much space i have for insulation. I was planning on only 2 in for the gallery. The sides are where I don't have a lot of space. I can certainly do more towards the top.

I'll post photos later.

Thanks for all the help and reassurances. This forum is great.

[david s]

No, don’t do it again, you’ve done a great job. Don’t worry about any heat sink effect. Brick builds that build their galleries will have a 4” thick gallery, probably 3x the thermal mass of yours. Just insulate it on the outside, Although casting it, then removing and replacing it may have some advantages, casting it in situ like you’ve done creates a perfect fit and is so much easier. Just cover it for a week once you’ve removed the front mould plate.
You’ve done extremely well for the first time. Like I said, when you build a second for a friend it will be faster easier and better. What you’ve done in a few hours work takes the brick builders months and it’s as cheap as chips.

[AndreasP]

Here are some photos of the gallery in front of the oven as well as once it has been cast

[AndreasP]

David, thanks for the pictures. I cast my gallery last night. I am sure it got a lot thicker than yours. I used one 5 gallon bucket of dry mix. I think that turns out to about 36kg including the water
just a guess based on the spreadsheet with densities.
the sides are 1 1/2 in thick, the top probably more like 2 in and thicker in places. It was difficult to judge the thickness since my firm wasn't the best design.

How big off an issue is the heat sink effect? I assume you talk about loosing heat through the gallery part when doing retained heat cooking? I have more material and could simply cast the galley again. Would that be worth it?

Doing it again i would also put cardboard between the gallery and the dome so that I can remove the gallery once cast and connect it back again with lean homebrew.

[david s]

If it's any use to you, here are some pics of my cast design (but in castable refractory not home-brew). I've made it as thin and as shallow as I dared, so reducing
the heat sink effect.

The buttresses on the sides were added to later castings as the corners were a weak point. It only weighs around 9kg

[AndreasP]

Was able to make the form for the entrance last night. Was trying to build it so that I can remove all of the screws from the outside once it's cast. I attached the piece for the inside of the arch to the front plate, then cut out strips with a circular saw. Hopefully that will help me in removing these pieces.

We will see how that goes.

[AndreasP]

David, Russell,

Thanks, that make me happy it was backbreaking work especially due to the location of the oven
It's so hard to judge when doing this for the first time, even with all the information on this forum.