My New Primavera 60 Part II

[Brad English]

Ok,

I'm back. I took my son and a couple friends for a quick lunch on their break.

Here are some photos of a couple pizzas I made. Again, this is my 2nd test drive of this oven after the curing process. I'm amazed at how little wood it takes to get this up and running and maintaining pizza temps. I'm sure it will keep getting better as it continues to cure over the next number of firings.

My biggest take away from this drive was how different the dough is coming out of the Primavera than out of my oven. I made up a few batches of Peter's Neo-Neapolitan dough and the Country Rustic dough - freezing most of it for later. The finished crust is so different coming out of the WFO that it's hard to believe this is the same dough I've been using. It is light, puffy and moist with a soft/crisp crust!

As you'll see from my pics, my handling skills working with a metal peel (while taking pictures) has some serious room for improvement. Aah, but won't that be so much fun!

Anyway, I just thought I'd share these photos. I'm sure I'll write up a blog post on Pizza Quest sharing my tales of this great new addition to my back yard!

Fennel Sausage Pizza:


Salmon Pizza with Garlic Lemon Aioli and Ricotta:


Grilled Veggie Pizza with Garlic Lemon Aioli and Ricotta:


Another Fennel Sausage Pizza:


I need some tips on getting the dough off the peel! I'm sure with practice I'll learn how to manage this peel as well as my wooden one.

[Sjadad]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

Brad - Beautiful pictures! I got my Primavera 70 in late June and after curing (which seemed to take forever), I've been having so much fun with it. I know what you mean about the doughs seeming completely different when baked in a wfo vs. a kitchen oven. It took me a while to get accustomed to cooking at such high temperatures. In fact, the first time I "domed" a pizza, I left it up there a few seconds too long and it actually burst into flames. Great drama, bad pizza!

I too have had my issues getting the dough off of the metal peel. Here are my observations: (1) The longer the dough sits on the peel, the harder it is to slide off. (2) It's much tougher to get the dough off of the peel on a humid day. (3) NEVER place any part of the dough over the rivets near the handle.

I've also baked bread, roasted chickens, grilled steaks, and roasted peaches. All with great results. Have fun.

[Brad English]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

Sjadad,

Thanks for the tips on the dough. They really are the same that I learned using a wooden peel for my regular oven. I may have a tough time with the metal peel though. I take a lot of pictures for the blog (Pizza Quest) and that gets me into trouble some times! I'll have to also take pictures of the failures to launch - or Calzones.

I wonder if that's how a calzone was first formed - by accident? Haha

[Les]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

I wonder if that's how a calzone was first formed - by accident? Haha

I'm pretty sure that's how it happened. My very first attempt rolled off the peel into the coals - if it would have stopped short.... calzone

[Brad English]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

Ok. I edited this first pizza out. My daughter wanted to make the first one. I kept saying - "Hurry! Hurry!", but she wanted to create a work of art.



We were making the first pizza for my mother who loves sausage pizza with red onions.



When it came time to deliver this baby into the oven...well it had to be delivered in an un-orthodox manner! I eventually had to about roll it off the peel to get it in the oven. I figured I'd just let it cook - just to get it out of there.



It's not the best looking pizza I've ever made and maybe we just saw how the calzone came about, but they all devoured it just like the round versions that followed!

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

Brad, I like to use my wood peel for loading the pizza into the oven. Use corn meal or rice flour on the peel. The wood is more porous and allows for an even distribution of the corn meal or rice flour with a swipe of your hand. The metal peal will wipe clean and leave spots of bare metal and will stick to the dough. Even with the wood peel as your building your pizza give it a little shake to ensure it's not sticking.

Hope that helps, Faith

[Sjadad]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

Brad, Here are some pictures from my last pizza party. One is a prosciutto and arugula pizza. You can see it's not exactly round due to some difficulty sliding it off of the peel. The other is a fruit pizza - necatrines and strawberries, sprinkled with sugar. Very delicious.

I'm considering getting something called the EXO Super Peel. It's a wooden peel with a cloth conveyer. Many people swear by it and say it handles the wettest, stickiest doughs like a dream. I need to make sure it's not too wide for the Primavera opening.
Super Peel? - The Ultimate Baker's Transport Tool

[boerwarrior]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

Faith is spot-on - a wooden peel with corn flour allows the pizza to scoot right off into the center of the oven with a little shake! If the pizza doesn't come off easily you can do what I do - blame the person that made that particular pizza and don't blame the cook! (me!)

[Brad English]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

Brad, Here are some pictures from my last pizza party. One is a prosciutto and arugula pizza. You can see it's not exactly round due to some difficulty sliding it off of the peel. The other is a fruit pizza - necatrines and strawberries, sprinkled with sugar. Very delicious.

I'm considering getting something called the EXO Super Peel. It's a wooden peel with a cloth conveyer. Many people swear by it and say it handles the wettest, stickiest doughs like a dream. I need to make sure it's not too wide for the Primavera opening.
Super Peel? - The Ultimate Baker's Transport Tool

Nice pics! I'll have to check that super peel out.

[Brad English]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

Faith is spot-on - a wooden peel with corn flour allows the pizza to scoot right off into the center of the oven with a little shake! If the pizza doesn't come off easily you can do what I do - blame the person that made that particular pizza and don't blame the cook! (me!)

Oh yeah, my daughter got the blame for that calzone blob! haha

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

I've noticed more then one very dark crust pictures in this thread...okay Burnt. One way to avoid this is by placing a short barrier between the pizza and the flame. I use a few firebricks standing on their side that I can push around with my oven tools. The larger commercial ovens have more distance between the coals and the pizza so they don't need a barrier but the smaller ovens force to to cook your pizza very close to the flame.
I put the bricks in the oven while I do the firing and get them hot also.

Faith

[Brad English]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

Faith,

Nice idea. I think my burnt edges were as much about me taking pictures and doing something else rather than focusing for a minute or two on the pizza! The fire brick idea could be helpful to me.

[david s]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

I've noticed more then one very dark crust pictures in this thread...okay Burnt. One way to avoid this is by placing a short barrier between the pizza and the flame. I use a few firebricks standing on their side that I can push around with my oven tools. The larger commercial ovens have more distance between the coals and the pizza so they don't need a barrier but the smaller ovens force to to cook your pizza very close to the flame.
I put the bricks in the oven while I do the firing and get them hot also.

Faith

Faith, I use a similar set up to that of your brick in the oven. Because my oven is quite small this little fire holder saves more space and allows air to enter the fire from the bottom.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f43/...tml#post159075

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

I like the teeth, that looks like that would work great. I just leave a bit of space between the bricks for that air flow.

My bricks are multipurpose I tend to use them for all sorts of things in the oven.

[sunsparkjr]

Re: My New Primavera 60 Part II

Brad - nice pics! One solution to your problem with the pizza sticking to a metal peel is to spread (or roll - we like them thin) the dough on a piece of parchment paper. We've had make-your-own parties where we prepare a number of pizza dough rounds on pieces of parchment, then place them each on their own cookie sheet. People can "dress" their pies any way they like and we just pull them onto the peel and pop them in one after the other as they are done. You do have to remove the paper after about 20 seconds so it doesn't burn however it makes the whole process so much easier! No one person is stuck all night preparing pizzas and I have the fun part of cooking them (cook's beer included).
Pete