118/18 – Ooni 3 Pizzas – Gas Burner:

I have cooked pizzas with gas on the Ooni 2S and the Ooni 3 a few times but not really had much luck to date. The pizzas seemed to come out tasting a bit oven baked rather than the usual wood fired tasting pizzas and the crust never seemed the same. I had a feeling this was down to user error rather than an issue with the gas burner so I posted a question on the Ooni Facebook group asking how people cooked their pizzas with the gas burner and had loads of helpful advice.

The official guide to using the gas burner is to have the door off and the chimney cap on. I have tried this and found the pizza stone doesn’t get quite as hot as I want it. The door on but slightly propped open with the chimney cap between the Ooni and the door with the chimney uncapped seems to provide a nice heat. 

I had a long list of suggested methods to test:

1: Door propped, chimney off, cap on.

2: Door on but to one side so there is a gap of 2-3 inches, chimney cap on.

3: Door on, chimney cover off.

4: Door on, chimney cap 3/4 off to heat up and reheat stone. Gas down to low for pizza cook then full power for the final stages of the pizza cook.

5: Door off, chimney off and cap on. Turn the gas down a bit to cook.

The Dough:

With so many tests to run I made a double batch of the Ooni dough and cold proved it for 48 hours.

The Ingredients:

Molino Grassi 00 Flour:

Saf-Leuvre Dry Yeast:

THE KIT:

Pretty standard stuff for my pizza making now:

Dough Scraper: To cut the dough into balls and to help lift the dough balls out the tray before shaping:

6 litre food grade container with lid: I use this to bulk ferment the dough once it’s mixed:

Food grade pizza dough trays (x3): I use these to cold proof the dough balls:

THE SAUCE:

I made the New York – New Jersey Tomato Sauce from the Pizza Bible book. San Marzano tomatoes, tomato puree, oregano, salt and oil blitzed with a hand blender then hand crushed tomatoes were also added.

The Cook:

I wanted to try and get some leoparding formed on the pizza crusts and the best effects previously have come when taking the dough straight out the fridge without letting it get to room temperature so I tried that.

The pizza stone was up to 500c in the centre, around 450c across the back (near the burner) and 400c at the front.

First pizza: 

The dough was quite hard to shape, might have been a mistake taking it straight from the fridge! I cooked the pizza with the door fully on and kept the pizza close to the middle of the stone. Nice rise on the crust but a bit too burnt, I would try and spin it more often next go. I started off with the door on, chimney on and cap off.

 

Second Pizza:

Similar but not as burnt, pretty good in places.

Third Pizza:

I had some pulled pork left over from a previous cook so wanted to use it on some pizzas. This one came out pretty good, just a little pizza as the dough was still quite hard to stretch.

Fourth Pizza:

This was my one, desperately trying not to burn it! Was happy with how it came out. Starting to get a nice crust, mainly from spinning it more often and not leaving it in one place too long.

Fifth Pizza:

Must have got over confident with this one as it’s a bit more charred than the last one. Bit of garlic oil on top which is so tasty!

Sixth Pizza:

Another one for the kids so back to pepperoni, pretty good again with a nice crust.

A lot of people say they can’t taste a difference between gas fired and wood fired pizzas. I can taste a difference and find the wood fired pizzas have a slightly different flavour profile on the crust from the wood which I like. Time for an experiment with a block of whisky oak.

Placed in front of the flame guard.

Seventh Pizza:

Bit overdone in places, I am blaming the additional flames!

Eighth Pizza:

Back to pulled pork, slightly charred on one side but looking nice.

Ninth Pizza:

The last one and probably the best one. Really happy with how this one came out, it looked good, the crust was good and it tasted fantastic. The flavour was slightly different to those cooked only on gas. It wasn’t the same as pizzas cooked on pellets but there was a hint of wood smoke in the crust. Only a hint mind, not sure it’s worth chucking a wood chunk in each time but it was worth a try!

Summary:

I really enjoyed cooking these and am so pleased that I managed to cook some great looking and tasty pizzas on the gas burner! Thanks to everyone on the Ooni Facebook group for all their help and advice. I started off with the door on, chimney on and cap off. The plan had been to do one or two pizzas per advised method to see what worked best but as I was gradually improving with the first method I stuck to it for all of the pizzas!

The dough was quite hard to stretch to start with, it was a mistake to take it straight out of the fridge. It works well with the dough from the Pizza Bible but the Ooni dough recipe needs a nice rest at room temperature so it’s easier to stretch. As the cook went on the dough was getting easier to work with. At 165g the dough balls are quite small, I would try these again with bigger dough balls to get some bigger pizzas. Gas was a lot easier for cooking this amount of pizzas, I left it burning whilst I ate my pizza part way through the cook which you might not do on pellets!

In summary: Door on but propped, chimney on, cap off to warm up then door on fully when cooking. This may or may not be 100% safe but seemed to work so make sure the flames are coming out the burner if you try it. If the flames go out don’t try to reignite it straight away in case the oven has a build up of gas, lighting that may cause a boom so leave it a while.

Now that I have cooked some good pizzas on gas on the Ooni 3 it’s time to try and master the Ooni Pro with charcoal and wood!

The Ooni 3 Pizza Oven:

Such a great bit of kit and an absolute bargain for £200.

 

CONNECT WITH ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

 

Back to the Home Page