002/18 – Uuni Pizza:
Last year I did 16 Uuni Pizza cooks but I didn’t keep detailed notes for each cook. I did keep a list of Hints and Tips based on the things I learnt over the year though:
This year I am aiming to document each cook so I can really get my pizzas to the next level!
I made quite a few changes on this run including:
- Making the Dough
- Proving the Dough
- Shaping the Dough
- Lighting the Uuni 2s
- Fuelling the Uuni 2s
First off I had watched 3 great videos by Uuni on You Tube about making the dough, shaping the dough and lighting the Uuni – the videos are all linked below:
Make the Dough:
Based on this video I bought a 6L container to help prove the dough after it was made. I got it from Amazon for £5.23 with a lid. There are cheaper ones but this one is listed as food safe which I felt was important.
The recipe above is for 10 dough balls so I halved it to get 5:
Item | Weight | Notes |
Molino Grassi 00 flour | 500g | |
Water | 300g | 109g Boiling / 191g Cold Tap – Combined Temp: 38.7c |
Oil | 20g | Rapeseed Oil |
Salt | 10g | Maldon Sea Salt |
Saf-Levure Dry yeast | 7g | Left for 10m after added to the water. Water temp dropped to 33.4c |
All the flour was poured into the mixer (not sieved).
The yeast was added to the water, oil, salt mix and left for 10 minutes. The water temp dropped from 38.7c to 33.4c.
This mix was all added to the flour and the mixer was run on speed 2 for 10 minutes.
The dough was a bit sticky so I added 10g of flour and it was no longer sticky – Note: Add 10g to the flour mix next time to see if that addresses it. Or does it need mixing longer?
The dough was put into the 6L container and the lid put on. Kept inside for 2h 3m.
Shape and Stretch the Dough:
Based on this video I bought 3x 7 Litre Plastic Stacking Food Grade Commercial Pizza Dough Trays from Amazon for £22.95.They are 400 x 300 x 75mm so you can put the stack of 3 into your fridge when cold proving.
The dough weighed 830g so 5 balls should be around 166g each. I split them up and placed 3 on one tray, 2 on another tray with the 3rd tray just acting as a lid. Important change to my method this time was I followed the tip in the video above to shape the dough into balls by folding them in one themselves underneath. It’s the same technique you use when making rolls, keeps the top surface smooth. I put a little bit of flour underneath to stop them sticking in the tray.
Light the Uuni:
Another change to my technique based on the video above. I put 2 handfuls in the hopper with the hopper set to the lowest notch then lit it as usual and after a few minutes I filled it up to the first notch on the hopper. I tried to keep it at this level through the cook.
The Prep:
The dough was left in the tray for 38 minutes and then I took them out to shape them. As in the video I pushed them outwards from the inside, keeping the ridge and then spun them and stretched them by hand. The last few pizzas we did were rolled with a rolling pin and weren’t too good, these were far easier to stretch so something (or a number of things) produced a better, stretchier dough than usual!
As usual I had made the Kenji New York Pizza sauce and had Chorizo slices, sweetcorn, sliced onion from the sauce recipe and some fresh thyme to go on.
The Cook:
Once the stone was up to 550c I put the first pizza in. The fire was roaring and the pizza cooked quickly and easily. I was so happy with this one, better than most I managed last year!
Once that pizza came out I topped up the pellets back up to the first hopper notch. It didn’t take long for the stone to hit 500c again. 2nd Pizza was also great! (First 2 were for the kids hence the reduced toppings!)
Pellets topped up to the first notch again and as before it didn’t take long for the stone to go above 500c. 3rd pizza came out great.
As with the last one, pellets topped up the first notch and it didn’t take long to hit 500c. The pizza came out looking awesome. Could I manage 5/5 good pizzas? The crusts were all looking great!
The last pizza was delayed as the stone temp was below 300c. It took me a while to spot the door wasn’t quite closed properly and the hopper cover was slightly ajar. With both issues rectified it took a good 10 minutes to get it back above 500c so in future I will check the cover and the door once extra pellets are added. I did give it a turbo boost with the looftlighter which really helped, I might use that each time I add pellets in future. The pizza was worth the wait, I finally got to eat one and the dough was very light, crispy and the whole pizza was really tasty.
Zoom in shot to show the crust:
Summary:
These were the best pizzas I have cooked so far. The dough was very soft and easy to stretch/shape. Nothing stuck when trying to take it off the peel and the crust was raised on every pizza. Really happy with them overall!
It did seem harder to keep the temperature after each cook so I will work on that in future cooks.
Usually my wife makes the pizzas and I cook them but the kids seem to play up each time we try to do this so I did the whole lot myself this time. It did use more pellets but the pizzas were great and the kids were happy so it’s worth it!
Changes for next time:
Cold prove the dough next time. Just do 1 day and then raise it to 2 days the time after to see the difference.
Add 10g flour to the mix to see if it stops the mix being as sticky. If not run the mixer longer next time.
Work on fire management, find the best way to keep it roaring. Maybe give it a turbo boost with the Looftlighter each time pellets are added.