055/18 – Uuni 3 Pizza (Gas):
Uuni were kind enough to send me the Uuni 3 and a gas attachment so I could write an updated FAQ – Hints and Tips page as mine was only based on the 2S. I have cooked on the Uuni 3 quite a lot since I got it and have enjoyed it but I haven’t done many pizzas with Gas – time for Uuni 3 Pizza (Gas).
First time I cooked pizzas on Gas it was on the 2S. I found it much easier cooking on gas as you didn’t have to focus on managing the fire or maintaining temperatures but the pizzas seemed a bit oven baked rather than the usual wood fired taste.
I have been working on my pizzas lately and got some great results from the dough recipe in The Pizza Bible:
I then took this same dough recipe and tried to improve the sauce and toppings last week. These were some of my best pizzas so far.
To run a comparison I took the same dough and sauce recipe to cook on gas.
THE INGREDIENTS:
Flour: Molino Grassi 00 flour – £11.22 for 10kg from Amazon.
THE DOUGH:
The recipe for the dough was from “The Pizza Bible” by Tony Gemignani, really good book with loads of great content in it. I am planning on working my way through the book!
The Book is £18.79 on Amazon.
This dough recipe is different to my usual one because you make a Poolish starter the day before you make the pizza dough. I kept it at room temperature for 18 hours then put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to cool.
Next day I made the pizza dough using the Poolish then left it to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes. Next I split the dough into 7 lots of 215 grams each. (Last time it was 6 lots of 255 grams each but they were a bit too big) then shaped it into dough balls before putting them into my plastic trays and placing these in the fridge for 40 hours. I made double the dough this time planning to cook extra pizzas to put in the freezer for the kids to eat during the week.
This recipe is for the Napoletana Dough on page 187 and uses the Poolish starter on page 47.
THE KIT:
6 litre food grade container with lid – £5.24 from Amazon
Food grade pizza dough trays (x3) – £22.95 from Amazon
Wooden Pizza Peel – £9.99 from Amazon
THE SAUCE:
As with last week – Kenji’s New York Style Pizza Sauce for this run.
The Cook:
Notes from the last cook:
- Flour the top before lifting the dough ball.
- Flip the dough ball and flour the other side.
- Stretch carefully and slowly on the worktop not by lifting it!
- Probably make the dough balls smaller. 255g is a big pizza for the Uuni, better to have it smaller and easier to lift/rotate.
20 minutes of full power gas with the door on and chimney off = 550c
Pizza 1: Not a bad shape, crust has risen a bit and the cheese looks well cooked.
Pizza 2: I had real trouble stretching and shaping this dough. Not the best!
Pizza 3: Good shape, pretty well cooked but the crust looks a bit baked.
Pizza 4: Breakfast pizza! Leftover sausage, black pudding, tomatoes and tattie scone.
Pizza 5: This was probably the best looking one. Cheese, sauce and meat look good. Pretty good shape but the crust was a bit baked.
Pizza 6: Another pretty good one, ran out of grated mozzarella so used buffalo mozzarella for this one. I had a taste before I cooked the pizza and it was very nice, really creamy. Worked well on the pizza so I will use this more often, worth paying more for the better stuff.
Pizza 7: Looks burnt but most of it is black pudding! I ran out of pepperoni but had some black pudding left! The cheese did blacken as well though.
Summary:
Nice pizzas and it was really easy cooking on gas as you just make and cook the pizzas without managing the fire or temperatures at all. I did prefer the look and taste of the pizzas cooked on pellets last week. A lot of folk tell me they can’t taste a difference between pellets and gas. That’s fine but I can definitely taste the difference on gas, there is a hint of wood fired char missing from the pizzas and I prefer that taste.
Gas is a lot easier to cook on, if you are struggling with pellets it’s worth trying gas. I just prefer pellets!
Maybe, just maybe a different dough recipe would work better with gas too. I will do some research!
Talking cheese: have you tried smoked mozzarella? I liked it! Didn’t smoke it myself but I guess if you can cold smoke would be worth trying.
Love your posts. Thanks
Hi Richard, that’s a great idea. I will give it a go!
Thanks for the feedback, glad you like the blog 🙂