084/18 – Uuni Fresh Yeast Dough:
Two changes on this run. First up, Fresh Yeast for the Dough and Secondly a little fan to test fire management. The main test was going to be Uuni Fresh Yeast Dough though.
The Dough:
I spotted some great looking pizzas on the Uuni Community page on Facebook cooked by Julian Guy. He kindly posted his dough recipe:
Julian Guy Thanks! Yes it’s a pro running on gas. Dough is a poolish of 1g fresh yeast, 90g flour, 90g cold water left for 24hrs. Then add that to 545g flour, 295g water, 26g salt and 8g fresh yeast. Bulk prove 2-3 days then ball up and back in fridge for up to 3 days. Out of the fridge 2-4hrs before use.
You can get fresh yeast from the bakery counter at most supermarkets. I managed to get some from our local baker.
I followed the instructions above: Poolish left for 24 hours, Dough mixed and left to prove at room temperature for 3 days then Dough balled up and cold proved for 3 days in my Pizza Trays.
The Fan:
Quite a few people on the Uuni community page are using fans to add a bit of oomph to their fire. I have been using my Looftlighter but they come with a fairly hefty outlay which can be justified if you are cooking on a number of different bits of kit but most folk might not want to lay out £50 for one. The fan I picked is rechargeable over USB, had good reviews and was only £10 on Amazon. When it arrived it was fully charged ready to go. On and Off buttons plus a power button with 3 speed settings.
The fire was lit in my usual way, tray full of pellets, 1 lit “flamer“, tray back in and left for 5 minutes. The fan was lurking, waiting to be called upon!
A quick blast of the fan (30 seconds) before putting the Jam Funnel on.
With the Jam Funnel filled with pellets it was time to set the fan on full power for a couple of minutes.
I had a quick look through the door. It looked pretty hot in there!
How hot exactly? I think this video explains it quite well!
The Cook:
With the fire raging I turned the fan off. One dough ball stretched to size, moved to the wooden peel, topped with Kenji’s Pizza Sauce, torn Mozzarella pearls and Pepperoni. Into the Uuni, left for the count to 30, spun 180 degrees and left for 20, spun 90 degrees and left for 10 then spun 180 degrees and left for 10. I could see the pizza was cooking quicker than normal which is why I reduced the time in the oven on the last 2 cooks. The first pizza looked good, crazy leoparding!
Second Pizza wasn’t quite as good. I didn’t use the fan in between and the fire wasn’t raging as much. The stone was hot but the roar of the fire was absent.
To kick start the fire as soon as I started shaping Pizza #3 I set the fan up whilst I built the pizza. The fire was roaring once again but still not quite as good as the first pizza. 
As before, I set the fan up whilst I built the pizza but this time I left it on speed #1 whilst cooking the pizza. Strange shape to the pizza as it stuck to the wooden peel when I launched! Bit more flour on the peel next time! The crazy leoparding was back.
Last pizza, the fire was roaring so I gave it a blast from the fan whilst making the pizza but didn’t run it during the cook. Nice pizza but not as much leoparding, quite interesting!
Time to Eat:
I would love to pretend I got to eat my pizza like this, the reality was everyone else eating and I ate the odd slice whilst cooking. It was a hot day in Scotland when we cooked these and the BBQ Shack was roasting so the beer was a big help!
Summary:
The fan is a great bit of kit and a bargain for £10. I will play with it a bit more but I think blasting the fire whilst making a pizza and running it on speed #1 whilst cooking would work well.
The fresh yeast dough recipe was really nice, easy to shape and a very light crust. I did make an error by balling it into 8 rather than 5 but I had been making a lot of bread rolls that week which ball into 8! I will do this recipe again and ball it into 5 so the pizza is bigger and build the edge crust up a bit.
The Kit:
These are the items used in this cook:
Flamers: These are great for lighting the pellets – £17.99 for 200 from Amazon
Lighter: Turbo Jet Flame long nose lighters! – £4.99 for 2 from Amazon
Flour: Molino Grassi 00 flour – £11.22 for 10kg from Amazon.
Tomatoes: San Marzano Plum Tomatoes – £17.11 for 12 tins from Amazon.
Rest/First Rise: 6 litre food grade container with lid – £5.24 from Amazon
2nd Rise/Proof: Food grade pizza dough trays (x3) – £22.95 from Amazon
Jam Funnel (for the Uuni 2s and/or the Uuni 3 to keep the pellets topped up and the fire roaring!): £6.25 on Amazon
Wooden Pizza Peel – Stops your pizza sticking when you launch it: £9.99 from Amazon
IR Gun – Make sure to get one that goes to 550c: This one is £17.99 on Amazon:
The Fan: £10 on Amazon.
CONNECT WITH ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
That looks great, I’ll try that next time, the bulk proving was done a room temperature?
Hi Steve, thanks very much. The bulk proving was indeed done at room temperature. I just left it in a sealed plastic container in the kitchen. I will update the post.
First and foremost, love the website.
Did you use 8g of fresh yeast or is that a typo? It seems like a lot compared to a lot of recipe’s I have seen. The longest I have prooved my dough is 72 hrs so maybe more is needed for longer prove?
Hi Niall, thanks for the feedback ?
I was surprised how much yeast was used but I had a look online and found a page from Nigella:
For dry active yeast you generally need to use half the quantity of fresh yeast stated in the recipe and for instant yeast you need to use 1/4 of the quantity of fresh yeast. So if the recipe has 30g (1 ounce) fresh yeast then you can use 15g (1/2 ounce) active dry yeast or 7g (1/4 ounce) instant yeast instead.
This was my first time using fresh yeast and it tasted good, didn’t taste overly of yeast which I have had with some of my previous doughs.