Uuni – A year of Pizza!
I bought an Uuni 2s back in September 2016 to upgrade from the Weber Pizza Oven attachment. I have used the Uuni a fair bit and I kept meaning to write up each Pizza cook as I have done with my BBQ cooks but for whatever reason I never managed to fit it in. This post is going to be the summary of a years worth of pizza cooks (and more!) on the Uuni!
What I have been keeping on top of is a list of hints and tips for using the Uuni and making/cooking the pizzas, I keep adding to it any time I discover a small tweak to improve the pizzas:
(If anyone has any tips to share please message me on twitter @kungfubbbq or leave a comment below!)
Looking back through my photo archive I can count 21 cooks on the Uuni this year:
- 3 cast iron cooks
- 2 flat bread cooks
- 16 pizza sessions
The list below is in date order and does (hopefully!) show a gradual improvement in the quality of pizza I have been able to create!
21/01/17:
First Uuni cook of the year and it looks like pulled pork. The Pizza isn’t a great shape but it has either risen quite well or wasn’t stretched enough. Not a lot of sauce or cheese visible. The pulled pork is a bit charred. Not a bad effort but room for improvement!
03/03/17:
2nd pizza cook of the year, looks like pulled pork again. A bit more cheese visible, sauce not spread out far enough. Pizza is a better shape and looks to have been stretched better but it’s a bit charred. Onions not cooked enough.
Base showing some promising signs, bit burnt but on the right path!
07/04/17:
This looks much better than the last two. Pulled pork again but the base is a better shape, better spread of sauce and cheese. Topping probably needed split/spread better but the onions have crisped up better. Slight char on one end of the base.
The base looks more “bread” baked than risen and cooked though.
14/04/17:
Some real signs of improvement here, the base is a good shape but looks to have risen and crisped during the cook. The cheese is melted and there are a few bubbles on the surface of the pizza. Pulled pork is a bit charred though.
Bit of fun for easter! I can’t remember what the sauce was but it was a sweet sauce, maybe raspberry and the white sauce was mascarpone with creme eggs and mint on top! Very tasty and good fun.
21/04/17:
My daughter made this one! Pizza’s on the Uuni are great to get the kids involved as they love putting the toppings on. The cheese has melted and bubbled pretty well on this, grated cheese works best I find.
This was my one, Nduja paste and chilli’s – Looks really good! Bit over done on the edges but nice shape, raised edges and a bit of bubbling on the sauce.
28/04/17:
This looks pretty cool. Stuffed olives and onions. The shape of the pizza is good, crust looks pretty good, cheese melted well, sauce covered well. Definitely progress.
13/05/17:
Flatbreads to go with this:
The flatbreads look great, I remember them tasting great too!
03/06/2017:
The leaves look like chard or kale so it must be my wife’s pizza! The shape is good, bubbling, good colour on the crust – progress again!
This one looks better than the last one too.
And the base had been cooked pretty well, nice colouring.
04/06/2017:
More flatbreads, this time for this recipe:
The flatbreads look a bit crisper this time, probably didn’t cover them properly once cooked so they firmed up.
10/06/2017:
England must have been playing Scotland so my wife made a haggis, neeps and tattie pizza whilst I tried to make mine look like the England flag!
Some good bubbles on the Scottish pizza but the base hasn’t risen too well.
The base looks good on this one, risen well, good colour and the topping looks good too. I stretched this by hand rather than with a rolling pin which made a difference and is how I make most of mine now.
24/06/2017:
More pulled pork! I think this must have been one of the kids pizzas as it’s pretty small. Dough doesn’t look the best, I think this was the point we started taking the temperature of the water before adding the yeast.
A Rhubarb and custard pizza!
14/07/2017:
What a great crust on this one, plus the cheese has melted really well too!
This one is slightly square, not sure why but the cheese and sauce looks good. Crust is ok.
30/09/2017:
These were cooked in my new BBQ Hut so I know I was now using Italian 00 flour, french yeast and Italian tomatoes. These pizzas look really good, progress from the start of the year!
The base looks great, the crust has risen and has a good colour.
I love this shot with the bubbles of cheese!
21/10/2017:
Pretty good effort here, different toppings. Base maybe not as good as the last cook but still ok.
I like the look of the crust, needs a bit more colour on it.
10/11/2017:
Some great Nduja from East Coast Cured on these pizzas, really tasty!
11/11/17:
This was brilliant, my first cast iron cook in the Uuni and one of my favourite dishes this year!
18/11/2017:
The base took a bit too much heat on this one but overall it’s pretty good. Some decent colour on the other edges and a nice bubble on the right!
27/11/2017:
My 2nd cast iron cook and another great dish:
13/12/2017:
3rd cast iron cook and another good one!
16/12/2017:
This one looks great, really happy with it! Nice raised crust with some good colour. Cheese and sauce melted well and a slight char to the meat.
Summary:
Some really good Uuni cooks over the year, glad I finally got to write them up. Not a lot of detail in the posts as the majority of all my tweaks and tips are in the Uuni page linked at the top of this post. I think what this post does show is that gradually, with practice my pizzas got better over the year. I am still learning so will continue to try and improve them next year! I will start writing up each Uuni cook in the same way I have with my BBQ cooks so I can try and improve them further.
I have had a lot of fun cooking on the Uuni and have learnt a lot as the year went on, still plenty to learn but that’s what makes it fun! The quality of pizza you can cook without a lot of effort is incredible.
For £200 I cannot recommend the Uuni pizza oven enough though, treat yourself and enjoy it! You can buy the Uuni 3 here.