Ooni Koda 16 Pizza Oven

Gave in and bought a koda 16 this weekend…putting me over the top on the decision was Ooni’s 20% off site wide sale this weekend. Also, Amex platinum has another $75 off at ooni right now too, so that knocked the koda 16 down to $404 and the koda 12 to $244. (Wife said spend the extra to get the larger one.)

If anyone is on the fence, the 20% off expires today I think…

 

finally got around to taking it out of the box and setting it up (yikes, they extend your warranty to 3-years up from 1-year *if* you register it within 60 days of getting it...I registered it after opening the box and it was day 59 after we got it...whew!)

I watched so many YouTube videos that I was apprehensive about making a mess when trying this thing, but it actually went just fine...

Cross-posting from the "What did you have for Dinner thread" to this thread to hopefully generate some discussion about pizza making:
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So...we got an Ooni Koda 16 Pizza over 2 months ago and it sat in the box in the garage until today...I have to say it was easier than I expected to cook pizza in there (I had seen a bunch of videos on YouTube that showed various sorts of disasters). We made dough yesterday afternoon and left it to ferment in the fridge until tonight. We made 3 pizzas;

- Margherita
- Pepperoni and Sausage
- Pepperoni and Mushroom

The best was the Margherita, I'd say it was solid and on par with many I've had around the world. The other two were not at the same level, but still good. We cooked at around ~700F on the stone. Overall, we found the oven to be pretty great and we were pleasantly surprised that we didn't encounter any disasters...

Puppy-Pizzaiuolo was supervising, so that likely helped!

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Gratuitous pup shot!

 

Interestingly we have been using our Kitchen Aid Stand mixer to make dough, and we have really struggled to get it to stretch (it was too strong and snapped back and fought the stretching).

So...for this first batch of pizzas in the Koda 16, I switched to a simple hand mix in a bowl with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes until combined, then hand-kneaded on the counter top for 4 minutes and let it rest for 20 minutes. Then gave it another 4 minutes hand-kneading. Then rest for 3 hours at room temp. Then divide into portions and into the fridge for 24 hours. This dough was "finally" soft enough to stretch out like the ones I see on Youtube. I think we will put away the stand mixer from here on out...

 

(cross/double posting from the dinner thread...where's our pizza makers at?)

More adventures in Pizza making last night...
A bit of backstory...have you heard of or been to Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix? Its long been regarded as one of, if not the, best Neapolitan style pizzas in the USA. Chris Bianco's "signature" pizza is a very odd sounding, but amazing tasting, pizza called the Pizza Rosa. I've had it many times at his pizzeria. My wife reminded me about it yesterday and asked "why don't you try that?" Honestly, I hadn't thought of it, and my first reaction was "no way can we pull that off".

Well...as it turns out, like much of Italian cooking, the ingredients are simple, and the techniques not complicated. So, we gave it a try and...we were blown away how close it was to the Masters' original, and it was yummy as always.

The ingredients are solely:

1. Parmesan - large shredded
2. Rosemary - a few leaves
3. Onion - finely shredded
4. Pistachios - slightly crushed
5. Oil Olive - light drizzle after cooking

We also made a mushroom and onion pizza (which I burned a little bit).

Loving this Ooni Koda 16 so far! We haven't had any issues with dough holes/tears, its been "somewhat" easy to stretch, and its moved on the slide and launched each time (so far). Watching pizza cook at 850F is pretty cool as the oils come out of the cheese and bubble ferociously.

Anyone have a unique or interesting or particularly yummy pizza recipe you care to share?

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calzone! I hadn't thought of that...adding to the list for future efforts...

 

In case anyone is on the fence, Ooni put the 12" ovens on sale this week:

https://ooni.com/pages/explore-12-ovens

 

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose...

This pic looks pretty good, no? (pepperoni, olives and fresh mozzarella)

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Yup...that picture was taken shortly after launching the pizza...120 seconds later we should have been enjoying a great pizza...

It was the largest pie I'd made thus far, I'd say more than 12 inches around...and I made the dough too thin and had a hard time turning it with the turning peel and...voila, got a hole in the middle. Ugh...cheese and sauce went thru to the stone, and the top edges of the pizza grab the stone when you attempt to spin it and basically open a giant hole and twist the pizza dough into a pile, and you get a mess, mess, mess! We got it out of the oven in the end, and ate the pile of pizza-mess (still tasted great). And I got the added reward of scrubbing the stone clean for 20 minutes the next day.

 

That mushroom and onion pizza looks absolutely amazing! I'll have to try one next time I throw pies.

"White Pizza" that an Italian deli in SoCal used to make for me after I befriended the owner.

• Drizzle pepperoncini brine atop rolled out dough in ~2-inch wide zigzags so not to overly dampen
• Sprinkle fresh crushed garlic
  
• Sprinkle mozz
• Top with diced artichoke hearts, black olives, and prosciutto. Tomato slices optional, under prosciutto if adding.

 

FYI, Ooni is having their 20% off sale next week (they do it around thanksgiving and in the spring).

https://ooni.com/

 

and again, sale time:

https://ooni.com/collections/sale