New Oven Pizza Test

[Ev]

Last week, my trusty old Maytag electric finally wore out and I had to replace it with a new oven. My wife and I settled on a new Samsung electric convection oven. Here is the first pizza to be baked in the new oven. Nothing fancy, just a plain extra cheese N.Y. style. Norma was kind enough to give me a leftover dough ball on Tuesday, so this dough has been cold fermenting for about 4 days.
The oven reached 550 in 20 minutes and I gave it another 10 minutes to get the stone up to temp. My IR gun read 545 at this point. I did not use the convection mode, just a straight forward bake. The pizza baked for 6 minutes and needed no turning and baked quite evenly, I am happy to see. I was afraid the new oven would not bake as well as the old one, but actually, I think it my be a bit better!

[Michael130207]

Wow, that is one really nice pie!, the crust looks perfect. Your heat up time seems really quick, especially without convection. Could you describe your new oven setup and show a pic?

[shuboyje]

That looks awesome Steve. 

[norma427]

Steve,

Glad to hear your new oven works great.  Your crumb, rim crust, and bottom browning look perfect!  Wish I could get pies that look like yours.

How did that dough ball look after four days of cold fermentation?  Was it really fermented well? 

Norma

[Ev]

Thanks guys. I was a bit uneasy about having to buy a new oven. My old oven had an exposed element on the bottom, and the new one is concealed. If it didn't bake a proper pizza I'da had to take it back!

My set-up is nothing fancy. Just a good quality 16 inch cordierite stone one slot up from the bottom. I'll try other positions as I proceed but this was also the sweet spot for my old oven. Looks like I put my top rack in cockeyed!

The dough was great Norma. Not over fermented at all. It opened easily and tasted great!

[DarqMan]

Thanks guys. I was a bit uneasy about having to buy a new oven. My old oven had an exposed element on the bottom, and the new one is concealed. If it didn't bake a proper pizza I'da had to take it back!

My set-up is nothing fancy. Just a good quality 16 inch cordierite stone one slot up from the bottom. I'll try other positions as I proceed but this was also the sweet spot for my old oven. Looks like I put my top rack in cockeyed!

The dough was great Norma. Not over fermented at all. It opened easily and tasted great!

Awesome looking pizza!  Makes me want a bite and beer 

[Mick.Chicago]

Do you have to turn it more or less in the convection?  I use a counter top convection for small Pizza Hut clones and find I have to turn it three times for a 5 minute bake. 

Counter top and your oven are totally different animals I know but I'm looking for a new oven soon.

[Ev]

I did not use the convection feature for this bake and I did not turn the pizza at all. I never had to turn them in my old oven either.
I haven't bake a pizza yet with the convection feature, so I don't know how that will work. I've heard that it doesn't work so well with pizza but don't know for sure. I do know that the convection subtracts 25 degrees from the temp you set, so maybe that's the problem.

[Mick.Chicago]

I thought subtract 25 and 5 minutes or one or the other was for baking cakes etc. 


I think my issue is limited racks, it's either on the floor or in the middle, where as I need it to be just below the middle.

[Ev]

Convection supposedly cooks quicker and it automatically subtracts 25 degrees from whatever you set. Reading through the manual briefly, I'm pretty sure I can calibrate those 25 degrees back in if I want to. I haven't had a chance to play with it much yet. As for the racks, there are 8 positions to choose from. Not bad IMO.

[scott123]

Since no NY commercial ovens that I knew of used convection, I've discouraged many people from using this feature over the years, but, I recently got the chance to use a convection oven myself and it blew me away.

It definitely stretches the boundaries of authenticity, but, thanks the circulating air, it both dries out the exterior of the crust faster/promotes crispiness and creates more even browning.  On the pies I used it for, the exterior of the crust was a little crispy while the crumb was soft and moist. It was the perfect combination of puffy moist and crisp. I also think convection gave me a little bit better oven spring, although I can't confirm that for certain.

The one potential downside with convection is that it will brown your cheese a bit faster.  As long as you keep the bake time down, this, that shouldn't be a problem.

6 minutes with the convection feature on might produce too much cheese browning, but I think you can shrink that time down a bit.  I have no doubt that your stone can store more heat than you're pumping into it in 30 minutes.  Rather than extending the pre-heat clock, though, I'd just use the convection feature during the pre-heat.  Will this oven allow you do 550 + convection?  Some ovens will allow 550 with bake, but if using convection, you have to work at 500.

I'm pretty sure that with a more saturated stone, you might be able to shrink your bake time to 5 minutes.  With a stone hot enough for a 5 minute bake on the bottom and the convection feature crisping up the rim, I think you'll be very happy with the results.

[Ev]

Scott, thanks for your thoughts on convection baking. I've been too busy lately to devote much time to the new oven. I've still only baked that one pizza so far. I'll be doing a lot more experimentation in the future, and I'll post my results as I do.