La Piazza Wood Ovens

[Ryan Simmons]

Hello a fellow members. Loving the stories I’m hearing here. Just joined to find some new wicked recipes for wood burning ovens. I recently picked up La Piazza Wood Oven. My model is the Toscana, and I’ve been playing with different hydration levels. I’m using 100% 00 Caputo flour and for the most part I’m getting decent results. Curious to see what the fellow members are using on their ovens.

Ps. I’m absolutely in love with my oven and have become a bit of a dough head recently.

[Fat_Tony]

Hi Ryan,

great to see a good oven option for Canada. Book marked it for sure.. just picked up a beginner oven to play with for now. How do you like the La Pizza oven? How many pies can you cook at once? What's the recovery time like?

Thanks

[Ryan Simmons]

Hey Tony,

Yeah it was a great option and for the value you can't go wrong at all. The cooking surface is quite large, which I love its 30 x 30. I can fit 3 10" pizza's at once (2 in the front 1 in the back), but being realistic, when I get her fired up, pizza's take much less than 90 seconds, and I simply don't have enough time to juggle 2 or 3 at once. The wife is still prepping the second pizza by the time I bring the first one in. I figured there is no reason to stress myself out, the kids can wait 1 min each for their pizza's.

As for recovery, with the amount of insulation his thing has, I've never had an issue yet. After 3-4 hours of cooking, I can easily touch the surface of the oven. I hear there is close to 5 inches of insultation packed in there, which my hands can contest to. The owners are even on Instagram with the faces on the oven doing a video bragging about the amount of insultation. I don't think I'm brave enough to do that. lol

[Yael]

Next time you bake you can share pics of your pizs! 

[Ryan Simmons]

Next time you bake you can share pics of your pizs! 

[Fat_Tony]

Awesome.. pies look great! Thanks for the info and I don't blame you for not putting your face on it lol!

Will def keep this oven in mind for when I save up to get one.

Whats your fav hydration level so far? I started at 60% and will go up to 62.5% and 65% this wknd, just to compare. I'm messing with the Ooni Koda at the moment. It's a cool little oven but definitely want a wood oven in the future. Was thinking of doing a build but I think the materials will cost around $1000 or more not to mention my time and effort so I'm glad I found your post.

[Ryan Simmons]

Awesome.. pies look great! Thanks for the info and I don't blame you for not putting your face on it lol!

Will def keep this oven in mind for when I save up to get one.

Whats your fav hydration level so far? I started at 60% and will go up to 62.5% and 65% this wknd, just to compare. I'm messing with the Ooni Koda at the moment. It's a cool little oven but definitely want a wood oven in the future. Was thinking of doing a build but I think the materials will cost around $1000 or more not to mention my time and effort so I'm glad I found your post.

Yeah pizza’s come out great. TBH I think I’m just never satisfied lol I’m doing 65-68% hydration. Both equally coming out great. I might even give 70% a shot just to see.

Yeah I gave up on my Ooni Pro. I spent days getting my dough ready only to be let down by low temperatures or at least very inconsistent temps. I have to admit, I love firing up the oven, building that fire and playing with it. It’s simply fun.

Let me know how it goes this weekend.

Good luck!

[champignon]

That's a great looking oven there, Ryan, eh!

:-)

I think it would be extremely cool to have an indoor WF or gas fired or combination oven, that is vented outdoors, for us people who live in cold climates.  I can't imagine that something like that comes cheap!  If you could mount it up against an outside wall, it should be fairly easy to vent.

I'm sorely tempted to look into this idea, I have an outside wall that would work, just across from my kitchen.

Congrats on the oven!

[Fat_Tony]

Yeah pizza’s come out great. TBH I think I’m just never satisfied lol I’m doing 65-68% hydration. Both equally coming out great. I might even give 70% a shot just to see.

Yeah I gave up on my Ooni Pro. I spent days getting my dough ready only to be let down by low temperatures or at least very inconsistent temps. I have to admit, I love firing up the oven, building that fire and playing with it. It’s simply fun.

Let me know how it goes this weekend.

Good luck!

Yeah it would be fun. Like.. cooking with FIRE and hot stone! So primal but I love it.

The wknd pizza went well.. Going to post some pics on my thread. I feel like the Koda is a lot better than the Ooni pro but I can't really comment bc I've never used the Pro. That's cool you're experimenting. I've been trying to experiment with different recipes once a week. The journey continues!

[Ryan Simmons]

Yeah it would be fun. Like.. cooking with FIRE and hot stone! So primal but I love it.

The wknd pizza went well.. Going to post some pics on my thread. I feel like the Koda is a lot better than the Ooni pro but I can't really comment bc I've never used the Pro. That's cool you're experimenting. I've been trying to experiment with different recipes once a week. The journey continues!

Yep totally agree. I’m looking to pickup some fresh mozzarella this weekend and on the hunt for some Ezzo Pepperoni. Throwing a party in a few weeks, so I’ll be smashing 50-70 pizza’s easily. I’m looking forward to it.

[Ryan Simmons]

Decided to make some pies today as it was the perfect night. 24 Degrees...Just wanted to share.

[Ryan Simmons]

Some new pies from this evening. I hit this dough at 68% hydration, and I made this right from the fridge without allowing it to get to room temperature. First time trying it and it worked out pretty well.

Anyone else try a higher hydration percentage?

[unchained]

Just wanted to follow up and gauge your satisfaction with your La Piazza after a year or so.

Also yes, ive tried dough hydration up to 80% and as low as 50%. 

For me 62-65% is my favorite. 

I use an Ooni Pro like your old one. I too hated fighting temperature maintenance for the first year or so till I saw an English lady using big half logs as her fuel. I had been using charcoal and wood chunks but they burned out too quick and I was in 'the zone' for like 3 minutes...rarely when my pizza was ready.

Using big logs (big for the Ooni) works great now.

Still I am looking for something bigger for convenience.

Also, do you think, after a year, you would be ok with the La Piazza Piccolo? Which is a bit smaller than the one you bought?

Thanks!

[theflamme99]

Hi,

How long you can keep the temperature in the oven? Enough to cook a stew for a long time after your pizza making? I'm looking to buy the one you have or the Grosso, do you have enough room or you find sometimes you would need a couple inches mores?

Thanks for your answers

[Ash7]

Hi!

We are a few weeks in with our La Piazza Toscana and are having a lot of fun! Luckily, we have a good relationship with a local pizzeria who sell us their dough, so i don't have to make it

That being said, any tips for keeping the oven temp up high? The moment we take the door off, the temp goes down considerably.

Also, trying to balance not totally burning the crust of the pizza while the middle is still doughy.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated