With approximately 525,000 items in the world you can bake, it seems a bit foolish and irresponsible to buy a $3000 outdoor wood-fired pizza oven, and then let it sit for days (or yes, even weeks) at a time, unused and gathering cobwebs in the deep, interior dark spaces! We’re slowly gathering our favorite recipes on this page, but for now, I’m feelin’ the need to summarize a whole lot of ideas for you to consider for your oven. Who knows – maybe looking over this list may inspire you to get an oven just so you can try some of these options. This is not a recipe article (though we do outline basic bread dough), but rather, an idea list. Our recipe section will have more specifics! We lay out our own favorites with a list – but it go way out of hand and there’s more than TEN! Makes a lot of sense, I know.
Contents
A List We Love (or would love to try)
Grape Focaccia Bread
Here’s a simple bread that everyone seems to love. It’s just a simple variation on the classic olive focaccia. You’ll need to start with the dough, and we’ve laid out a basic starting idea for a good all around bread dough.
Wood-Fired Grape Focaccia
- 1 cup semolina flour
- 4 1/2 – 5 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. dry instant yeast
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 2 tsp. salt
- 2 cup water, 60-70 ˚F
- Olive oil
To make the dough, grab your mixer, fitted with the dough hook, and dissolve the yeast, sugar and salt in the water, mixing over low speed for 3 minutes. Then, add the flours and mix at low speed for 2 minutes. The dough should be releasing from the sides of the bowl and not sticking. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour. If it is too dry and climbing up the dough hook, add more water. Mix for 7 more minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl and place onto a work surface. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and allow it to rest for 8-12 min.
Shape the dough into a thick log (or something like that) and then cut it into several pieces (about 7-oz. each). Roll the dough on the work surface in a circular motion with your hands, forming a smooth ball and place the balls on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Cover the surface of each ball with some olive oil to prevent the dough from forming a hard skin. Cover the dough balls with plastic wrap or with an air tight cover and place in the fridge for at least 8 hours. Before using the dough, let it rest at room temperature for at least 1 hour. You can keep the dough at room temperature for up to 3 hours. The dough will continue to get soft as it sits and it will become more tender and delicate, while at the same time it will be easier to stretch. The dough is over-proofed (risen too much) when it becomes too soft to work with and bubbles form on the surface. You’ll know the dough is too over-proofed if you poke your finger into it and the indentation remains. If the imprint rises back immediately, the dough is under-proofed (so, let it sit longer). If your finger imprint springs back a little bit, that usually indicates it’s perfectly proofed (AKA – you’ve let it sit for exactly the right amount of time, and it’s ready to bake).
To make the focaccia, stretch the dough on a floured surface so it’s about 3/4″ thick. You’ll want to brush the dough with olive oil right away. Press the grapes (or a combo of grapes and raisins) into the surface of the dough and sprinkle with salt to taste. The oven should be around 500˚F and it’ll turn out to be around 8×12″ in size.
Potato Chips
This one’s short, but oh so good. The only catch to this one is that it uses potato skins, which means you’ll need to have a use for the potato itself or it’s a waste. We have not tried this one yet, so I’m not sure how well it might (or might not) work if you use the potato itself along with the peels – just peel the entire potato and make the whole thing look like potato skins all over your counter or in a bowl or cutting board. Chuck all the slices into olive oil and place them onto a baking stone. Sprinkle salt on them let them bake at around 400˚F for about a half hour until crispy. BE SURE to adjust that time (maybe quite a bit) depending on exactly how thick you’ve cut each slice.
Sweet Potato Chips
Quesadillas
Make short work out of multiple quesadillas in your oven on a pizza stone (either indoor, conventional oven, or better yet, your pizza oven for a better flavor)
Apple or Berry Cobbler
Here’s something you can make in any oven, but again, with your pizza oven, it takes on a different quality with crispier exteriors and different (BETTER) flavors.
Dutch Pancake
You’ve probably heard of Dutch pancakes, but it’s a whole different game if your oven is cruising around 600˚F. The pancakes edges curl in seconds right before your eyes and the quality is (again) different than using a skillet on an electric range.
Lamb Stew with Veggies
This idea is super awesome and healthy! It take a bit of finessing with the oven going up over 600˚F and then OFF! It has paprika, oregano, olive oil, carrots, onions, garlic, parsnips, wine, beef, cinnamon and orange zest. Just tell me when to stop! I could go on you know.
Rock Cakes
These were popular during the last world war because of rations on eggs and sugar, but surprise, surprise! – They’re more popular now than ever! We love the result from a wood-fired oven. Recipes abound online!
Salty Chocolate Chunk Cookies
It’s a no-brainer that cookies are easy to make in a regular oven. However, often cookies will have edges that are too well done (aka – BURNED!) but we just accept that as a natural consequence or condition of baking cookies. In a wood-fired oven however, the even-ness of the heat distributed through the stone itself, minimizes the difference between the center of the cookie, and the edges.
Wood-Fired Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Cheese Scones with Tomato and Basil
Not just your regular, everyday scones – No Siree! Try rubbing together a bunch of butter, flour and baking powder until you get a bread-crumb-ish mixture which you place into a container of buttermilk to finish the dough-making process! Wow, that sounds good “as is”. No need for a whole lot more!
Wood-fired Cinnamon Rolls
It’s not so much the recipe that makes the difference here, but how they’re made (obviously wood-fired). We stumbled on this idea during our research on what to do with any leftover pizza dough – yup, the same dough!
Wood-Fired Cinnamon Rolls
Chicken Strips
With 20 minutes of bake time and a selection of garlic, olive oil, parmesan, bread crumbs, basil and pepper, you’re good to go for most likely the best chicken strips you’ve had in, oh, YOUR LIFE!
Wood-fired Cheese Fondue
Wine and cheese never tasted so good!
Pepperoni Pizza Zucchini
This one’s unique because you can have a great meal for under 500 calories using this vegetable as a base. Not only that, but it’s quite possible to make this easily and quickly in an indoor pizza oven, or a gas oven. In fact, many of the ideas on this page are done quite nicely in a patio, propane oven, while it’s possible to make others in a stove top pizza oven model.
Wood-fired Cherry Vine Tomatoes
There’s something wholesome and satisfying about eating a food that is basically just as it was picked from the earth (in this case, some heat was added), without being manipulated and put through a long process to change its qualities and characteristics. We love grilling vegetables from our garden in our pizza oven, and here’s one of the best veggies we like to use.
Wood-Fired Vine Tomatoes
Stone-baked Coconut, Almond, Cashew Banana Bread
Yes, I’m in love with this one too! I can’t stop with ideas for pizza oven recipes.
I’m taking a breather!
I’m guessing you’ve garnered some great ideas, and they don’t stop! Of course, no website will have covered EVERY topic EXHAUSTIVELY (well, I am exhausted, but that’s different!). We’re only trying to inspire you, and bring lots of great ideas and information together in one place. We hope we’ve done that and we hope you have found some value and inspiration in what we do each and every day here at pizzaovenreview.com. We’re open to your ideas and comments on all we do and we thank you for taking the time to visit!