Blackstone pizza oven

[sorcrow]

A little while back, I mentioned that I was making pizza for dinner in one of the what's for dinner threads.
I borrowed my stepson's very underused Blackstone pizza oven. The grandkids let me on the secret. A friend came into money and bought it for them, and they've used it once to cook a store-bought frozen pizza. They stay busy and don't really cook as I define it. So I made the huge sacrifice of offering to take the pizza oven to my house. I hated to see the pizza rusting into oblivion in their yard.

Anyway, it's at my house now, and I've used it twice and I'm fairly impressed with it. Obviously, it has a pizza stone inside on the bottom. On the top it has another ceramic tile. When both of those are hot, the pizza gets great heat top and bottom. It's propane fired and takes about 20 minutes or a little more to heat up to 550 or 600°F.

I use a 60 to 65% hydration ratio for my pizza dough, so that I can get a nice thin crispy crust. I'm still getting my timing right, but basically you pop a pizza in and it's done in two and a half minutes.

The actual oven is a bit expensive for my taste, but if I am able to borrow it ad infinitum, I will keep using it. If I end up returning it, I'll look around to find one with a similar setup and find the most economical one to buy because I really like having good pizza.

Anyway, that's my two cents; any questions just ask.

Best regards,
Sorghum Crow

[blm]

1. Sounds like you're pretty close to heaven.

😉

[Silent Type]

2. We bought a cheapo small pizza oven. I'm talking $60 cheap. Using store bought dough, it's pretty good.

[fierywoman]

3. This story makes me happy.

[RockRaven]

4. That sounds great, but I'm in love w/ a pizza steel and I shant commit adultery.

My regular home oven at 550F plus this steel makes great thin crust pizza.

Although "pizza steel" is a bit of a misnomer, "baking steel" is more accurate. I use it for pizza, baguettes, and ciabatta in the oven and for English muffins, pitas, and tortilla warming on the gas range.

And it was inexpensive. 16 in by 16 in by 1/4 in, and cost about $40, 4-5 years ago. Definitely one of my top two kitchen items -- alongside my carbon steel wok -- for hitting the trifecta of inexpensive, high quality, and versatile.

[NJCher]

5. didn't know how they worked

I would love that thin and crispy crust.

[mitch96]

6. "love that thin and crispy crust." Same here, No offense to our mid west bretheren but I'm not a fan of deep dish.

I'm heading off to Detroit way next month and I want to check out "Detroit style" pizza . From what I'm told it's east coast style but with thicker crust. Not a full Sicilian though... I'm gonna try a "Coney Dog" also.
m

[Warpy]

7. I've never seen one of those

Most of the big ovens in Boston and NYC were Vulcan but it sounds like the same thing, heated ceramic top and bottom. I don't know what type they use here in NM because pizza in NM, er....