OUR PIZZAS ....and some thoughts on cooking wood fired and sour dough. We favour sourdough, it has a fantastic flavour and texture, easily digestible using the natural fermentation that occurs in nature. We have a well travelled culture that we use during the summer. We have found a strong organic bread flour from our local mill that works with our style of dough. We mix with Spanish Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, top with Italian Passatta and Mediterranean Herbs, some homegrown, some gathered and dried on holiday balconies around the med. Dough Thoughts Its ‘Our Own Secret Recipe Sour Dough Pizza Base’ Secret Recipe? No not really, we believe in sharing and the real secret to making good wood fired pizza is making Loads of Pizza ...good ingredients help as well, and a blistering Hot Oven. .....thats kind of it, no weird magic with proving temperatures, special flours, times, incantations....you just know and feel after a while when its coming up right.....shhhh, dont tell:) If you find a particular flour, recipe, method that works for you then stick with it and practise practise practise. But dont beat yourself up about infinite tweaks with measuring and temperature control, its mainly about a really hot oven and experience. Cooking Wood Fired The Two Most FAQ our customers ask: What Wood? Hard wood, well seasoned, dry as possible, we favour Oak and Ash for flavour. Beech, applewood, cherry, olive (we wish) also work well. Definitely NO to resinous woods, anything pine, chemically treated or composite. Nasty chemicals and resin buildup are not welcome or conducive to good pizza or oven longevity. How long to heat oven before cooking? It depends on how big and ferocious a fire you build, generally after about an hour the heat will be sufficient. A pizza oven fired from cold will take longer than one that was used the previous day as lots of residual heat is held in the stone. So at start up be prepared with lots of smaller very Dry wood and keep feeding the fire regularly. It will eat alot the first hour. Damp wood will just produce lots of smoke. Its always good to do a trial bake of a base to see how quickly the dough is coming up, how soon it blisters in the heat. Moving the hot fire around the base or raking it forward will warm the stones, and clean the oven floor after a busy session: you are aiming for even heat around the oven. With experience a quick ‘feel’ inside the oven (dont touch any surface!) will give you a good idea, a really hot oven will let your skin know very quickly, in seconds. Thats ideal for cooking pizza, not so good for skin.