How to Make a $5 Brick Pizza Oven

[BigDodgeMan]

Get your taste buds fired up and your wallet smiling with our $5 Brick Pizza Oven—because nothing says ‘affordable gourmet’ quite like crispy, melty perfection on a budget!

First of all, pizza MUST be cooked at a very high temperature in order to achieve the perfect crust. According to the experts (specifically Andreas Glatz, physicist at Northern Illinois University,) shared the following tidbit:

A brick oven heated to 626 degrees will heat the crust to roughly 392 degrees, while the pizza top receives indirect heat from the oven and stays at 212 degrees as water boils off from the cheese and tomato sauce.

How does a Adding a Tile turn an oven into a Pizza Oven?

Adding a tile to an oven doesn’t automatically turn it into a pizza oven, but it can help improve the baking of pizzas by creating a more ideal cooking environment. Here’s how it works:

1. Heat retention: Pizza ovens are typically made with materials that have high heat retention properties, such as refractory bricks or stones.
   
   These materials absorb heat and release it slowly, creating a consistent and evenly heated cooking surface.
   
   Adding a tile or pizza stone to your oven can help replicate this heat retention effect by absorbing and radiating heat more effectively than the oven’s standard metal surface.
2. Even heat distribution: Tiles or pizza stones have the advantage of distributing heat more evenly across the cooking surface.
   
   They can help mitigate hot spots and cold areas that can occur in regular ovens, allowing the pizza to cook more uniformly.
3. Crispy crust: The intense heat generated by a pizza oven is crucial for achieving a crispy crust.
   
   By placing a tile or pizza stone on a lower oven rack and preheating it, you create a hot surface that quickly transfers heat to the pizza dough.
   
   This rapid heat transfer helps crisp up the bottom of the pizza, mimicking the effect of a traditional pizza oven.

To use a tile or pizza stone in your oven for pizza baking, follow these steps:

1. Place the tile or pizza stone on a lower oven rack. It’s important to preheat both the oven and the tile or stone together for optimal results.
2. Preheat the oven to the desired temperature for baking your pizza. It’s recommended to set the oven to its highest temperature setting, typically around 500-550°F (260-290°C).
3. Allow the oven and the tile or stone to preheat for at least 30 minutes to ensure they reach the desired temperature.
4. Once preheated, carefully slide your prepared pizza onto the hot tile or stone using a pizza peel or a flat baking sheet.
5. Monitor the pizza closely as it bakes, following your recipe’s recommended cooking time. The tile or stone will help promote even cooking and browning of the crust.

Remember to handle the hot tile or stone with oven mitts or heat-resistant gloves to avoid burns. Additionally, always refer to the manufacturer’s instructions for the specific tile or pizza stone you’re using, as different materials may have different care and usage guidelines.

With that in mind, the easiest way to recreate the intensity of a wood-fired or brick pizza oven is to transform your own oven with this cheap DIY trick.

How to Make a $5 Brick Pizza Oven

You’ll need:
2- 12″ pieces of UNGLAZED Ceramic quarry tile or 8 pieces of 6″ tiles.
Oven with 2 racks

Again- they ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO BE UNGLAZED. I purchased mine several years ago from a very well known chain (big box) hardware store for 50 cents a piece. That’s $4+ tax for the whole thing. …

We want to arrange the tile in the oven in two layers. The base layer will create the amazing crust we want, while the top will help increase the temperature within the pizza’s area by creating radiant heat from the stones above. It will also aid in getting a beautiful, lightly burned top crust.

Place the stones into the oven while it is cold and bring up to the highest temperature possible… 500 Degree F is mine. I let the over preheat for about 45 minutes to get the stones very hot.

How to Achieve Wood Burning Flavor when Using a Regular Oven

To achieve a wood-burning flavor in a regular oven, you can try the following methods:

Wood Chips or Chunks: Soak wood chips or chunks in water for about 30 minutes, then drain them. Place the soaked wood chips or chunks in a smoker box or wrap them in aluminum foil, poking holes in the foil to allow smoke to escape.

Position the smoker box or foil packet directly on the oven rack or place it on a baking sheet. Preheat your oven to the desired temperature, and once it reaches that temperature, place your food on another oven rack above the smoker box or foil packet.

The heat will cause the wood chips or chunks to smoke, imparting a wood-burning flavor to your food.

Liquid Smoke: Liquid smoke is a concentrated flavoring made from condensed smoke. It can be found in many grocery stores.

Brush or sprinkle a small amount of liquid smoke over your food before placing it in the oven. Be careful not to use too much, as it can be overpowering. This method provides a smoky flavor similar to that of a wood-burning oven.

Marinating with Smoky Ingredients: Enhance the flavor of your food by marinating it with smoky ingredients.

Use ingredients such as smoked paprika, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, or Worcestershire sauce, which contain smoky elements. Allow the smoked toppings to marinate for a few hours or overnight before cooking it in the oven.

Why a Regular Oven Won’t Do the Trick

Pizza crust baked in a steel oven at the same temperature will reach 572 degrees because metal transfers heat more rapidly than brick.

That’s much too high for dough, Glatz says, “so it simply burns.” Unfortunately, because the top of the pizza must cook as well, simply lowering the oven temperature to 450 degrees doesn’t work. While that will heat the crust to 392 degrees, the rest of the pizza won’t receive enough heat to boil by the time the crust has cooked — resulting in cooked dough but undercooked toppings.

Now that you have your oven all figured out, here’s how to make the perfect pizza dough at home..

Credit to NHLavalanche

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