Wood Fired Pizza- process and tips for the best pizza

Favorite dinner alert! We love, love, love making Wood-fired Pizza with a large crowd or just our family. It’s easy, a bit messy, and super delicious. I’ll walk you through the steps and hopefully you will get an opportunity to try it on your own. And if you don’t own a wood-fired pizza oven you can just cook it in the oven using our pizza dough recipe here. 

Step 1

Purchase a wood-fired pizza oven. Click here for the one we have and love. My parents also purchased this one recently and it was an attachment to their Green Mountain Barbecue. They love it also and the cost was less than a stand-alone.

Step 2

Get the right accessories. It’s super important and helps a ton with the process. Pizza peels are absolutely necessary and if they don’t come with your oven-purchase them here. I suggest having two. You will also need these rollers for rolling the dough to the proper thickness. Also grab this pizza roller docker for poking the holes so your pizza doesn’t create air pockets as it bakes. 

Step 3

Make the dough. Use my recipe for Homemade Pizza Dough. The seasoned dough is great but if you plan to make any dessert pizzas (like Nana’s Fruit Dessert Pizza) I would recommend not putting seasonings in your dough. Often I make 2 batches- one with seasoning and one without in case I want to make dessert pizza at the end. When dough has risen- pull off small (fist-size) chunks and roll out with your roller to desired size-I recommend between 10-12”. Usually that’s what’s best for handling and also fitting into your pizza oven.

Step 4: add-ons

Pizza sauce:

I buy cans or jars of sauce. Try using a white Alfredo type sauce too. I even mix the 2 sauces on some pizzas. 

Cheese: 
Have plenty of shredded mozzarella on hand. 
Pieces of burrata are wonderful too. Dollops of ricotta cheese and mozzarella are also great.

Toppings:
Pick what your family loves and then try a couple new toppings also. 
Meats-Pepperoni/salami/ground sausage/proscuitto/ham
Veggies-peppers/mushrooms/olives/tomatoes/onions/artichoke hearts/spinach/sun-dried tomatoes
Fruits-pineapple/pears/peaches
Toppings for after pizza is cooked-arugula/balsamic glaze/fresh tomatoes/basil (these will burn if you put them on before)
Dessert pizza-butter/brown sugar/cinnamon

I hope you try this Wood-fired Pizza method. It’s really so easy and a lot of fun. We love to do it when family comes into town because it’s a unique way to make dinner and it’s fun to see what everyone comes up with. We all end up making our favorite but have pieces of everyone else’s to try new things. Once you get the hang of it it’s a really fun process, but please feel free to ask any questions below and I’d love to help answer anything.

Happy Pizza Making!

xo, Sarah

Shop the Post: