wood-fired pizza oven holiday escape suffolk

Wood-Fired Pizza Oven

We have a wood fire pizza oven at home and have thoroughly enjoyed the pizzas and other dishes cooked in it so we thought it had to be a must for the Sheepyard Barn.   Cooking pizzas in a wood fired oven is great fun and it brings everyone together helping create their own perfect pizza topping combo.   There is also something rather primitive about cooking with only fire and but most importantly, for pizzas, it is by far the best way to cook them!

The pizzas cook in around 2 minutes on the very high heat (approx.400-500 degrees centigrade) that a conventional oven just can not achieve.  Due to the stone base of the oven you also then get the wonderful crispy base and with the fire acts like a grill giving incredible bubbling cheese “dancing” on top of the pizza.

If you choose to make your own pizza dough for the bases you really take your pizza experience to the next level.  We supply you with the ingredients for making your own dough, measured out and with step by step instructions.  Do not be afraid, we have had dozens of groups make their own dough and every single one has produced incredible pizzas.

We supply very well seasoned ash wood split into small pieces, a crucial element to achieve the very high heats required to cook the perfect pizza.  The wood comes from our farm so this really is about as sustainable and environmentally friendly a way of cooking you can get.

Pizza Oven Package

In order to protect the oven and ensure you get the best possible pizzas it must be used with one of our packages booked.  The cost is £18.00, for this we offer use of the oven and supply:

  • Full written instruction on how to light the oven, make your own dough and to make the most amazing pizzas
  • We talk you through the lighting process too and other top tips
  • We supply you with a bag off wood to do enough pizzas for  upto 12 people
  • The stove is set up for the lighting, logs all ready and firelighters ready to be lit with matches supplied…eg just throw a match and you are away!
  • Measured out ingredients for making your dough including flour, yeast, etc
  • Rolling pin, pizza peals, pizza cutting wheel and three serving boards
  • You just need to source your favourite topping and you are all ready to go!

Top Tips on Toppings:

  • Passata – quick easy sauce for the base of your pizza, you only need a small amount, no one likes soggy bottom especially with a pizza
  • Fresh Basil – the best friend to a pizza
  • Mozzarella Balls – tear into lumps over the pizza and watch them melt
  • Air Cured Ham – tastes amazing, just add the above two and you have the perfect pizza…less is more!
  • Lay some rocket on top of the cooked pizza and grate a little fresh Parmesan over the top
  • Why not try one of hen’s fresh eggs on your pizza, once cooked grab a for and spin that yummy yolk around the pizza
  • Prep all your ingredients in advance and place into bowls  to make it really easy for everyone to top their pizzas

If you are feeling more adventurous we have a great book in the barn to help you take your wood fired cooking to the next level.  However our biggest recommendation is to create a sublime meal that all will love… with the most minimal amount of work:

Perfect Pulled Pork

We recommend this recipe as it is so simple, it uses the residual heat in the pizza oven after an evening of delicious pizzas and gives you pulled pork ready for lunch the next day. Prep time: 2mins max!

Ingredients:

  • Shoulder of Pork (ideally from a butcher, such Jolly Meat Company in Hadleigh who source local, free range pork)
  • Apple Juice (the above butcher also sells amazing local apple juice if you are there)
  • Optional: Pulled Pork Rub (a blend of herbs and spices but not necessarily required as the slow cooking will release all the flavour from the pork)

Method:

  • Put the pork in a high sided metal oven tray (season pork with salt if you like)
  • Three quarters fill the tray with apple juice
  • Cover the dish with a double layer of aluminium foil
  • Leave the door of the pizza oven and wait until the oven has cooled down from the pizzas to approx. 150 degree centigrade (important or you can burn the pork or buckle the tray)
  • Carefully slide the pork into the pizza oven, remembering the apple juice in there, and place it on the opposite side you had the fire
  • Place the door on the front and leave until mid morning the next day, remove, shred and drop into some rolls and enjoy!
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