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My Blackstone Pizza Oven

Blackstone pizza

Note: I received no compensation for this post; all opinions are my own and I’d just like to share my experience although if you click on “resources tab” and buy through my Amazon store, I receive a small percentage of each sale.

Hello there! It’s been a while, and I miss my little bloggie. I’ve still been cooking, baking, and answering pizza questions but not posting too much for a number of reasons. But I’m hoping to get back into something more regular.

The big news for this post – something that a pizza dork like me gets SUPER excited about – is my favorite Christmas present this year:

Blackstone pizza oven

Oh yessssss!!! My own pizza oven! How exciting is that? But even more exciting are the facts that:

  • it is way more affordable than most pizza ovens
  • it fairly portable (as much as any propane-fired BBQ on wheels would be)
  • it cooks a pizza in 90 seconds. Yes that’s right NINETY as in one point five minutes. That’s not a typo!!
  • it only takes me 10 minutes to warm it up.

And here is the process:

YouTube video

I used my favorite NY pizza dough recipe found HERE . I have also used a beautiful recipe for Neopolitan pizza using Caputo’s Chef’s 00 flour. This is rumored to be the same as the Caputo’s Pizzeria flour, milled specifically for baking temperatures over 700 degrees.

I followed the usual process except I accidentally left the dough out for a few hours after kneading/mixing. I usually divide and put the dough balls right into plastic containers after mixing. Then, I place the dough balls into the refrigerator for 1 to 3 days.

The dough came great as usual but lighter and more like a Neopolitan style pizza. Neopolitan pizzas are charred on the bottom and lighter and fluffier around the cornice.

I used 7/11 ground tomatoes (Stanislaus) and topped it with bits of fresh mozzarella (not too much or your pizza will be watery!) Only thing missing is the fresh basil, but alas tis not the season for fresh basil and so I was out of it.

Here are more pictures of my results:

blackstone pizza1

Blackstone pizza2

blackstone pizza 4

And finally, a shot of the oven, which is in my garage for the winter and looks like a BBQ:

blackstone oven

My tips for using the Blackstone: 

  • Preheat the Blackstone oven for at least 10 mins. Turn the stone-rotating mechanism on so that the stone heats evenly and position the flame-regulating dial to approximately the 4-o’clock position to get the ideal temperature that browns both the top and bottom of the pizza pretty evenly
  • Practice using a pizza peel as I’m not sure how you would transfer the pizza into this otherwise (using a pizza peel is easy – if I can do it, you can do it! just remember to flour it well). Try using rice flour to flour your pizza peel because it doesn’t burn as much as regular flour and semolina
  • An IR (infrared) temperature gun for cooking can help you understand baking temperatures and ensure that the stone is heated sufficiently (not really necessary but interesting)
  • From what I understand, the temperature gage on the unit is measuring air temp inside the unit not the stone temperatures. My stones get to an impressive 800 and 900 degrees F within 10 mins!

24 Comments

  1. I just received my Blackstone pizza oven, can’t wait to use it, if your crust is a little thicker, should the temp be lowered and cook a little longer?

    1. That’s great! I’ve heard they just released a brand new oven. For my oven, I definitely had to play around a bit with the temperature and timing. I am now using brown rice flour to lightly flour the pizza peel to prevent over browning of the bottom. But yes, I think it couldn’t hurt to slightly lower temp for thicker crust. Depends of course on how thick you want.

    1. you can find used, I see them advertised from time to time on offer up….its a great investment if you are on a budget
      and an aspiring pizzaioli…

  2. Hello
    We just purchased a used oven. It seems to work fine. We will be trying it tomorrow. Any tips would be appreciated. has anyone cooked a traditional deep dish pizza in this oven?

    1. I have not made a deep dish, only Neopolitan style pizzas. My biggest tips would be to purchase an IR thermometer if you can to check the stone temp and also not to forget to turn on the turntable or you will not get even baking 🙂 Also, use a wet mozzarella so it doesn’t burn right away (there are 2 kinds – the low moisture, which is the dryer kind used in NY style pizza and the fresh mozzarella, which is wetter and better suited to the high heat of this oven, although I suppose you could bake at lower temps…)

  3. Do you cook your crust and then take it out put the toppings sauce and cheese on and then stick back in to melt the cheesesteak do you make the whole pizza at once and then cook all together?

  4. Hi: I’ve never heard of this oven. Sounds great. Can you use a carbon steel plate or do you have to use a pizza stone? Do you live in the US or another country? May have to get one of these. Thanks for the info.

    1. Hi Mark, I’m in the USA and ordered mine from Cabella’s near the holidays. It comes with a stone and I’ve never used a steel plate in it. Frankly, i highly prefer it for Neopolitan style pizza using 00 flour (Caputo) but I’ve been using it for NY dough too because it saves so much time!

  5. Looks great! Did you take any pics of the bottom of any of those pies? I was curious to see how they come out in the Blackstone Oven. Thanks.

  6. Question…we love our pizza oven but the bottom of the pizza is not getting as brown as we would like. Seems under cooked compared to the top. Your tip is to put the flame regulating dial in the 4 o’clock position to get the ideal temperature. When you do this, what is the temperature on the gauge? I read that it should be between 350 – 375.

    Thanks!

    1. Hi Lisa – I don’t pay much attention to the temperature gauge because I have an IR thermometer that tests the stone temp. I’m looking for anything north of 700 or 800 degrees, which I easily get. I’m wondering if maybe you keep your oven outside and perhaps the cold winter causes it to need a bit more time to heat up? I think my first step would be to test the stone temp of possible.

  7. no fooling. I am not a pizza dough expert nor am I a wood fired oven expert but i do make a good dough (overnight refrigeration) and have a blackstone, bake at about 700 F on stone measured by the infrared thermometer. It cooks in about 90 to 120 seconds. depends on how much browning you like on your crust. wife not liking too much, me liking a bit more. I have practiced and then invited friends (couples) over for a pizza party. As a result I have helpd sell 4 more blackstones, and i don’t work for them. i have used it to bake bread 2 times, will try more times, have roasted beef in it 2 times. baking and roasting take a little thought so now that you out there know it can be done give it some thought and try it. i don’t want a pricey wood fired oven and i don’t have any wood so the blackstone makes me feel important about making pizza.

  8. We have had are for 3 yrs and love it. If you aren’t comfortable putting pizza right on stone just use those cheap tinfoil pizza pans. Also try cooking a steak in your pizza oven in a tinfoil pan. Comes out very tender and juicy.

  9. The Blackstone works, first time if you know how to make a good dough. I have set the stone at 550 to 650 or slightly higher seems to work well. I use Ir temp to check the crust temp at about 400F it browns. Takes maybe 2 minutes.
    Did baguettes 4, loaded on parchment paper from peel. not good idea paper leaves some off flavor at those high temps. baked nicely but I use wet dough and sprayed oven with a hnd sprayer for moisture during first 5 minutes. I set stone at 450F, then turned off heat, when temp of stone dropped 15 degrees I turned heat back on. Did this 3 times during 15 minute bake. Nothing spectacular and somewhat more involved than baking in my home gas oven. Asked Blackstone to ofer a “temp” controller version so Blackstone works like an inside oven. Maybe not worth the effort. But it makes me want to keep trying.

    1. Interesting! I thought about trying to do bread in there – glad to hear your feedback. I do love my Blackstone. In fact, in summer, I plan to solely bake Naples style pizzas (although I love the NY crust too) -keeps the kitchen cool!

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