Building My Clay Oven
June 2020
A couple of years ago I went a pizza oven building course. Not because I actually had any intention of building one, but because I thought it would be a fun day out - at the time, I lived in a flat so there was no opportunity to build one anyway. Then I moved to a house with a garden, albeit it very small, and I begun to think about whether I should )and could!) build one. When lockdown happened, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Due to lack of space and funds, I decided to build it at ground level. I also had no idea how much clay to order - 125kg sounded a lot, potentially too much even! Actually I could have probably done with double.
My brother was the guinea pig and the first one was almost inedible - we had to finish it off in the kitchen oven and ended up just eating the topping... I've definitely learnt a lot since that first pizza. From how to heat the oven (instant light BBQ bags are my new best friend), how to stop the dough sticking to the paddle without getting mouthfuls of flour (semolina!), sweeping out the oven before putting the pizza in to prevent a crunchy, charcoal studded base, to reducing my tomato sauce so it doesn't make the base soggy.
Each time I've got braver and braver, the latest pizza involved an egg which was my most challenging topping yet. And I now try to find a way to use the heat from the dying embers, whether it be charring an aubergine or pepper to make a dip, making a herb bread with whatever herbs are in the herb garden, butter and garlic, or cooking sourdough rolls.
I've had a few almost disasters along the way. I finished building it the day before the heatwave began and left it uncovered so the exposed side dried far too quickly and had enormous cracks. Fire cement was my ally! Also, the clay goes back to normal clay if it gets very wet and I'd got a little complacent with the size of my tarpaulin during the unusually hot weather. This led to running around my garden with a torch at 3am in monsoon style rain looking for anything I could use to protect it. I can to rebuild one side and part of the arch but it's survived. Needless to say I now have an enormous tarp!
A couple of years ago I went a pizza oven building course. Not because I actually had any intention of building one, but because I thought it would be a fun day out - at the time, I lived in a flat so there was no opportunity to build one anyway. Then I moved to a house with a garden, albeit it very small, and I begun to think about whether I should )and could!) build one. When lockdown happened, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Due to lack of space and funds, I decided to build it at ground level. I also had no idea how much clay to order - 125kg sounded a lot, potentially too much even! Actually I could have probably done with double.
I've had a few almost disasters along the way. I finished building it the day before the heatwave began and left it uncovered so the exposed side dried far too quickly and had enormous cracks. Fire cement was my ally! Also, the clay goes back to normal clay if it gets very wet and I'd got a little complacent with the size of my tarpaulin during the unusually hot weather. This led to running around my garden with a torch at 3am in monsoon style rain looking for anything I could use to protect it. I can to rebuild one side and part of the arch but it's survived. Needless to say I now have an enormous tarp! 
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