You can make bread in the Fornetto Oven, a conventional oven or in the kamado.
- Bring the oven temperature up to 250° C / 480° F and maintain the temperature throughout.
- Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Make a well in the centre and pour in the water and oil. Mix ingredients together until your dough feels smooth and a little tacky. Oil the inside of a clean bowl and transfer the dough. Cover with a sheet of cling wrap and a wet tea towel. Place the bowl in the warming drawer (depending upon your Fornetto oven model) or somewhere warm and leave it to rise or proof for at least 60 minutes.
- The dough should double in size. If using a cloche, place on a rack in the middle of the oven and bring up to heat. Keep the smoker slide closed while baking. Once your dough has risen and your cloche is hot, retrieve your dough and turn it out onto a floured board (the Fornetto bamboo pizza peel is perfect for this) and shape into a round ball. Place the dough directly into the hot cloche and put the lid on. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes and then remove the lid. Cook for a further 10 minutes.
- Monitor and the bread and watch it bake – the time will depend on the temperature of the oven and the size of the dough. If cooking your dough directly on the baking stone use the Fornetto spatula to direct the dough into position in the oven. Sprinkling polenta or cornmeal onto the stone surface helps stop the bread from sticking and gives added crunch to the crust. When your bread is cooked take it out of the oven and leave it to cool before cutting. The hot air inside the bread will continue to cook the bread until it cools. This process enhances the flavour and texture of the bread.
Option: Try making bread in the kamado. Just place a pizza stone on the grill and stabilise the temperature at at least 200°C. Cooking time should be about 50 minutes. Before placing the dough in the kamado, place a small bowl of water on the deflector. In this way, you will increase the humidity inside and favour the formation of a delicious crust.
- Preheat your Fornetto oven, or your kamado or smoker to 250℃*. If using your conventional oven or barbecue, heat it to the maximum and monitor your pizza for doneness.
- Prepare the dough following the Fornetto perfect pizza dough recipe.
- Toss the dough and stretch as thinly as possible without tearing it.
- Top with thinly the sliced smoked salmon, the grated Mozzarella, the slices of red onion and the capers.
- Cook for 12 minutes or until the desired doneness is achieved (this will all depend on how thin or thick the dough is).
- Garnish with fresh dill and a dollop of sour cream in the centre and serve immediately.
*You can also cook a pizza on a grill using a pizza stone. Slide your pizza onto the preheated pizza stone and cook over direct medium heat, with the lid closed, until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted, 9 to 11 minutes.
Congratulations Piet Venter of Kimberley, South Africa who came in first place for our mini pizza stone competition.
Written and conceived by Mr. Piet Venter of Kimberley, South Africa. Edited by Matthew C.
(Recipe is for topping 1 pizza)
Putting the pizza together
- Preheat your Fornetto oven or conventional oven to 250°C (480°F).
- Cover the base of the pizza with the tomato sauce.
- Add mozzarella cheese then add the following, sliced Vienna sausage, sliced smoked Russian sausage and sliced salami.
- Top with the cheddar cheese.
- Bake in the oven for approximately 8 minutes or until desired doneness.
- When the pizza is done, add red Peppadews (South African product) and a shallot (green onion).
- Enjoy!
Serving options:
- Peking duck with green onion, cucumber and Hoisin sauce wrapped in Chinese steamed pancakes 春餅 (available pre-made in Asian grocery stores) served as appetisers, or
- Steamed white rice, stir-fried vegetables of your choice and everything listed above served as a main course
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- Begin by washing the duck thoroughly.
- Marinate with all of the above ingredients except the maltose/honey mixture for 24 hours in the fridge.
- Following the instructions in the Peking Duck blog, steam the duck.
- Allow the duck to cool after having steamed and preheat the Fornetto to 260C (500F).
- Once the duck has cooled, *brush with the maltose or honey mixture and roast for 40 to 50 minutes or until browned to your liking.
- Serve with the options listed above.
See our blog for more instructions.
As I mention in almost all our my posts and without wanting to sound repetitious, use the freshest ingredients you can find! When making a Paella with seafood, try buying fresh but if you need to buy frozen, be sure to defrost them properly in the refrigerator. Never leave your seafood standing out on the countertop to defrost.
Seafood paella
- Begin by sautéing the onion and garlic in half the olive oil. Add in the red bell pepper, peas and beans when the onions begin to become translucent.
- Add in the rice and the rest of the olive oil and continue to sautée until the rice becomes translucent.
- Add in the spices and stir well.
- Slowly add in the wine and then the fish stock. Stir well to evenly distribute the vegetables through the rice.
- Add all of the seafood to the top of the rice while the mixture simmers lightly.
- Transfer the paella to a 225C (440F) preheated Fornetto for 25-30 minutes or until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and the seafood is cooked.
- Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley and fresh lemon wedges.
Meat-lovers paella
In this, our Meat-Lovers Paella, everything is prepared in the ceramic Fornetto roasting dish:
- Using half of the olive oil, coat the bottom of the Fornetto Roasting Dish or any other oven safe dish.
- Add the onion, garlic, bell pepper, peas, beans, rice and the remaining olive oil. Mix well to coat all the rice with the oil.
- Add in the spices and mix thoroughly.
- Add in the wine followed by the Chicken broth and stir well to evenly distribute the vegetables through the rice.
- Lie the meat and poultry on top of the rice.
- Bake in a 225C (440F) preheated Fornetto for 45-55 minutes or until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and the meat is cooked through.
- Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley and fresh lemon wedges.
Feel free to use any type of wild mushrooms you prefer but don’t substitute dried/reconstituted mushrooms as this will alter the flavour of the dish astronomically. Mushrooms are interesting in this respect as dried mushrooms vary greatly in flavour to fresh ones. Another good example of this are sun-dried tomatoes versus fresh ones. You can equally use white mushrooms or portobellos if wild mushrooms aren’t available in your area.
- Chop the onion, mushrooms, thyme and rosemary and combine.
- Fry in the butter until the mushrooms have given of most of their liquid and the onions have turned translucent. Ad in the white wine and continue to fry until the wine reduced by half.
- Remove from the heat and place in a bowl to cool.
- Using the same pan, without washing it, fry the beef until brown and all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper and stir in 350 ml (12 fl. oz) Béchamel, reserving the remaining Béchamel for the end.
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- Prepare the pasta (sheets or tubes) following the direction on the box/package.
- Once cooled, combine the mushroom, beef and ricotta in a large bowl and set aside.
- Fill the cannelloni tubes with the mixture or roll it up in the cannelloni sheets.
- Line the bottom of the lasagna dish with a good amount of passata di pomodoro, reserving enough for the top of the cannelloni.
- Line the cannelloni up in the dish, and with the remaining béchamel and passata di pomodoro, garnish the top generously.
- Sprinkle with the mozzarella and cover with the aluminium foil.
- Preheat the Fornetto to 175C (350F) and bake the cannelloni in the centre position, covered, for 50 minutes.
- Move the cannelloni to the top position in the oven and continue to bake uncovered for a further 20 minutes to allow the cheese to brown further.
- Serve and enjoy!
Watch the video for a demonstration!
A beautifully golden, crispy-crust bread that is much heavier than a regular white bread. It’s very similar in texture in fact to a rye or pumpernickel bread.
- To begin with, combine the following ingredients 24 hours in advance and allow them to ferment at room temperature to create a sourdough starter (a.k.a. “levain”, chief or head).
300 g Kamut Flour
300 g Mineral water*
20 g Active yeast
- The following day combines the rest of the ingredients together with the starter.
- Mix well until homogenous and knead as forcefully as you can for 5 minutes. (These flours may create an incredibly sticky dough or may be smooth; they can be quite unpredictable. If it is sticky, even very sticky, don’t worry and don’t add any extra flour. Try to roll it into a ball as best you can and allow it to rest. It will become smooth eventually! If the dough is too stiff, adding extra water is fine. “Sticky is better than stiff with these doughs” assures the baker.)
- Let it rise covered for 75 minutes while flattening it gently and folding it over 4 times every 25 minutes.
- Divide the dough into two pieces, one of approximately 1100 g (2.45 lbs) for the loaf/bread and one smaller of approximately 600 g (1.30 lbs) for the focaccia.
- Place the larger piece in a well-floured loaf pan or basket and allow to rise for a further 40 minutes untouched in a warm place. If you allow it to rise in a basket, you’ll need to turn it out of the basket gently onto a baking stone or sheet before baking it.
- For the focaccia, follow the directions in our blog post. Note that there are no measurements for the extra virgin olive oil but it’s a good amount, roughly 3 tablespoons. Season to your liking with ingredients such as coarse salt, cheese, garlic, olives, oregano, etc..
- Place a heatproof dish full of water in your Fornetto, one that won’t impede with the baking space and preheat your oven to 235C (455F). Leave the water in the oven and try to avoid it evaporating completely.
- Bake the bread for 40 to 45 minutes or until the centre reads between 94C (200F) and 97C (210F) using a digital thermometer.
- Bake the focaccia for about 20 to 25 minutes or until it’s a deep golden brown.
*This bakery weighs the water using scales. It is not measured out in millilitres, cups or fluid ounces.
