Posted: 6/9/2025 6:44:17 AM EDT
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Came across a Nexgrill pizza oven on clearance at Home Depot earlier this year. So far results have been burnt crust and cheese on top and soft crust on the bottom. I understand that moisture content in the dough recipe is very important. Can GD share a foolproof dough recipe for these ovens? Any other tips? |
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First, what kind of pizzas are you trying to make? And what temperatures are you getting in the oven? Burnt on top and not done on bottom indicates you aren’t heating it up long enough. A laser thermometer really helps with this. I don’t start mine until I get to about 800 degrees on the floor. Without going too crazy down rabbit holes, I like about 65% hydration dough, though I’ve had perfectly fine results as low as 56 and as high as 71. The higher it is the harder it is to handle. So if you want a recipe that will make about 3 Neapolitan sized pizzas, you’d want 500 grams of flour, 325 grams of water, 10 grams of salt. Yeast will depend on when you want to make it, but for a 6 hour rise I do about .5g. I mix, rest for a half hour, knead briefly, let it rise for 90 minutes, shape into balls, and rise for another 4-6 hours. About a 90 second cook time. Attached File |
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Quoted: I had one and had the same experience. I mostly cook NY style and once I started using a thick oven steel I actually threw away my propane pizza oven. 500-550 on a steel is absolutely perfect. Yeah NY and other inferior pizza styles  are arguably better done in the home oven. You can easily turn down the temperature of the propane to match what you want but at that point why bother. Neapolitan is really the only reason to have a propane pizza oven. You simply can't make those without very high heat. |
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Attached File LloydPans: 10” x 1”. The bottom will cook faster. Also have 10” x 2” for thick style; cooks the bottom and inside so you can leave it on longer. Thin pans go for about 10-12 minutes, thick go for 30. Not sure about the propane, I usually cook between 550°-600° on the BGE |
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Nice. I've been getting good results with poolish made dough. Super easy, all in the mixer until final proof/rise. |
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Quoted: Nextgrill..yikes. Learning dough, proofing, launching, turnings, etc..takes trial and error. Coming here and see what is posted as pizza by most...Id rather get relationship or financial advice So true. LoL. @OP. Let the oven heat up. 750 is the sweet spot for backyard newbs. At 900 shit happens fast and you cant handle it. Make dough without sugar, or any other tik tok bullshit. Minimal oil. Use a gozney or ooni base recipe. And then make pizzas the rest of the summer USING THE EXACT SAME RECIPE. The biggest secret in pizza isnt a special recipe or ingredient. Its all about process and you dont know enough (few do) to start modifying a dough formula. Pick a published basic dough and get reps in. Ironically enough, not much different than a new shooter. Other than the obvious like a peel, the only gadget you meed at this point is an ir temp gun to verify oven floor temp. Good luck. |
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As others have mentioned, the outdoor pizza oven works best with thin crust, Neapolitan style pizzas. Get the stone to 800° before throwing anything on there. Then turn down the heat to medium as soon as you throw the pizza in there. When you're ready for the next pizza, turn it back to high and let the stone get back up to 800° before throwing the next one on. |
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Attached File Attached File Thin no pan and thick in a pan for extended cook. |
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Quoted: snip.. Other than the obvious like a peel, the only gadget you meed at this point is an ir temp gun to verify oven floor temp. Good luck. Yup..some of the dough recipes I see  Five ingredients is all that is needed: 00 Flour, yeast, water, salt, and olive oil. I haven't used my temp gun in years, once you know your oven. Been in a junk drawer
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Quoted: Came across a Nexgrill pizza oven on clearance at Home Depot earlier this year. So far results have been burnt crust and cheese on top and soft crust on the bottom. I understand that moisture content in the dough recipe is very important. Can GD share a foolproof dough recipe for these ovens? Any other tips? It would seem to me that the 'deck' is not getting hot enough, so that your crust is not cooking as fast as the rest of the pie. Pre-heat your oven longer so that the crust cooks faster. Use a infrared thermometer and measure the temp of the deck. It needs to be 550+ degrees. Here is what my pizza looked like yesterday when I let the deck get as hot as the interior: |
| This guide is pretty good, along with This recipe for the dough. It should get you through the basics and allow you to make something pretty repeatable. The Elements of Pizza by Ken Forkish is a great book that helped me a lot too. But you have to remember that this isn't like cooking a steak- anyone can do that well if they follow basic instructions. Even things like launching a pizza correctly require technique, yes you can make it easier, but you still have to develop a feel for it. So it does take practice to get really good at it. |
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This is the best advice. Those guys are serious about pizza cloning. |
This just came out of my Ooni Koda 16. I preheated on high to get the stone to 900 and then dropped the heat to low as I slid the pizza in. This was about a 3 minute bake max.  ETA this is the premade pizza dough ball from Aldi. It’s great for a couple of quick pies when you don’t have 2 days warning. |
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Quoted: Came across a Nexgrill pizza oven on clearance at Home Depot earlier this year. So far results have been burnt crust and cheese on top and soft crust on the bottom. I understand that moisture content in the dough recipe is very important. Can GD share a foolproof dough recipe for these ovens? Any other tips? What is the temperature of the stone? The oven may show 500 degrees but the stone may only be 300. It can take 30 minutes or so to get the stone up to the proper temp. Use this. |