Can you make Wood Fired Desserts in a Igneus Pizza Oven?

Let’s kick off by answering the question right off the bat… Of course you can make wood fired desserts in your Igneus pizza oven. In fact, it could be considered the perfect tool for many types of dessert, which we’ll go into in far more detail in this article. We’ll also give you some incredible dessert ideas for the next time you host a pizza party, so you don’t have the retreat into the kitchen to serve up pudding!

Before we do that though, we thought it’d be a good idea to serve you up some of our top tips for using your pizza oven for making desserts.

Dessert Top Tips

Parbake

If you’re using left over pizza dough as part of your dessert, it’s a good idea to parbake your pizza dough first. This is a similar concept to blind baking, for all you bakers out there! The reason being because you’re topping the dough with more sugary ingredients such as chocolate and caramel, rather than tomato sauce and cheese, you need to ensure the base has chance to cook through before the sweet toppings burn.

Cast Iron Pans

If you’ve read any of our previous Igneus blogs, you’ll know we’re massive fans of cast iron cookware. Cast iron is such a versatile material when it comes to cooking with extreme heat.

It can naturally withstand the intense open flames of the pizza oven, but it’s also naturally non-stick, meaning it’s great for sweet desserts such as cookies and crumbles.

Temperature Control

As you’ll know, Igneus Pizza Ovens, and pizza ovens in general for those who don’t yet own an Igneus Oven, reach incredibly high temperature of 450°C+. That’s great for making authentic wood fired pizza with a charred crust, but not so great when it comes to sweet desserts. For this reason, it’s important to be mindful of the temperature of your pizza oven and take advantage of the cooldown period. By letting the pizza oven cool after you’ve cooked your pizza, it comes into the perfect operating temperature range for the vast majority of desserts, usually 150-200°C.

Turn, Turn, Turn!

Just like when making pizza, it’s important to turn your desserts often, perhaps even more so than pizza, because of the tendency for sweeter ingredients to burn more easily. Also, even though the temperature of the oven isn’t at it’s hottest, it’s still likely to be hotter near the back of the oven, so rotating is key!

So, what desserts can I make?

Cookies

Starting off nice and easy, cookies are always a winner with the kids and are so simple to make. You can get the cookie dough made in advance (or even buy it premade if you really want to cheat!), balled out and ready on a tray to be put in the oven as it cools. You can keep the recipe simple, such as dark chocolate chips or white chocolate and raisin. Or you can make them a little more luxurious, for example double chocolate and espresso, or toasted almond and honey.

The heat of the pizza oven gives the cookies a crispy crust while keeping the middle gooey and chewy.

S’mores Nutella Pizza

This is one where utilising the parbaking tip we mentioned earlier is a good idea. Be careful not to fully cook the dough before you add the toppings, as you’ll want those to melt and caramelise too, without the crust burning. Add a layer of Nutella and top with mini marshmallows, and small pieces of milk chocolate. Bake until the marshmallows are golden and gooey.

Dark Chocolate Fondant

Many people’s favourite dessert! A popular choice on dessert menus across the land but made in a wood fired oven really elevates the flavour, as the sweet chocolate takes on a slightly smoky flavour. Chocolate Fondant is often considered a real test of skill, as the centre needs to be soft, gooey and runny, but the outside needs to be cooked enough to hold firm on the plate.

Make in the exact same way as you would if cooking in a normal convection oven, but be mindful of the internal temperature of the oven as this is critical for an oozing chocolate centre!

Ice Cream Calzone

Back to pizza dough. Great if you have any left over from the pizzas. This dessert couldn’t be any simpler, but it’s a real showstopper your guests will love! Combining the hot fluffy dough with the cold ice-cream in the centre is a winner. You can use any flavour ice-cream you and your guests prefer.

To make this one simply add your favourite sweet ingredients to your stretched dough, for example, peanut butter, caramel sauce, Nutella, banana or any fruit compote, then fold the dough over to make a calzone. You don’t need to worry about parbaking the dough this time as there’s no ingredients exposed to the heat of the oven. Once the calzone is cooked, cut in half and fill each side with a scoop of your favourite ice-cream.

Fruit Crumble

Crumble desserts are perfect for a wood-fired oven because the high heat creates a beautiful, crispy topping while the fruit filling becomes warm and bubbly. Of course you can use your own choice of fruit, but our personal favourite is Peach and Ginger Crumble as you can caramelise the peaches in your Igneus oven first. The ginger adds a warm spice that complements the sweetness of the peaches. For the topping, use a combination of flour, rolled oats, butter and brown sugar, and mix until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Our advice would be to get the filling made in advance and put it in a cast iron pan. Then, just before placing in the oven, add the crumble topping and bake until bubbling and the topping is golden.

Final Thoughts

So, there we go. Did you really think your Igneus Pizza Oven wasn’t capable of making a showstopping dessert? We hope you get chance to try at least one of these when you host your next pizza party. Of course, if you haven’t yet made your purchase and require any information about any oven in the Igneus range, you can contact us on 01423 575885 or browse our full collection of pizza ovens online here.