Why a Charlie Oven is a Great Alternative to a Traditional Pizza Oven

Outdoor cooking, and in particular pizza baking, is growing in popularity. There are lots of pizza ovens to choose from, both big and small, either gas or wood-fired. Who doesn’t love pizza? It makes sense to make your own: not only will you get a pizza fresh out of the oven, but you’ll save money too. In this blog, we’ll explain why a Charlie Oven is a fantastic alternative to buying a pizza oven, offering brilliant features that take all the hard work and stress out of pizza baking at home.

Traditional Pizza Ovens

Traditional pizza ovens come in various types and designs, from wood-fired to gas-powered models. They are built to achieve very high temperatures, providing the ideal environment for baking pizzas. They’re usual made from heat-retaining materials like brick or stone, and take between 30 to 60 minutes to heat up to temperature. They bake pizzas quickly, from 60 seconds to 2 minutes.

Many pizza ovens now market themselves as a great way to cook other things too, like frying steaks in a hot skillet pan, or roasting a chicken. However, it is still essentially a pizza oven with one cooking surface. The heat source is usually on one side, and sometimes it will flow across the ceiling of the oven. This direction of heat means you need to constantly tend to whatever is cooking, by moving and turning the food regularly to avoid burning and ensuring an even cook. It’s fairly high-maintenance cooking that can be lots of fun … with maybe a little bit of stress too.

Introducing the Charlie Oven

The Charlie Oven is a game-changing approach to outdoor cooking. A beautifully simple design that captures heat and smoke and distributes the heat evenly throughout the oven. Charlie Oven is a charcoal oven that can do many things really well, from grilling directly over the fire, to indirect heat for low’n’slow cooking and smoking, to high temperature roasting and baking. Its ability to cook over many levels gives it a huge cooking area, so you can cook a whole meal at once … or three pizzas at the same time. And it’s hands-off cooking: all the magic happens inside the oven, simply close the door and wait. It’s low-maintenance cooking that anyone can handle. With ease.

How to bake pizzas in a Charlie Oven versus a pizza oven.

Heat the oven

Place up to three pizza stones in the Charlie Oven, in the top half of the oven on different levels. Light the oven and leave it for 30 minutes to heat up. When you may reach the desired temperature of 375°C/707°F, close down the air-vents to one inch open, to set and hold the temperature steady. By this time, the pizza stones will also be at just the right temperature inside the oven. The key is to get the stones to a high temperature: that takes the same amount of time regardless of the device. Think of 30 minutes as a minimum for that, although many pizza ovens take up to one hour to heat up thoroughly.

Why a maximum of three pizza stones in the Charlie Oven?
Simple – it is the maximum number we’ve found that we can get ready in time with the logistics of pizza peels, with the pizzas all ready to go at the same time.

Cooking time – the Charlie Oven will take longer to bake pizzas than a traditional pizza oven
We bake at 375°C/707°F to 400°C/752°F for three minutes. The Charlie Oven bakes with the door closed, so you don’t get heat loss with one side open like you do with a pizza oven. The even temperature in the oven and high heat create fabulous, fluffy pizzas which match the results of a the best pizza ovens.

No turning, more even cooking.
As pizza ovens have their heat source directly beside the pizza in the oven on one side, you have to turn the dough to ensure an even cook. With the Charlie Oven, the heat source is all around the pizza stones and cooks the pizzas beautifully evenly. There is no need to turn the dough. In it goes, shut the door, out it comes.

Time saving and stress-free
Pizza time is family and friends time too. It’s about the fun of making your pizzas and then eating together. You can easily bake 12 pizzas in 20 minutes in the Charlie Oven and everyone can eat together. Baking in a traditional pizza oven, with usually one pizza at a time, can be rather more of a challenge!