Professional’s Ranking
Professionals
- Stunning design
- Effectively engineered
- Straightforward to make use of
Our Verdict
The Volt 12 is the last word technique to make home made pizza from the consolation of your kitchen. Sure, it’s expensive and also you’ll want loads of house for it, however it’s exhausting to fault its design or efficiency.
Not everybody has been capable of get in on the development for home made pizza, for the easy undeniable fact that not all of us have the surface house wanted to make use of a pizza oven.
That’s the place Ooni’s Volt 12 is available in.
Ooni is a pizza oven firm that started its life in London and now sells worldwide. We’ve beforehand reviewed two of their out of doors ovens: the Fyra 12 and the Karu 16.
The Volt 12 is the results of a number of years of growth. Ooni has designed and constructed an oven that may attain the excessive temperatures essential to cook dinner pizza, whereas nonetheless being protected for a home kitchen. And what a bit of engineering it’s.
The Volt 12 a correct pizza oven, massive sufficient to cook dinner a 12-inch pizza, however the twist is that you should utilize it indoors – though in the event you assume that wooden burning or fuel fired ovens are an excessive amount of trouble, you should utilize the Volt 12 outdoors as effectively. Nonetheless, it’ll nonetheless have to be saved inside.
Design & Construct
- H28 x W53 x D62cm/ 24.2 x 20.8 x 10.9in
- Top quality chrome steel and glass construct
- Three dial controls
When the Volt 12 field arrived, I used to be floored. Not actually, though I might have been had I attempted to raise it. I simply wasn’t ready for the dimensions of it. When it’s unboxed, the oven appears a bit extra manageable, though it’s nonetheless a mighty measurement.
The Volt 12 is undoubtedly the perfect trying equipment in my kitchen
At 28(H) x 53(W) x 62cm(D) (24.2 x 20.8 x 10.9in), it ought to be capable of stand on a typical kitchen counter, which is round 65cm/25in deep. However in the event you’re considering of shopping for the Volt, it’s effectively price measuring up first to make sure you have an appropriate spot to position it.
And it’s as heavy as it’s massive, at 18kg/39.2lbs. However there are handholds on the edges and I discovered that, as soon as freed from the packaging, I may raise it onto the counter with out a lot hassle. Nonetheless, it’s not the form of equipment you’ll need to transfer round typically. And also you gained’t be capable of transfer it in any respect when it’s scorching after use.
However it’s superbly designed. Its form is bevelled, and its physique is matt black, with a chrome steel trim. The door makes up your complete entrance of the oven, and it’s shiny black, with a viewing window within the centre so you’ll be able to see your pizza cooking. It’s undoubtedly the perfect trying equipment in my kitchen.
Beneath the door are three management dials that mild up when it’s switched on. It’s a slick, minimalist set-up. The primary dial is a timer (as much as 20 minutes), the second controls temperature (as much as 450°C/850°F) and the third is a steadiness dial that allows you to regulate whether or not the warmth is coming primarily from the highest or the underside heating component, or whether or not it’s evenly balanced between the 2.
There’s a advisable setting for every temperature, however you’ll be able to regulate it by hand throughout cooking. The third dial additionally features as a lift to warmth up your pizza stone between cooking pizzas.
There’s an On/Standby touchscreen button on the entrance and a big On/Off rocker change on the equipment’s aspect. The location of the latter is a little bit annoying as you’ll want to succeed in down the aspect of the equipment and really feel round to show it on and off.
The Volt 12 is basically made from chrome steel, with a triple-paned door of borosilicate glass. That is the kind of glass Pyrex was once made out of: it’s famously robust and thermally steady. In different phrases, it’s a wonderful materials for the door to an oven that’s going to get actually, actually scorching.
The door has a big, easy-to-grasp deal with that’s protected to the touch all through cooking.
The Volt 12 comes with a brief energy wire to scale back the chance of the oven being pulled from the countertop. This does imply that you simply’re restricted to the place you should utilize it and may have to make use of an extension wire, by which case, see above and take care.
Arrange is simple. All it’s essential to do discover a countertop spot with just a few inches of clearance all the best way round, insert the Ooni-branded pizza stone into the oven and season the oven by setting it to 450°C/850°F for 20 minutes.
When the oven reaches its set temperature, there’s an audible alert and when the timer runs down, an alarm sounds – and continues sounding – till you intervene. The Volt is not going to change itself off on the finish of a cooking cycle.
As soon as it’s cooled, you’re prepared to start out cooking.
Efficiency & Options
- 20 minute heating time
- 90 second cooking time
I went to the Volt 12 launch occasion some months in the past and noticed the indoor ovens in motion. The pizza the ovens produced was glorious however, maybe because of letting a bunch of writers and influencers experiment with their very own pizza cooking, the ovens did start to smoke and finally set off the hearth alarms within the constructing.
As my kitchen is tiny, I used to be nervous that the identical factor would occur at residence, or that the kitchen would get unbearably scorching. So, I began off the testing with a little bit of trepidation.
I started by making my very own pizza dough from scratch just a few hours earlier than utilizing the oven – it’s essential to give the dough time to rise. I’d by no means made pizza dough earlier than, so I used Ooni’s recipe.
Surprisingly, it was straightforward sufficient and some hours later, I had 4 fairly convincing trying dough balls – sufficient to make 4 12-inch pizzas.
I switched on the oven to preheat and formed the dough whereas the oven was heating. Then got here the tough half: launching the raw pizza into the oven.
To do that, you’ll want a pizza peel. The Volt 12 doesn’t include one however it’s a necessary software. Ooni’s personal 12-inch peel prices $59.99/£59.99 and as a plus, it’s massive sufficient that you can use it to shovel snow out of your driveway if the necessity arises (please don’t do that).
When your dough is stretched and formed, you then flour your peel, place your dough on prime and add your sauce and toppings. Then, when the oven has reached the goal temperature, slide it into the oven.
It’s a little bit of an engineering marvel. It’s sturdily constructed, effectively insulated and simple to make use of – the standard of your pizzas, nonetheless, will rely in your dough making and dough stretching abilities
In my case, that is the place issues went awry. I’d been nervous about over-flouring the peel and making the oven smoke, so the pizza dough obtained irretrievably caught to the peel and ended up in a mangled ball within the bin. The second try was rather more profitable.
The oven takes round 20 minutes to warmth up, after which just one.5-2 minutes to cook dinner a Neapolitan-style pizza. You can too use it to make New York, Tavern-style and Detroit pizzas – amongst different choices – and the oven comes with an Necessities Information to present you some suggestions as to settings.
The primary pizza I made was at the least recognisably a pizza, if a bit thick – and each pizza I made afterwards confirmed an exponential enchancment.
As you’ll be able to see by the oven door, you’ll be able to test in your pizza and guarantee it’s not burning. Despite my fears, I by no means had issues with the oven smoking.
As for security, the edges and prime of the oven get heat sufficient throughout cooking that you simply couldn’t comfy relaxation a hand there for lengthy – however not scorching sufficient to burn you in the event you contact the oven.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
And extremely, the Volt 12 launched much less warmth throughout cooking than my inbuilt oven .
Altogether, it’s a little bit of an engineering marvel. It’s sturdily constructed, effectively insulated and simple to make use of. The standard of your pizzas, nonetheless, will rely in your dough making and dough stretching abilities.
What’s extra, you should utilize it for different kinds of cooking, though you’ll want a suitable cooking dish. Ooni additionally sells a cookbook, Cooking With Hearth, with quite a lot of recipes you’ll be able to strive.
Because the Volt 12 was simply sitting on my counter throughout the testing interval, I used it for every type of cooking, from heating up frozen pizza (use a little bit of flour to cease it sticking to the stone) to crisping up gnocci and roasting greens.
It proved useful for every part however the perfect dish I made was roast potatoes, which I cooked in a ceramic tray as I didn’t have a metallic pan that match within the oven. They took much less time than in a standard oven and so they have been simply the perfect roast potatoes I’ve ever made. The extra warmth helped, as did the precision cooking from adjusting the steadiness dial: I may select to crisp the highest or the cook dinner from the underside of the dish as required.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Keep in mind, although, that in the event you use a taller dish, you gained’t be capable of view the progress of your cooking by the viewing window as simply as with a flat pizza.
Worth & Availability
The Volt 12 is priced at $999/ £799 and, on the time of writing at the least, you gained’t get it for much less. Nonetheless, Ooni does have bundle offers out there that’ll get you cash off helpful equipment comparable to covers and peels.
Within the US, you should purchase direct from Ooni, or from Amazon, amongst different retailers. Within the UK, you should purchase from Ooni, Amazon or John Lewis.
By way of its price to run, the Volt 12 is a 1600W equipment, which implies that it’ll nonetheless be cheaper to cook dinner in than an inbuilt oven – in the event you cook dinner for brief durations, at the least. On my present power tariff, it price me round 14p to cook dinner a pizza.
However provided that it is a luxurious product, it appears absurd to be discussing any form of cash saving. You can order your self a supply pizza each week for near a yr for the worth of the Volt 12.
Must you purchase the Ooni Volt 12?
The Volt 12 will not be for everybody: you want the house and funds for one, in addition to the will to cook dinner pizza in your kitchen recurrently sufficient to take a position closely in it. And pizza aficionados will nonetheless favor their wood-fired out of doors ovens, though there’s a sure luxurious in making pizza from scratch in your kitchen all by the winter months.
However if you need the Volt 12, you actually gained’t be upset whenever you get it. It’s a superbly designed and engineered equipment, and utilizing it’s a pleasure.