If you are living in an apartment and don’t have outdoor space, you might think that making delicious pizza at home is not an option. Outdoor pizza ovens are great, but not everybody can afford them, and most apartments deem them a fire hazard. Even top pizza oven brands like Ooni and Gozney have only outdoor options available. The Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo, on the other hand, offers an indoor option that is second to none.
Breville’s electric pizza oven reaches the optimal temperature to recreate the wood-fired taste and feel of pizza, all without needing an outdoor space. Its countertop design (or even patio-friendly) means you can start cooking crispy, gooey mozzarella cheese-topped Neapolitan-style pizza in just a few minutes.
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How Hot Can the Breville Pizzaiolo Get?
The Breville Pizzaiolo can reach up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit, a maximum temperature that is lower than standard wood-fired outdoor ovens (which can go up to 900 degrees) but hotter than most indoor kitchen appliances. Most conventional and convection ovens usually max out at 500 or 550 degrees.
A higher temperature can yield better crust results, and certain types of pizza, especially the Neapolitan kind known for its crispy, blackened crusts, require very high temperatures to achieve the right crust texture. With the Pizzaiolo’s high-temp oven, you can get a crispy bottom crust, a well-browned top crust, retain moisture inside the crust, and also properly cook all the toppings.
What Are the Settings On the Breville Pizzaiolo?
The Pizzaiolo has seven preset functions that include 350 degrees, frozen, pan, New York, thin & crispy, wood-fired, and 750 degrees. It also has a manual mode that enables you to set top and bottom deck temperatures separately. A crust darkness knob controls baking, and you can use the built-in timer (that can go up to 20 minutes) to manage your cook times.
Does the Breville Pizzaiolo Make Delicious Pizzas?
The pizzas cooked in the Breville Pizzaiolo were undoubtedly the best home-cooked pizzas we have ever tasted. Frankly, they could even rival (or surpass) some that we have had at restaurants. Getting the temperature settings perfect may require some practice to achieve that crispy bottom crust, evenly cooked top crust, and perfectly melted cheese. However, once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty straightforward. While experimenting with all the various settings, we found that “wood-fired” and the manual settings gave the most exceptional crust results.
Neapolitan-style crust recipes work the best in the Pizzaiolo, but it takes some finagling with the temperatures to attain the right crust texture. Each pizza cooks for about three minutes or less, so there’s not a lot of time to experiment. We approached the cooking process similar to making pancakes, where the first one is not as perfect as the next.
Is the Breville Pizzaiolo Worth It?
The Breville Pizzaiolo is ideal for families hosting parties, amateurs who love experimenting with their kitchen appliances, and anyone who identifies as a big pizza lover. It prepares great pizzas within a few minutes, and you don’t need to know how to ignite a fire (or maintain it at the ideal temperature as you cook) compared to traditional wood-fired pizza ovens. It manages the temperature for you, resulting in faster and easier cooking.
Despite not appearing to be the most versatile appliance initially, it could still be a fantastic high-heat oven to roast meats, vegetables, and anything to which you want that wood-fired flavor. The primary downside of the Breville Pizzaiolo is that it is difficult to clean. The inside stains and discolors over time, even when wiped after use, and the pizza stone is hard to tidy up, but that is how these things go.
After three uses, I started to notice some staining and discoloration.
Credit: Jae Thomas / Mashable
The Breville Pizzaiolo may cost $999, which is quite expensive, but it is comparable to other large pizza ovens in the market (such as the Gozney Dome) and considerably easier and more user-friendly.
