If you have space for a countertop oven, I highly recommend one. It can replace your toaster, but a good-sized one can also do most of the things your regular oven can do — roast your chicken, broil your fish, bake your cookies, toast your nuts — using only a fraction of the energy of your big oven.
And if you have a baking stone, you can even bake a loaf of bread, or a pizza sized just right for one or two people.
I adored my Cuisinart Brick Oven when it worked, but after I had two of them quit on me in the space of three years (the top element died in one, the door spring in the other) it was time for a change. The Breville Smart Oven came to live here a few weeks ago, and the first hoop I had it jump through, other than toasting bagels (at which it performs marvelously, by the way) was my favorite white pizza — potatoes with rosemary and garlic.
For pizza, the hotter the oven the better, and a stone is essential for a crisp crust. The Cuisinart oven went up to 500F, but most countertop ovens, including the Breville, max out at 450F. Even so, I still got a pretty nice pizza, on the stone I saved from the defunct Cuisinart. Preheating the oven/stone for at 30 minutes gets the stone good and hot; skimp on this step and you risk an underdone crust.
Then there’s the question of how to get the pizza onto the stone in one piece. My regular peels are too big for the little oven, and my giant spatula is too small for a 10-inch pizza. Corrugated cardboard to the rescue! I cut a piece just wide enough to fit into the oven cavity. After rolling the crust out on the counter, I dusted my homemade peel generously with a mixture of white and semolina flours, and assembled the pizza on it. It slid off and onto the stone like a charm.
If your stone doesn’t look as bedraggled as this, you need to use it more!
Potato, Garlic, and Rosemary Pizza
Yield: one 10 – 12″ inch pizza
Time:
- Mix and chill dough: 10 minutes
- Ferment dough: 1.5 hours at room temperature and 4 – 12 hours in the refrigerator
- Prepare and rest potatoes: 30 minutes
- Assemble pizza: 10 minutes
- Bake: about 15 minutes
Dough Ingredients (NB: this makes enough dough for two pizzas):
- 312 grams flour
- 3.3 grams (1 teaspoon) instant yeast
- 4.5 grams (3/4 teaspoon) salt
- 200 grams water
- 14 grams (1 tablespoon) olive oil
Topping Ingredients (for one pizza):
- one medium potato
- one large clove garlic, chopped
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 small shallot, thinly sliced
- a few whole rosemary leaves
- a few thin slices of goat cheddar or other cheese of your choice
- a pinch of Kosher salt
Method:
- In the bowl of a food processor with metal blade, combine the flour, yeast, and salt.
- Combine the water and olive oil in a liquid measuring cup. With the processor running, add the liquid in a thin stream.
- Process until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 90 seconds. Then knead the dough by hand for a few turns.
- Place the dough in a lightly-oiled bowl and ferment at room temperature for about 1.5 hours, until doubled in bulk.
- Divide the dough into two pieces of about 260 grams each. Shape each piece into a ball and place onto a lightly-floured, parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Slip the sheet into a large plastic bag and refrigerate for 4 – 12 hours.
- About 35 minutes before you will assemble the pizza, slice the potato very thinly. A mandoline is very helpful in getting the slices thin and uniform.
- Lay the slices on a kitchen towel, sprinkle them with salt, and roll the towel into a cylinder to enclose the potato. Let rest for 30 minutes. The potato slices should be wilted but not brown.
- 30 minutes before assembling the pizza, preheat the countertop oven, with baking stone, to its maximum temperature.
- Generously dust your countertop with a mixture of flour and semolina. Roll out one ball of dough to a diameter of 10 or 12 inches. If the dough resists stretching, take it as far as you can, let it rest for a few minutes to relax, and continue rolling.
- Dust your peel (or piece of corrugated cardboard) with the same flour/semolina mixture and place the crust on it.
- Brush the crust with olive oil and top with potato slices (you may not use the whole potato), chopped garlic, sliced shallots, and rosemary leaves. Top with the cheese slices, sprinkle with Kosher salt, and drizzle the remaining olive oil over all.
- Slide the pizza onto the hot baking stone. Bake for about 14 minutes (if your oven is at 450F), or until the crust is brown and crisp and the cheese is bubbly.
My favourite: white pizza! Love the way the crust bubbles Susan!
A splendid pizza!
Cheers,
Rosa
Looks delicious! I roll my pizza on parchment and transfer it onto the stone, parchment and all.
I’ve been wanting to make a potato pizza forever, but right now on low carb”ish” diet. But one day. We bought a microwave for over the stove that is also a convection oven, but I always forget about that feature. I do miss my toaster oven.
I was hoping you would post something with your new “toy” – amazing oven the Breville!
not sure what I would do without it here
I haven’t made pizza in ours yet, but good to know it works, I’ll get that on our menu soon
Yeah so I can’t get enough pizza. It might be considered a little ocd. It is just perfect for two people. I am going to go whip up dough right now for tonight. I have sweet potatoes that I am going to use with some fresh mozzarella!
Looks delish!
I spent the better of last year cooking in a countertop oven when our kitchen stove crapped out. It’s funny how I adjusted-basically just had to deal with size limits, but I found I could do just about anything I wanted without diminishing quality. I made some of my best bread in that little oven.
Susan, is that stone also custom made? Wonder If I should get this counter oven too. I remember Sally BR was also mentioning how good it is.
Pizza look delicious!
Thanks for the heads up on the Cuisinart…..almost bought one last week at a discount place…will definately look into the Breville…your pizza looks like the ones we produced in an artisan bread class I took recently..baked in a big deck oven…like the cardboard tip…duh, never thought of that! Enjoy your blog greatly!
I can’t believe you found a stone that fits in a toaster oven!!
We use our toaster oven for many things but have never tried making pizza in it. Of course, it probably doesn’t help that our toaster oven is a little faulty. It works quite well, in spite of the fact that it is permanently on broil, no matter whether the “BROIL” or “BAKE” settings are chosen. The only time that the bottom and top elements work are on “TOAST”. Of course, the warranty is up so we can’t return it.
Still, you’re right. A toaster oven is the way to go. It’s especially great on warm summer days when it’s raining and it would be a crime to heat up the kitchen any more than necessary.
I love the Breville Smart Oven! I actually don’t even have a regular oven and use this little guy for everything. It never disappoints me. Other than a full-size turkey or something huge like that, I can make anything in it that I could in a regular oven. I just need to get a pizza stone because I have found that my homemade crust doesn’t get as crispy as I would like.
This pizza sounds sooo good. I love to make pizza myself, but have never used a pizza stone–will need to invest in one soon. Thanks for the inspiration. 🙂
Incredible! I was *just* thinking about a potato pizza yesterday, and then your post popped up. Perfect timing! I can’t wait to try it out.
This pizza recipe will sure hit our family day on a Sunday evening watching movies and everything… It is absolutely what I am looking for. I am just so glad to come across this blog.
Looks great! We’d love for you to share your recipe at dishfolio.com!
I am new to your site and I think I’m hooked 🙂 I am looking to buy a baking stone but I’m not sure which brand to go with. Since all of your bread seems to come out so lovely I thought I would ask which one you use.
Thanks!
This small stone is 12 inches square and came with my Cuisinart oven. There is a 13-inch round stone specifically made for this Breville oven. In my full-size ovens, I have thicker Fibrament stones — highly recommended! http://www.bakingstone.com/
Susan, Thanks for this great recipe. Yesterday evening we ate the most delicious pizza with oven-dried tomatos and home made yogurt cheese. I left out the oil and had a nice crispy bottom. We also love the sourdough pizza you posted earlier.
Yummy pizza! I’ve had something similar at a local pizza place here and it was fantastic.
We’ve made a potato pizza in our family for at least 20 years. We’ve used Russet, Yukon Gold and Purple potatoes. Our cheese is mozz and parm or mozz and romano. We haven’t used shallots – something to try. We use green onion or white onion instead.
As an alternative to a counter top oven, place a heavy duty baking stone in your home oven on the top rack. Preheat on high broil with the door closed 30 minutes and keep the high broil for the pizza. I can “broil” my pizza in around 3 minutes with this – almost wood fired brick oven quality! Those higher temps do best with caputo flour…
This is very Good recipe. Keep going on with your effort to write more posts.
Sweet blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News.
Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem
to get there! Appreciate it
You don’t need a stone 9they take too much wasted energy to heat up)–just use parchment paper.
Do you turn on the convection feature. Breville suggests turning it off and middle rack position. I see you have the stone on the bottom rack. Thanks.