The Pizza Project

William J. Oehlkers

Picture of Oven

Topic Selection

• Based on personal fulfillment

• A desire to develop the better pizza

• Frustration with traditional oven baking

• Fueled by eating at brick oven pizzerias

Immersion

• Several years of making pizza

• Experimenting with various recipes

• And techniques

• Graduating from pan to brick oven

What I Know (K)

• How to make dough from scratch

• Advantages of brick oven

• Limitations of home oven

Questions (Q)

• How can I improve dough making for use in a brick oven?

• How do I go about making a brick oven?

• How do I bake the pizza in a brick oven?

Sources of Information

• Traditional Text: The Bread Builders by Wing and Scott

• Internet: Brick Oven Web Site

• Video: Earthoven Directions for Building a Brick Oven

• Catalogs of Brick Oven

• Building Plans

Learning-Content

• Dough can be improved by using low temp water, little yeast and a long rise (24 hrs.)

• Survey web for brick oven “kits.”

• Order kit from Earthoven in California and follow blueprints.

• Check temp., turn after one minute and watch carefully, remove after 4 minutes

Learning – Process

• Use brick oven web site to ask more questions about building a brick oven

• Visits more brick oven owners in New England before making decision as to kit and baking procedures

Extracting and Recording

• Read for overview

• Read for detail (underline, highlight, take notes

• Create story board

Values

• Traditional Baking and Low Technology

• Community

• Collaboration

Actions

• Invitations• Pizza Party

Evaluation

• Continue:

• Use a wide variety of information sources: text, people, internet

• Change:

• Consider which sources are likely to bring fastest payoffs

• Ask more questions before beginning

• Explore alternatives, e.g. chimney designs