The Firepod pizza oven

I have LOVED this week – what a difference all this sun and heat makes! Pure, pure joy. We are lucky enough to be able to use my mum’s garden and being able to let Mimi loose there is a bit of a lifesaver as she has so much energy. I can not tell you how much I am looking forward to having our own garden soon; it’s probably what I am most excited about when we move in to the new house. With that in mind I was really excited to be approached by the small team behind the Firepod who have very recently launched their amazing outdoor pizza oven. I met up with the inventor of the oven who talked me through the sleek design that not only looks great but makes the most delicious pizzas.

We decided to gather at lunchtime this week when it was boiling hot and we brought the pizza oven up onto the balcony in my mum’s garden. Mimi was in and out of the paddling pool and I made pizzas for her and the grandparents. They were so impressed! Mimi got a special rainbow veggie one – I like being able to make my own pizza for her as I can control the salt levels and pile it up with vegetables that she is more than happy to eat as they are combined with cheese and the pizza base.

I love the simple, Scandi-looking design (available in a few different colours); it’s very compact and easy to transport, especially because you can remove the tall legs and add short legs so ideal to take on camping trips, for example. It is also very, very easy to use – on our first go at making pizzas we were blown away by how good they were! We made our own dough, which was also much easier than we thought, and it really is as simple as heating up the oven (you need a gas canister, which are sold in hardware and DIY shops), placing the pizza in the oven using a pizza peel that is included and removing it when it is ready. They are honestly delicious – I’d go as far as saying that they are better than most pizza restaurants I’ve been to.

The flavour combo that I have discovered is the best thing ever is a thin layer of tomato sauce, artichokes, roquito chilli peppers (the small sweet ones that you get in jars), black olives, buffalo mozzarella and grated mozzarella. BEST THING EVER.

Mimi had a great time, gobbled up most of her pizza but also fed a fair bit to the dogs, natch. We have now made pizzas twice and tried out loads of different flavour combos. They always come out perfectly as long as you roll the dough out thinly enough and don’t overcook them.

The brilliant thing about the oven is that you can replace the pizza stone with a griddle set that you buy separately so we can cook outdoors very easily using gas. This really appeals to me as I absolutely hate smelly cooking so cooking steak, for example, is my worst nightmare. This way Jules can happily cook meat outdoors without filling the house with smells and smoke. The griddle also has a flat side so you can do eggs and pancakes and the like on it – perfect camping breakfasts.

We are really looking forward to holding pizza parties over the summer and we already have one booked in when my little sister comes to stay with her new baby at the end of next month. It is such a lovely sociable thing to cook for friends as everyone can chip in and add their own toppings. The prep and washing up is also minimal, which is a winner in my book.

You can buy a Firepod direct from their site and you can also support their crowdfunding (as it is a new product that they want to develop) and the link to their Indiegogo page is here. I really wish them lots of luck for the future of their company as we think the Firepod is a brilliant product and can’t wait to use it more.

Katy x

*This post was written in collaboration with Firepod.