Ninja Woodfire review: Makes delicious pizza

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I love the idea of making fresh pizza outside — in reality, it’s often a more elaborate process than I like. The Ninja Woodfire 8-in-1 Outdoor Oven makes the pizza-making process the easiest I’ve experienced.

The Ninja Woodfire isn’t just a pizza maker (as it has eight functions), but that’s why I got it. I’ve tried Ooni and Gozney pizza makers and eventually made delicious pizza, but there was a learning curve. The Woodfire is just electric, and the other ovens can use propane, wood or other cooking methods, so it’s not comparing apples to apples — but I can certainly compare my patience level.

The Woodfire is easy to set up and use — just plug in and preheat. It is essentially an oven, but outside. In addition to the oven, I got a stand and pizza peel. Overall, the Woodfire, though weirdly named as it doesn’t cook with wood or fire, is a fun and functional addition to my outdoor space. Read my full review to determine if the Woodfire is a good option for you.

What: Ninja Woodfire 8-in-1 Outdoor Oven Where to buy: Ninja | Amazon Price: $499

Setting up: From unboxing to preheating, setting up the Woodfire is an easy process. The oven comes assembled with all the oven inserts carefully packaged. The stand takes a few minutes to put together. Then you just place the oven on the stand, pick which insert you want to use (based on what you’re making) and preheat.

Making a pizza: The most difficult part of making a pizza is getting it into the oven. I roll out the dough on my counter and I can count on it getting stuck — no matter how much flour I sprinkle on the surface. Then I add the pizza sauce, cheese and toppings and will fight to get it onto the peel. The final fight is getting from the peel to the pizza stone.

I’ve tested enough pizza ovens that I’ve gotten a bit better and my only advice is to flour the rolling surface and the peel with more flour than you think you should use. Also, when it’s time to transfer the uncooked pizza between surfaces, use the peel with confidence — use a quick movement to get the pizza on and off the peel — this is no time for hesitation.

Cooking the pizza: Once the pizza is in the oven, it cooks quickly and evenly. The other pizza makers I’ve used cook with fire, so I would have to rotate the pizza throughout the process — the Woodfire cooks evenly without rotation.

The Woodfire comes with pre-set settings, so you just need to set it to “pizza” and the oven will preheat and alert you when it’s ready. Depending on the thickness of your dough, you may need to run it twice. For me, it takes between five and 10 minutes to cook a pizza.

There mustn’t be any holes in your crust or any overflowing ingredients or the pizza might get stuck to the stone.

Using other settings: The Woodfire is an outdoor oven so you can do regular oven things like cook a turkey, bake a pie and dehydrate fruit. It’s extremely effective at all of those functions, but as mentioned, I was after its pizza-making abilities.

Favourite feature: The ease of use. I love that it’s electric. As fun as it is to use flames to cook pizza, it’s more finicky. The Woodfire preheats easily and cooks evenly. I also love the stand because it’s compact and sturdy.

The pizza is delicious. Cooking pizza with fire may level up the process, but I prefer the simplicity of electric over the nuanced flavours created by the open flame.

Least favourite feature: In general, I enjoy Ninja products — they work well and are competitively priced. However, I’m not a huge fan of the Ninja’s aesthetics. The Woodfire looks nice, just not as sleek as other pizza ovens.

Recommendation: I’m happy with the Woodfire and would recommend it to people who are looking to cook outside — especially pizzas. It’s a medium size, well suited to feed from one to six people, depending on what you’re making. If you’re making pizza, you may need a few rounds of cooking because it’s easiest to cook one at a time.

What: Ninja Woodfire 8-in-1 Outdoor Oven Where to buy: Ninja | Amazon Price: $499

Ninja Woodfire features:

Specs:

What’s in the box:

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