It’s one of Kmart Australia’s new kitchen tools that’s got fans talking, but is the $69 pizza oven really worth the money?
As an avid cook, I enjoy making my own pizzas from scratch. Luckily for me, I’ve used luxury ovens from popular brands like Gozney and Ooni, so I have experience making pizzas at home that taste just as good as those in restaurants.
Over the years, Kmart has earned the loyalty of thousands of thrifty shoppers by offering affordable alternatives to high-end brands. It’s like hitting the jackpot for customers when they find the perfect “dupe” from a popular brand they can’t afford.
So when Kmart launched its own affordable pizza maker, it piqued my interest.
Shoppers have been raving about the kitchen gadget on social media, with some insisting it’s a “must have” for your next dinner party.
At less than $70, it is undoubtedly one of the cheapest models on the market.
I was curious to try it to see if it lived up to the hype.
But if you’ve been eyeing a pizza oven on the cheap, you may want to reconsider your purchase after reading my review.
It’s one of Kmart Australia’s new kitchen tools that’s got fans talking, but is the $69 pizza oven really worth the money?
INGREDIENTS
4 cups of all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2.5 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons white sugar
4 tablespoons olive oil
330 ml warm tap water
INSTRUCTIONS
Combine the dry ingredients and make a well in the center. Pour in the oil and water and mix until everything is combined.
Sprinkle the surface with more flour and knead the dough with your hands for 5 to 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. If using a stand mixer, mix for 3 to 5 minutes.
Form it into a ball and place it in the same bowl, drizzle with olive oil and then turn it over. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside, let rest for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
Sprinkle the surface with flour and divide the dough into 3-4 balls. Place them on a large tray or plate, cover them with a kitchen towel and let them rest for 1 hour until they double in size.
When you’re ready to cook, form the dough into a round shape, then add your favorite ingredients and bake.
To give you an idea of my cooking style, I love making pizzas at home. I always make my own slow-cooked New York style pizza dough and sauce. In fact, it is a regular dish on our menu.
My favorite pizza toppings include the classic margherita, supreme, pepperoni, vegetarian, ham and pineapple, and BBQ chicken.
From what I’ve learned, less is more. A good pizza only needs a few toppings so avoid overloading the base with toppings as I find it makes the pizza soggy which makes it harder to rotate and takes longer to cook.
My local Kmart store was sold out of pizza makers, so I ended up ordering one online. It wasn’t long before he arrived at my house.
Given the extremely low price, I was very impressed to see that the box came with everything you needed, including the pizza peel (a paddle to lift it out of the oven), a built-in timer, and a small window so you can see how your pizza is doing. cooking.
When I took the oven out of its box I noticed how light it was. It weighs just over 4kg, nowhere near as heavy as the Gozney Roccbox, which weighs less than 20kg.
My first problem was finding a heat resistant surface to use the oven on. According to the manual, the appliance should not be used outdoors and should be kept away from any heat-sensitive surfaces, including laminate or vinyl kitchen countertops and wooden tables. That basically removed every surface in my house.
I decided to try the budget pizza maker to see if it lived up to expectations. he didn’t do it
I ended up putting the pizza maker on my stove, but don’t try this at home. For testing purposes, it was the only “safe” spot available and I wasn’t willing to risk my kitchen counter.
The oven took longer to heat up than the 15 minutes suggested in the manual.
One thing to keep in mind is that it doesn’t reach the same scorching temperatures as its more expensive counterparts. Kmart can only reach 300C, while the more expensive versions can reach over 400C.
Since the oven was taking too long to reach the highest temperature, we ended up cooking the pizzas at 260°C, which took about 20-25 minutes to heat up.
It’s also worth noting that Kmart’s oven is electric, meaning it doesn’t use fire, compared to more expensive models.
We had pizza for dinner with the family over the weekend, so we made extra dough to test the Kmart device.
While the oven was heating up, I started rolling out the dough and adding the ingredients. I wanted to keep the ingredients simple, so I went with pepperoni.
It only takes 60 to 90 seconds to cook the perfect pizza on an Ooni or Gozney. It took almost 15 minutes to bake in the pizza maker, even though the manual said it took
Transferring the pizza from the bench to the ceramic stone with the peeler was surprisingly easy. The secret is to cover the base with semolina. These magical little grains allow your pizza to slide onto the stone smoothly and have honestly changed my life, taking homemade pizza to a whole new level.
Once the pizza is on the stone, close the lid and wait for the dough to do its job.
To put things into perspective, it only takes 60 to 90 seconds to cook the perfect pizza on an Ooni or Gozney.
The pizzas I made in the expensive ovens turned out perfectly: you can expect a crispy leopard-spotted crust, a smoky flavor, and deliciously melted cheese.
According to the Kmart manual, most pizzas should bake in about four to five minutes. However, despite having only three ingredients in our base (pizza sauce, salami, and cheese), our pizza looked pretty pale when we opened the lid after five minutes. In the end it took us almost 15 minutes to cook it to our liking. This did not impress us because we were used to getting our pizzas in less than two minutes.
Halfway through the cooking process, we lifted the lid to check our pizza and noticed that it wasn’t cooked evenly, so we used the peel to remove the pizza, turn it over, and put it back before closing the door. cover.
You’re better off saving money and cooking pizza in your standard kitchen oven.
Once the first pizza is cooked, we throw the second one in the oven to let it bake. We sat down to taste the first batch.
My first impression of the pizza was that the crust was not puffy, the texture was quite chewy, and the cheese was not sticky or bubbly as one would expect.
Unfortunately, the performance of the oven was not good. Despite following the instructions and preheating them as directed, the pizzas turned out to be unsatisfactory. You’re better off saving money and cooking pizza in your standard kitchen oven.
Would I recommend purchasing it? Unfortunately, no.
While I appreciate Kmart for offering an affordable option in today’s rising cost of living, I think it’s worth investing in one from a reputable pizza oven brand if you’re serious about making pizzas at home.
But if you’re not willing to splurge on a high-end pizza oven, the Kmart model is a decent starter kit for beginners looking to make their own pizzas at home.
However, it did not meet my expectations or deliver the quality I expected.
