Ooni Volt 12 review: Bringing the pizza party indoors

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Outdoor pizza ovens are having a moment. Compact and portable models have become popular with both novice and professional cooks, allowing them to host casual pizza parties or catered events as part of a restaurant business. While wood and gas ovens can be fun to use for all skill levels, they need to stay outdoors and using wood or charcoal requires more attention.

After building some of the best outdoor pizza ovens around, Ooni introduced its first electric model designed for indoor use in March. He volt 12 ($999) encompasses everything from the company’s existing product line, from high-temperature cooking to consistent results, and adds ease of use and baking versatility to the mix. This beast is big and expensive, but it also makes very good pizza.

Design

The Volt 12 looks like what you’d expect an electric pizza oven from Ooni to look like. It is the one that most resembles the Karu 16, one of the largest models offered by the company. The gray and black color scheme is on all current Ooni models except the all-silver multi-fuel Karu 12. Instead of a rectangle, the Volt 12 has angled corners, making it more of a flat octagon than a boring box. Ooni says the exterior is powder-coated and weather-resistant so you can take it outside—not that you want it to get too wet. Since this model is more of a countertop appliance than its open-flame predecessors, the Volt 12 has short, stubby legs instead of the longer, collapsible ones of wood and gas-burning units.

Only three Ooni models have glass doors that allow you to observe the entire cooking process. As an indoor electric oven, the Volt 12 is one of those. Unlike the Karu 16 and Karu 12G, this panel is glossy black instead of metal. The door has a sturdy black handle that stays cool to the touch, even at 850 degrees, and a row of three control dials sit below the glass window. The only other button is an on/off switch on the left side of the front. This turns off the power completely. When turned on, the oven stays in standby mode until you press the power button on the front which actually gets the Volt 12 ready to go.

On the left is the time dial with the power button above it. The center control is for the temperature, which ranges from 350 to 850 degrees Fahrenheit. Lastly, the far right dial is for “balance”, allowing you to change the amount of power given to the top and bottom heating elements. In other words, you can put more emphasis on the stone for a crispier crust or more on top for a bit more browning/charcoal. The balance control also activates a boost function that can be used to quickly bring the stone back to your desired temperature between pizzas (takes about 45 seconds). All three controls are flanked by white lights for precise level indications. During warm-up, for example, the temperature dial starts at 350 and slowly moves toward its target, flashing the current state.

The bottom heating element sits below the stone: a 13-inch square cooking surface that can accommodate a variety of skillets plus 12-inch pizza. There’s also an interior light that stays on all the time, so it’s super easy to see how things are progressing without having to open the door.

Setup and use

Before first use, you’ll need to season Volt 12. This requires you to run the oven on full power (850) for 20 minutes and then allow it to cool before preheating to launch your first pizza. Cooling takes a bit longer than the 20-minute preheat or burn, so you’ll want to get it right before you need to cook. Cooldown time on the Volt 12 takes a while. While the exterior will return to room temperature sooner, it takes a while for the interior to do the same since the Volt 12 is so well insulated. This means that you will have to wait at least an hour to store it safely or put the case on it.

Ooni says the 1600-watt Volt 12 can reach 850 degrees in 20 minutes, where it can cook a pizza in 90 seconds. This makes it slightly slower to reach full temperature than its wood or gas counterparts. The Karu 16, for example, can hit 950 degrees Fahrenheit in 15 minutes. Still, 20 minutes is remarkably fast, and in my experience the Volt 12 actually hits 850 minutes faster than that.

The key advantage the Volt 12 has over its wood-fired brethren is comfort. Those models make great pizza with the subtle flavor of a wood fire, but the flames require supervision, while the Volt 12 is much smarter and forget it. You don’t have to worry about maintaining the heat between rolling out the dough, covering the pizzas, and tossing them in the oven. The Volt 12 also sets the balance dial based on cooking temperature, but you can adjust it if needed. Most Ooni outdoor ovens have an optional gas burner (propane and natural gas models), which would also take care of some of your temperature regulation headaches.

making the pizza

This all sounds great on paper, but it would be wasted if the thing wasn’t good pizza. Fortunately, Ooni has translated his formula for great outdoor cooking into his electric oven. The Volt 12 produces results comparable to any of the company’s other models, right down to the charcoal and leopard in Neapolitan pastels. Since the temperature dial gives you more precise control, it’s easier to achieve the desired doneness on everything from New York-style to thin and crisp. With the extra space inside, you can also make Detroit pan pizza, as well as grill and bake other items with ease. The Volt 12 did well with any type of crust I threw at it, consistently turning out delicious pastries in just a few minutes.

Running wide open at 850 degrees, the Volt 12 makes excellent Neapolitan-style pizza. You will need to make sure you have a suitable dough recipe (Scott Deley’s The Ooni Pizza Project is a great guide), but assuming you’re starting with a good foundation, the oven will do the job just fine. I found the Volt 12 to be a bit more forgiving of cake rotation than open flame outdoor models, so you don’t need to take as much care of it. These pizzas were light and airy with a slight crunch on the bottom and the requisite leopard print. The New York style pizzas baked at 650 were also excellent, with crispy edges and bottom, and a pleasantly chewy crust.

There are a few downsides to the Volt 12, the main one being the price. It’s $999, and I’ll be the first to tell you that great pizza can be achieved with your main oven and a baking stone or steel that costs a fraction more. The second thing is that it is huge. The Volt 12 takes up the full depth of the counter and is 20 inches wide. It also weighs just under 40 pounds. That’s not too heavy, relatively speaking, and the Volt 12 can easily be thrown in the backseat for a party nearby. However, Ooni designed it with built-in handles on the sides, which makes moving it a bit easier.

competition

In the US, Ooni’s main competition for the Volt 12 is Breville Pizzaiolo. This oven has been on the market for a few years now, with a design that looks more like one of the company’s toaster ovens. It has an all-stainless-steel aesthetic, with a viewing glass door and easy-to-use controls on the front. Out of the box, the Pizzaiolo works with a variety of presets for different styles, but Breville has also equipped it with a manual mode to give you full control over the top and bottom heating elements.

The three points against this alternative are the cost, a limited cooking surface and the lack of interior lighting. The Pizzaiolo is $999.95, so unless you find one on sale, you won’t save any money compared to the Volt 12. The Pizzaiolo’s stone is circular rather than square, so you’ll only be able to use 12-inch round pans. . besides your pizza. And lastly, there is no light inside so it can be challenging to monitor the cooking process. You will almost certainly have to open the door at some point for closer inspection.

Wrap

With the volt 12, Ooni enters new territory by bringing his pizza formula to the stone oven indoors. While the results are consistently excellent across a variety of styles, this is the company’s most expensive product to date, and I can see it being prohibitively expensive for some, no matter how good the pizza. A Karu 16 with the additional purchase of a gas burner is $920 or $950 (propane vs. natural gas), which would give you the convenience of a control dial with the option to cook with wood. It’s still not cheap, but that oven is big enough to do more than just pizza, so it’s pretty versatile, too. What it really comes down to is where you’ll be cooking most often, indoors or out, or whether you’re okay with upgrading your pizza game with accessories for your kitchen oven. And there is absolutely no shame in doing that.

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Ooni enters new territory by bringing its formula for indoor stone-baked pizza with its most expensive machine yet: the Volt 12.