Cuisinart Indoor Pizza Oven Review: Quality pizza made easy

Verdict

Pizza purists may scoff at the idea of an inside oven that can produce the kind of beautifully risen crusts and leopard spotting of an outdoor one, but Cuisinart’s Indoor Pizza Oven CPZ120U could give them pause for thought. There are some limitations: pizza isn’t cooked as quickly, the stone can only accommodate up to 12-inch creations and the results aren’t identical to an outdoor oven, but if you’re keen to enjoy a Margherita and the weather isn’t on your side then everyone from beginners to pros will find something to love in this worktop oven.

Introduction

There’s a huge choice of pro-style ovens for making your own pizza but most have one thing in common: they’re for outdoor use.

Should you not be blessed with fine weather when the craving for pepperoni strikes, or have run out of gas or pellets then Cuisinart’s Indoor Pizza Oven can step in. Not only does it have a convenient plug-and-play design, it’s also for indoor use, meaning that it’s more versatile and requires less prep than an outdoor oven.

This plus all the kit to get you started – a peel, cutter and deep-dish pan – mean that perfect pizza can be yours faster than it takes to deliver it to your door.

Design and features

• 12.5-inch pizza stone
• Digital timer
• Interior light

You may not think you have room for a pizza oven in your kitchen, but Cuisinart’s Indoor Pizza Oven is smaller than most outdoor models. It’s about the size of a solo microwave, although not as tall (H27.3 x W46.7 x D48.7cm), and a similar weight (12.72kg).

The exterior is stainless steel, giving it a practical feel, and the controls are pared-back: there’s a dial for selecting temperature (170-400°C), a digital timer that’s set with up and down buttons, and a button for turning the internal light on and off. Being able to turn the light on without opening the door is handy for checking on progress, but the light isn’t automatic when you open the door, so you need to remember to switch it on beforehand for better visibility.

Inside, things are just as simple, with an element at the base to heat the pizza stone.

The ceramic stone sits on a wire shelf that doubles up for cooking other foods without the stone (eg traybakes, cakes or baked pasta dishes), plus there’s a crumb tray for catching mess. Also included is a mezzaluna-style pizza cutter, a deep-dish pan and a fold-up peel for launching and retrieving your pizza. None of the removable parts are dishwasher-safe – understandable for the stone and peel, but less so for the pan, wire shelf and crumb tray. Cleaning these by hand adds time and hassle to pizza making.

Performance

• Noisy
• Crusts can burn quickly
• Authentic-looking pizza

While outdoor pizza ovens are fairly quiet – all you’ll hear is the odd crackle or hiss – Cuisinart’s Indoor Pizza Oven is the opposite. It works like a conventional oven, relying on fanned heat to raise the temperature inside. This means that it’s noisy from heat-up to during cooking and even once it’s finished, as the fans run to cool the stone down. On the plus side, the Indoor Pizza Oven heats up fairly quickly, in about 15-17 minutes depending on what type of pizza is being cooked. This allows adequate time to assemble the more basic recipes.

There’s plenty of guidance as to what temperatures to cook different pizzas at, and using the oven is straightforward, although I found that it was easy to forget to start the timer once it had been set. Generally, I used the timer as a guide to cooking duration rather than sticking to it rigidly: often crusts would start to burn at the edges long before the timer sounded. The smoke from this set off my smoke alarm – another aspect to be aware of when making pizza at high temperatures indoors. In an ideal world, the timer would also switch the oven off but it doesn’t.

I started by making a cheese and tomato Neapolitan pizza at the highest heat of 400°C. The peel made it easy to get the pizza in and out again, while when the light was turned on, I could monitor cooking progress without having to open the door.

This took four minutes to bake. The resulting pizza was well cooked with a reasonable rise, firm browned crust and some spotting, though not identical to an outdoor oven (which usually cooks at around 500°C).

Next, I made a thin and crispy pizza using the same topping with the addition of mushrooms, but cooked at a lower temperature of 370°C.

This took just under 5 minutes, and produced a better risen crust, more evenly browned cheese and a more authentic appearance.

I felt that this would be the best setting for thicker toppings without burning. Neither pizza required turning, and both had noticeably well-cooked bases.

The Indoor Pizza Oven comes with its own deep pan and guidance for making the base with additional olive oil.

I tried cooking this at the lower temperature of 300°C for 15 minutes but the result was mixed: while thoroughly cooked, crisp on top and with a moist base, it didn’t rise as much as I’d hoped.

One frustration I found was the crumb tray: while a great idea, it doesn’t cover the whole base of the oven so flour and discarded toppings can become caught between the door hinge and the base. It’s hard to access when cleaning, meaning that this spot could become a dirt trap. I also found the deep pan, with its stuck-on oil, especially difficult to clean by hand.

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