The Unexpected Dessert You Should Cook In A Pizza Oven

Everyone loves a fresh wood-fired pizza. There's no question of its supremacy over popping a frozen pizza in your regular oven. But investing in a pizza oven, or even building one, isn't an easy decision to make, not with their usually high cost and the safety issues that force you to use it outside, which you may be unable to do entirely depending on your living situation.

So it's nice to know that, if you do take the plunge, you can make more than just pizza in that oven. Some of the easier dishes you can make are bread or simple roasted vegetables and meats, but there are also desserts you can try. Of the desserts that bake well in a scorching hot pizza oven, the intentionally burned Basque cheesecake is easily the best.

OK, it's not so much burned as it is deeply caramelized on the top and sides. While that caramelization can occur just fine in a regular oven, the extra heat of the pizza oven helps the caramelization along. This way you can get it as dark and deeply brown or black as you want, without overcooking the middle out of the creamy, gooey center it should have.

Before you get excited and start mixing the ingredients together, double check you have a cake or springform pan. Basque cheesecake doesn't have a crust until the caramelization on the sides essentially makes one, so one of these pans is a must. Springform is better, though, since you can detach the walls to easily remove the cheesecake. It also needs to be small, about 6 inches, to fit in most residential pizza ovens.

With gear in hand, you need to wrangle your pizza oven's temperature. It should start between 650 to 800 degrees Fahrenheit, with higher temperatures meaning deeper caramelization. "Start" is the key word here, because your pizza oven should be switched off or the wood should be only coals so the temperature can fall during its 45-or-so-minute cooking time. Basically, put it in after your pizza is done.

Other than this, you just need to decide on ingredients to make it your own. Honey can add some sweetness and help with caramelization, for example, while fruits, fresh or otherwise, are excellent flavor bombs, though you do need to be cognizant of how much liquid you're adding. You can also add some flour if you want your experience to be more cakey than cheese forward.