Presto 03430 Pizzazz Pizza Oven

First of all it's not perfect. The non-stick coating is thin on the pan, and can get scratched off easy. Plus, there's no easy way to clean off the brown, spots you get from baking. All that aside, this is a great device if you like homemade, and frozen varieties of pizza.

I used to try all kinds of tricks to get a frozen pizza to taste good. I'd microwave them partially first, I'd bake them directly on the oven rack; I'd try greasing the pan, or not greasing it. I had some success with these techniques, but it was a lot of work. This oven does the job, and gets the pizza cooked the way you want it. An easy flip switch on the top, can turn the heat on both sides, just the top, or just the bottom. You control the crispness, and the degree of browning on your pizza.

This oven is also great for baking those commercial, "take and bake" pizzas, from shops like Pappa Murphy's. Further, its better for reheating leftover pizzeria pizza than your microwave. What more can you want? I wanted just one thing, a 14" model. While most frozen pizza is 12" or smaller, you cannot heat one any larger. One final caution, rising crust pizzas will sometimes bubble, or rise into the top-heating element. It's a good idea to stay in the general area while the pizza is cooking, or it can potentially start a fire.

My in-laws gave us one of these as a gift. I thought it was a joke. Then we used it. The Pizzazz consistently cooks frozen pizzas well.

The nonstick disk is simple to clean. I don't understand how anyone would scratch it, unless he's using steel wool or something to clean it. And that is hardly necessary: it washes clean with a bit of soap and water (or even just a clean towel).

Even with rising crust pizzas, we have never had the food come anywhere near the heating element.

My only complaint is that you cannot accelerate the timer. You can adjust it to add time, but once it's set, you have to wait for it to run down. This is a minor inconvenience, though I would like to be able to turn off the heating elements when the pizza is done rather than take the pizza off the disk and wait for the "ding" at the end of the cooking cycle. (You could unplug the machine, but the residual heat from the elements might cook the disk, which obviously stops rotating when you unplug the machine. The elements stay hot for a little while after the cycle ends.)

All in all, this is a surprisingly effective product.

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As a single man who eats 2-3 frozen pizzas a week, this was a better purchase than my microwave. Frozen pizzas cook in 15 minutes or less, as compared to 20-23 minutes with a conventional oven. When you wait until the last minute to start cooking, 5 minutes is a long time. Additionally it cooks the pizza perfectly evenly. There are also controls that let you choose between crisp, normal, and light crusts.

**I still have mine over 3 years later and it works like the day I opened it. I sill use it 2-3 times a month (I'm married now, frozen pizza doesn't see itself on the menu 3 nights a week now), and have used it with almost all varieties and brands of pizza with equal success. The nonstick coating is a little scratched however (even though I've taken special interest in keeping it intact). But its still the best oven I own.**

Read Best Reviews of Presto 03430 Pizzazz Pizza Oven Here

I was pretty excited to get this item. I never had any success with my oven and frozen pizza. I never could get the middle cooked and many reviews said the Pizzazz would do this.

Pros:

Creates a crisp bottom crust

Center of pizza and toppings cook better than with an oven

Doesn't heat up the house

Cleanup is a breeze

Cons:

The outside crust is more breadlike (could be a pro for some)

Turntable on mine seems slanted and crooked

Doesn't perform miracles. Some reviewers imply that the Pizzazz transforms frozen pizza into real pizza. It improves frozen pizza, but you won't forget that you're eating frozen pizza.

Rising dough frozen pizza works, but the dough itself doesn't seem to bake fully. It tends to taste doughy even when the bottom and top are done.

12" is too small considering the better tasting 16" fresh dough pizzas available now

I like this gadget, but I can't give it five stars. Presto created a pretty cool kitchen appliance here, but I think they could improve it. They should make a XL 16" model that would accomodate "Costco" take and bake. I think the heating elements could be designed better to improve coverage as well.

As far as frozen pizza goes, Freschetta baked better than Di Giorno for me. Tombstone tasted like Tombstone. Frozen is what it is. There's UNO in my local deli case and I plan on trying that.

I think the Pizzazz is worth it overall. I don't regret the purchase in any way, and I don't use my oven for pizza anymore.

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I received this for Christmas and have tried it out using both regular and rising crust frozen pizzas. It does save time but the results aren't like those that you get from an oven. For one thing the pizza is never done at the end of the recommended cooking time. I always have to add on 4 or 5 minutes. Also, the outer rim of the crust doesn't get crispy like it does in a regular oven. The bottom of the crust cooks okay but the edge of the crust really doesn't get any heat. I baked a Digiorno rising crust pizza on it for the maximum time and the outer edge of the crust was still white. Yes, I followed the instructions on the proper way to cook a rising crust pizza. If you don't like a crunchy crust then this won't be a problem. I would recommend this product for a college student living away from home or for anyone who eats a lot of pizza and doesn't want to heat up their kitchen with a big oven. For the occasional pizza eater though, you might want to pass on this one.

New info: I discovered that if you place the cooked pizza on a cooling rack that's covered with a paper towel the pizza won't get soft and will remain crispy. Before I would just slide the pizza on to the cardboard it came with but that didn't allow any of the the steam from the crust to escape and the crust would become soft. By placing the cooked pizza on a paper towel on a cooling rack that allows the towel to absorb the steam and the rack allows air circulation around the pizza crust. Here are the settings I've been using. On a standard Tombstone pizza I set the control on Lower and set the timer between 17 and 18 minutes. After about 2 minutes I switch the control to Dual. I've found in most cases that the crust always takes longer to cook than the toppings so I start cooking the crust first and then switch to the Dual setting after a few minutes. For a homemade pizza made with raw dough I set the control on Lower and set the timer for 20 minutes. When I switch the control to Dual depends on how many toppings I have on the pizza. If I have just cheese then I wait 10 minutes before switching the control to Dual because the cheese only takes about 10 minutes to melt and start to brown. With more toppings I slide the control to Dual after maybe 5 to 8 minutes.

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