Tag Archive for ‘ny style pizza’

Is the Halo Versa 16 Worth Buying?

Is the Halo Versa 16 Worth Buying?

With Ooni and Gozney waltzing around as the peacocks of the outdoor pizza oven industry, if you are asking “which pizza oven should I buy?,” I am betting that you are researching what they have to offer before you look elsewhere. Why wouldn’t you? Both companies were established over a decade ago and the reviews speak for themselves to paint both brands as reputable.

It wasn’t too long ago that those two brands were the only options if you were looking to create pizza from your backyard (beyond building a makeshift oven yourself, which is an endeavor rooted in costly time and research itself). Not anymore. The wonderful thing about being a consumer in the outdoor pizza oven market in 2022 is that there now exists a plethora of options.

You can make pizza using a $97 charcoal-fired Expert grill from Wal-Mart or even the big $1,699 Dome oven from Gozney. Price points vary, and because of that, and depending on how much you are willing to spend, there are options for everybody.

However, if you want to cover all your bases, you should consider looking at what the Halo Versa 16 has to offer. The Halo Versa 16 is, from my point of view, the most innovative pizza oven in the outdoor pizza oven game today.

The Halo Versa 16 Pizza Oven

Halo Versa 16 pizza oven
The Halo Versa 16 pizza oven.

Halo Products Group began advertising for its pizza oven, the Versa 16, in late 2021. Earlier this year, I started seeing ads for it. The Versa 16 features a rotating stone via button access (runs on two D batteries or by AC adaptor), boasts an impressive 12 minute preheat time and is capable of making 16″ pizzas with its dual burner system (one in the back and an infrared burner underneath the pizza stone).

At the time, I was uninterested. Having been gifted a Bertello pizza oven for Christmas, I was still enthralled by the act of baking an authentic Neapolitan style pizza in 90 seconds or less.

Time ensued, and two things happened: Halo Products Group began shipping the Versa 16 in March of this year, and over time I became disenchanted by being restricted to only 11″-12″ pizzas in my Bertello pizza oven, and not only that, but because the Bertello runs so hot, the user’s only option is to make a Neapolitan style pizza.

I love all styles of pizza. While I like Neapolitan style pizza, I discovered that it is not my favorite. It is too soft, and I have to wish you a great deal of luck if you like pizza with more than one topping when making a Neapolitan pie, because it is more geared towards minimal toppings with high quality ingredients to bring out maximum flavor.

Considering Ooni Over Halo?

A month ago, I started researching pizza ovens that could make a large 16″ pizza. It is no surprise that my initial search led me to both the Ooni Koda 16 and the Ooni Karu 16. The Koda 16 is $599 and the Karu 16 is $799. I didn’t even bother looking at Gozney’s offering of the $1,699 Dome, because it was (is) far out of my budget, and the portability factor is nonexistent. I also scratched the Karu 16 off my list of potential purchases, because while I concede that it is a quality oven, $799 for a door and a little bit more insulation did not tickle my fancy.

So there I was, dead set on the Koda 16. I watched a couple of videos featuring the oven on YouTube where users were demonstrating how to make a New York (my favorite) style pizza with a Koda 16. Santa Barbara Baker of YouTube was instrumental in initially influencing my decision. These days, Santa Barbara Baker uses a Karu 16 for his large pies.

The glaring issue I noticed is that, because of the burners in both the Koda 16 and Karu 16, making a large pie is tricky. Out of the box, those types of ovens are one trick ponies. They run super hot, and you have to manually remove the pizzas and turn them. If you are making a large pizza, you have to be careful not to burn the back of the pizza while waiting for the bottom of the front of the pizza to set before turning. Ooni users’ solution for this is to turn the heat setting down to ‘super low’, but even then, you have to be precise and careful or otherwise ruin your pizza. That means you will need to spend an indefinite amount of time practicing before you can confidently make a large pizza with one of these ovens.

In the grand scheme of things, the technicalities outlined above are not a big deal, but they aren’t exactly consumer friendly. Pizza is an investment of time, money and patience. A lot of people love the idea of making pizza at home, but I can personally tell you there is a steep learning curve to pizzamaking if you are new to it. By all means, if you have been making pizza in your home oven for years and you are ready to take the next step, go for it, but a lot of potential outdoor pizza oven buyers are like how I was when I first started, and with that consideration needing to be recognized, it would be wise to acknowledge the pitfalls along the way to creating the best pizza possible with the utmost adequate equipment. A willingness to patiently learn and accept imperfections along the way overcomes the trepidation of slinging a tremendous pie one right after the other. I digress.

As my Koda 16 desires started to fade, I found Pala Pizza’s YouTube review of the Halo Versa 16. To paraphrase one thing he said in the 4-minute clip: he claimed that if you are looking to make a large New York style pizza, look no further. The Halo Versa 16 is what you want. At this point, the Versa 16 had my curiosity, but that line gained my attention.

Making a New York style pizza at home had eluded me since the beginning of my pizza journey. My home oven doesn’t cut it. I tried using my trusty, old pizza stone by preheating it for an hour at 550, turning on the broiler function for 10 minutes and then launching, but the problems that persisted are that, no matter what I tried, the undercarriage of the pizza would never be properly brown despite the preheat time; what I would have to do would be, I’d bake the pizza, remove it from the oven for five minutes while turning the broiler back on, add the pizza back to the stone for a few minutes to finish the bottom with the oven turned off. This would cook the bottom of the pie to my preference, but by then the cornicione (rim of the pizza) would become too hard and my cheese would burn.

Asides from that, my oven only has one rack, the heating is overall spotty and inadequate, and it was simply a frustrating experience time and time again. Perhaps I should have tried using a pizza steel instead of a stone, but that would have been an extra $150, and I’ll explain the advantages of the Versa 16 shortly.

Pulling the Trigger on the Halo Versa 16

Halo Versa 16 pizza oven box
The Halo Versa 16 pizza oven prior to unboxing

I was hesitant to go with the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven, at first. I was so enamored with Ooni’s customer service, and I was skeptical of giving a new company a chance. For reference, I felt let down by the Stoke pizza oven, and in the barbecue side of things, the manufacturer of my favorite drum smokers was bought out and shut down, so I wanted to make sure I picked a reputable brand that I could feel connected to.

Living on a rural road, I was nervous that, upon purchase, Halo Products Group would choose an insufficient shipping partner to deliver my pizza oven and that I would not receive it without difficulty. I emailed Halo, and they responded to me within 30 minutes letting me know that they would inform their shipping manager of my preferences in regards to shipping me the oven. Lo and behold, I received my Versa 16 in two days, and I was already pleased by the customer service reception.

The build quality is downright impeccable. There is absolutely nothing that is cheap about the materials going on. The design itself was clearly well thought out and implemented. I love how the opening is vast and is big enough to accept a large peel as well as the ability to cook pan pizzas from a Chicago style deep dish to a Detroit style pie.

Halo Products Group’s Customer Service is Incredible

I cannot emphasize this point enough, although this post might begin to sound like a love letter to Halo Products Group. Upon putting the finishing touches of putting my Versa 16 together, I noticed that the rotator wheel was uneven. I was initially upset, as I had a few dough balls fermenting in my refrigerator for a cook, and I quickly reached out to Halo. Much like my previous email attempts, they replied in less than an hour and I had a new rotator wheel delivered to my door step in two days.

Not only that, but let’s discuss the warranty that comes with the Halo Versa 16: it is the best of any pizza oven on the market right now, and this point is a non-negotiable, undebatable fact. Halo Products Group stands behind their products with a five year warranty in addition to the standard one year warranty. You won’t see this same offer elsewhere.

Halo Products Group has made me feel like part of the Halo family from the get-go. I was already in love with the pizza oven before I even tried it out. Not only that, but how can you not love the name? Halo is the same name as the greatest FPS video game series of all-time, and Versa? I drive a Nissan Versa! What a double whammy!

First Bake on the Halo Versa 16 Pizza Oven

The Inner Workings of the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven
Burn-off of the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven
Pineapple and jalapeno pizza
Influenced by Stranger Things, this is a New York style “try before you deny” pizza featuring jalapeno and pineapple as the toppings, made in the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven.

My first impressions of the Versa 16 involved checking out the inner workings of the oven. It features a hinged lid where you can remove the tray and clean out any crumbs or debris hassle-free, and underneath that you can see the parts and components that get this oven running optimally.

To see how the oven would run, and to burn off any factory residue, I fired it up. Within 20 minutes, with the heat set to high, the stone temperature readings were at 760 degrees according to my infrared thermometer.

The first pizza I cooked in it, and you can check out my recipe for this New York style pizza dough here, was the above “try before you deny” pineapple and jalapeno pie. It was outstandingly delicious.

My recommendation is that you use a screen if you are going to cook a large 15-16″ pizza in the Halo Versa 16, for two reasons: 1.) it is difficult to launch a 15-16″ pizza onto a 16.5″ stone, and 2.) the screen will assist in preventing the bottom of the pizza from burning before the top of the pie is finished. After a few bakes, I have discovered that I prefer removing the screen two or three minutes into the cook and launching the pizza back onto the stone to finish.

Prior to my purchase, I read every single thing possible that I could about this oven in order to prepare myself on how it will bake, especially regarding the creation of a New York style pizza.

In 15 minutes, with the heat on low, stone temperatures were at almost 600 degrees, and that is when I launched the pizza. I cooked it on low for two minutes before cranking the heat up to high. You want these temperatures in about the ballpark of 600 because a New York style pizza typically cooks for around five minutes. I gathered this information prior to my purchase, and I wanted to pass this token of pizza wisdom along to any other prospective buyers.

A ‘Neo-Neapolitan’ Pizza Bake

A Neo-Neapolitan pizza with Calabrian peppers and basil, baked in the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven
A Neo-Neapolitan pizza with Calabrian peppers and basil, baked in the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven
The open, airy crust of the Neo-Neapolitan pizza with Calabrian peppers and basil, baked in the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven
The open, airy crust from the Neo-Neapolitan pizza.

Still, you might wonder if the Halo Versa 16 is capable of cooking a proper Neapolitan pizza.

The honest answer is no. Not a traditional Neapolitan pizza that would call for temperatures that exceed 870 degrees. However, Halo Products Group has never advertised that this oven is geared towards making Neapolitan style pies. It is capable of so much more.

The above pizza is what I would call either a rustic pizza or a Neo-Neapolitan pizza. A Neo-Neapolitan pie is a cross between a Neapolitan and a New York style. In this batch of dough, I used 00 flour, which is in tune with a true Neapolitan, but I also added sugar and oil to it. Toppings included Italian bomba sauce with Calabrian peppers, Flatiron Pepper Co. crushed Calabrian pepper flakes, mozzarella cheese, parmigiana-reggiano and basil.

For this bake, I preheated the oven on high for 30 minutes, launched the pie and finished it off in about three to three and a half minutes. I launched the pizza directly from a peel for a true hand-tossed experience.

With a little practice and tinkering of the heat settings, you can optimize your pizza experience by baking a pie exactly how you like it.

I have yet to try baking a pan pizza in the Versa 16, but that will happen sooner rather than later, and I will update this review with my results.

Is the Halo Versa 16 Worth Buying?

Absolutely, yes, unless you are only interested in baking Neapolitan style pizzas. If that’s the case, look elsewhere, but Neapolitan style pizza is boring, to me, at this point.

You might say, “Well, I already throw down a mighty fine New York pie in my home oven!” I understand. I’m not able to do so, so the Versa 16 was a no-brainer for my outdoor cooking repertoire. Furthermore, firing up the home oven during, say, the summer is a less-than-thrilling experience. Even if you have seemingly mastered New York style pizza in your home oven, I am willing to bet that the Versa 16 is superior given that it gets hotter than any home oven out there, as I don’t know any home ovens that are exceeding temperature controls of 600-650 degrees and higher.

Between the rotating cordierite stone, the dual-burner system, Halo Products Group’s incredible customer service and the fact that the oven is a bargain at only $499, you can’t go wrong. The Halo Versa 16 churns out amazing pizza.

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New York Style Pizza Dough Recipe for the Halo Versa 16

A New York style pizza in the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven

A large New York style pizza with pepperoni, Italian sausage and mushrooms on top of whole milk mozzarella directly out of the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven.

Halo Products Group burst onto the scene earlier this year when they brought the Versa 16 into the outdoor pizza oven world. A few years ago, it appeared that Ooni had a stronghold on the outdoor pizza oven, but these days there are so many options to choose from if you are delving into making pizza at home.

The problem with most of the outdoor pizza ovens on the market is that they are geared towards making pizzas in the range of over 850 degrees. Perhaps that is what you are looking for, which is great if you want to cook a Neapolitan pizza in 90 seconds, but to me, there are two problems with that. Those ovens are one dimensional right out of the box (without some fine-tuning of the heat settings to lower the temperature), for one, and the other problem is a personal one: I like Neapolitan style pizza, but it is not my favorite.

New York style pizza is my favorite. However, up until recently, I have never been able to create it at home. My home oven is inadequate; it is old, the heating is uneven and spotty, and the crust has never come out the way I want it to, despite using a pizza stone (I have never tried to make it with a pizza steel). My outdoor Bertello pizza oven runs far too hot (and is too small) to even bother attempting an NY style pie.

Enter the Halo Versa 16, which entered the outdoor pizza oven market earlier this year. As of my most recent post, I have not minced any words about the Halo Versa 16 being an optimal vehicle for creating New York style pizza.

To make this pizza dough, it is imperative that you own a scale that can weigh flour and water, and a gram scale that can weigh minuscule amounts of yeast and salt. Kitchen scales are inexpensive and will upgrade your pizza game tenfold.

What Makes a Great NY Style Pizza Dough

My first taste of NY style pizza has its roots from my childhood in the 1990s in southwestern Virginia. Raymond Schiano, along with help from his brother Geno, opened a restaurant called The Italian Village about 40 or so years ago. The long, thin slices and the slightly crisp but chewy texture of the pizza was featured in every bite.

New Yorkers might tell you it is in the water. That is absolute hogwash. Countless scientific studies have proven otherwise, and in blind taste tests people have not been able to tell the difference from pizza dough made with water from New York or otherwise. You do not need New York water to make a great New York style pizza. Claiming that, “it’s in the water!” is a slap in the face to all the preeminent pizzaiolos today and the generations of pizza-makers who taught them the craft.

The principle ingredient that gives New York style pizza its taste is the use of high gluten flour. A horde of NY pizza restaurants are in possession of a great deal of General Mills’ bromated All Trumps flour. This flour is made from hard red spring wheat and it features a 14.2% protein content. This is higher than what you will find in a general grocery store, but the high protein is what delivers that classic chewiness, which is what you are looking for in an authentic New York style slice. All Trumps also has diastatic malt in it, which not only achieves more rise in the crust but also aids in browning.

If you are wondering, “what the heck is ‘bromated’ flour?” Hey, I wondered the same thing when I ventured into the use of All Trumps flour. Bromated flour refers to the ingredient potassium bromate, and it is a compound that strengthens dough and provides increased oven spring* and higher rising in an oven.

(*Oven spring: The rapid increase and final burst in the expansion of dough once it is loaded into the oven. The dough expansion will cease as soon as the temperature of the dough reaches about 140℉, at which point the yeast dies. There are many factors that influence the degree and quality of the oven spring when baking pizzas, including overall dough quality (it should not be stiff or overkneaded, and it should have good hydration), the degree of fermentation (it should not be underfermented or overfermented), and oven temperature. The manner in which the pizza is baked, that is, whether using a pan, stone/tiles, or pizza screen, will also be a factor. Source.)

You can find All Trumps flour at, perhaps, a restaurant supply shop. That is where I found mine, at a place called The Stock Pot in Johnson City, Tennessee. You can order it online from various retailers as well. In the event that you cannot find it, elect to use King Arthur bread flour. It has lower protein content (12.7%) but still delivers on the chewiness. I use All Trumps flour with my recipe, but feel free to give bread flour a shot. I have used it in the past for this same recipe, and it is similar enough.

NY style Margherita pizza baked in the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven

A New York style Margherita pizza that was baked in the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven.

Cornicione or crust of a Margherita pizza

This is an example of why I love the higher (65%) hydration of this dough, from the Margherita pizza above. I love that open, airy structure.

Hydration, Salt and Yeast

There is a small debate online over the hydration level of a New York style pizza. Some say that 58% is authentic while others argue that 65% is the way to to go. My recipe is a 65% hydration dough, because that is what I personally prefer. I like the puffy rise of the cornicione (rim of the pizza) and I feel that the higher water content protects the dough from drying out during the longer bake. I say these two things as a pizza enthusiast, as I am not a scientist nor an expert baker, so take my words with a grain of salt.

Feel free to lower the hydration percentage (I will provide a lower value for those of you who want to do so, because lower hydration dough is easier to work with) if you feel more comfortable doing so. Because you can bake a New York style pizza in the Halo Versa 16 in about four or five minutes, I wouldn’t worry about the hydration percentage values as a hard rule.

I use 2.1% salt (fine sea salt) in my dough. I feel like this is the best of both worlds. The salt is not too low nor is it too high. If your salt is too low, the yeast can go crazy and your flavor will be lacking. If the salt content is too high, the yeast can be inhibited from doing its thing and you will have a tough time stretching the dough because the salt will cause it to become more elastic. Salt provides flavor and aids in the fermentation.

You can use whatever kind of yeast you want, but this recipe is geared towards instant dry yeast. It is easy, can be mixed right into the flour and — unlike active dry yeast — you don’t have to activate it in water to get it ready.

But What About Sugar and Oil?

If you are making this dough for your home oven, you might want to consider using both sugar and oil, which aids in the browning of the pizza, but the Halo Versa cooks at temperatures over 600 to 700 degrees. I feel that sugar is unnecessary completely for that reason. Furthermore, not every New York pizza restaurant is using sugar in their dough.

Oil is up for more of a debate. Oil can not only help your pizza be more chewy but help you stretch the dough when you get to that point. However, I am leaving it out, at least for now. If you do decide to use oil, do not use more than 2% of the total flour weight.

Troy’s NY Style Pizza Dough Ingredients for the Halo Versa 16

I have droned on for far too long, but I feel like the above explanations are necessary to get to this point. One more thing to know before you get started: this dough is meant to be used as a 72-hour dough. You can use it after 48 hours, but I prefer the flavor of a 72-hour cold ferment.

This recipe is meant for two dough balls weighing 425g each, which results in 15-16″ pizzas.

Flour (100%): 507g
Water (60-65%): 305-330g
IDY (0.4%): 2g
Salt (2.1%): 11g

Mixing/kneading by hand:
1.) Place water in a large bowl
2.) Add flour and yeast
3.) Using a wooden spoon or your hands, mix to combine thoroughly for a few minutes
4.) Add salt and continue to mix
5.) Dump out onto surface and, once the dough comes together, knead for five minutes.
6.) Place the dough into a closed container and allow it to sit on the counter for an hour at room temperature.
7.) Divide the dough into balls, place each into a 6-cup plastic Gladware (or similar) container and toss it into the fridge to cold ferment.

Mixing/kneading with a mixer (my preferred method):
1.) Place water, flour and yeast into the bowl of a mixer
2.) Using the dough hook attachment, mix on low for 1 minute
3.) Add salt and continue mixing/kneading on low or medium-low for four minutes.
4.) Place the dough into a closed container and allow it to sit on the counter for an hour at room temperature.
5.) Divide the dough into balls, place each into a 6-cup plastic Gladware (or similar) container and toss it into the fridge to cold ferment.

48 to 72 hours later, when you are ready to bake, remove the dough balls from the fridge for at least an hour or up to two hours to warm up. I like to begin stretching my dough into skins when the dough temperature reads 55 degrees.

If, after the mixing stage, the dough is crumbly/shaggy or not coming together, allow it to rest — covered — for about 15 to 20 minutes to autolyze or otherwise allow the flour to absorb the water.

You might be thinking, “Wow! That is a short kneading session!” You would be correct. One thing you need to know about using All Trumps flour is that it can quickly be overkneaded. This is more of a worry when it comes to using a stand mixer than by hand, but this point still stands.

A high gluten flour like All Trumps lends itself to a long cold ferment in the refrigerator.

I don’t even bother checking for the windowpane test with this dough. I will do a simple ‘poke test’ to see if the dough springs back when I poke it, which indicates that there is even the slightest gluten development happening, and then stop kneading.

You typically knead to develop gluten, but in a recipe like this, with All Trumps flour, the gluten development happens in your refrigerator more than anything, through the act of biochemical gluten development. The dough strengthens as it sits.

A New York style pizza in the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven

A New York style pizza cooking away in the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven.

NY style pizza that was baked in the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven

A large New York style pizza with pepperoni, Italian sausage and mushrooms on top of whole milk mozzarella after being baked in the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven.

Halo Versa 16 Heating and Bake Settings for a NY Style Pizza

To make a 16″ pizza on the Halo Versa 16, I recommend using a screen. I use this one from LloydPans. I mean, you can build your pizza on a 16″ peel, but it is difficult to launch a 16″ pizza on a 16.5″ stone. Asides from assisting in launching a large pie onto the Versa 16, the screen protects the bottom of the pizza from burning. You have more control over how brown the bottom of your pizza will be.

In addition to that, I do not use a screen for the entire bake.

My cooking process with the Halo Versa 16 when making a New York style pizza is as follows:

1.) Preheat the Halo Versa 16 on low for 20 minutes. I have found this to be the ‘money’ point in which to get the stone temperature to 652 degrees. Be sure to have the stone rotating during your preheat.

2.) While the Versa 16 preheats, I’ll build my pizza and, once adequately stretched, lay it onto the screen. If your screen is brand new, spray it with a little bit of oil so that the dough will not stick.

3.) At this point, after the preheat, I will launch the pizza onto the stone and cook it for about two and a half to three minutes while keeping the heat set to low.

4.) Afterwards, I crank the heat up to high and I’ll remove the pizza from the oven and slide it onto my peel and back into the oven so that the bottom of the pizza is browned while the high heat assists in the adequate browning of the top of the pizza.

You can experiment with removing the screen earlier or later in the cook, but I have had great success with the method above.

If the top of your pizza is not as browned as much as you prefer it to be, then dome the pizza to the top of the oven. By this, I mean lift the pizza with your peel and hold it towards the top of your oven so that the heat radiating from the top of the Versa 16 will reflect back onto the top of your pie.

I sincerely hope you give this recipe a shot. As a lifetime student of pizza slinging, I am forever experimenting and trying to improve, so I may update this recipe in the future, but as of now I have found this recipe to be an absolute winner for the Halo Versa 16 pizza oven.

All feedback is welcome, especially criticism, as long as it is constructive and friendly in nature. If you have any questions, ask away.

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