The Wood-Fired Blog
Kaiser Rolls
Dec 30, 2011So-called Kaisers are everywhere these days, from supermarket bins to small bakeries. Unfortunately, most are made with generic recipes, bleached flour and too many are extruded by machine before being baked on gas decks. The look might be right, but the actual bread is flavorless. They bear little resemblance to the chewy delights of childhood memory. The rolls from this wood fired oven bread recipe bring back that memory, because... Read More
Boule au Levain
Dec 30, 2011This recipe constitutes graduation day. The formula uses a wild yeast starter and a long, cool rise to develop maximum flavor from the grains. Often called a sourdough, barm or levain, there are many, many ways to cultivate a wild yeast starter. Some seem to involve voodoo or late night incantations. Neither is remotely necessary, and simple is better. The easiest and most successful method to propagate the yeast and... Read More
Parisian Baguette
Dec 30, 2011This formula is primarily used for the typical long, skinny loaf seen in Paris, but it can be made into many other shapes, from breadsticks to rolls. Using a preferment, this time in the form of pâte fermentée, gives the loaves a depth of flavor that can’t be achieved any other way. This is a two-day bread, but the first day’s preparation is very simple. Four baguettes made from... Read More
Biga Whole Wheat Bread
Dec 30, 2011Many people have problems baking wheat breads, producing loaves that are heavy and dense. This has a lot to do with the nature of whole-wheat flour, because it is relatively low in gluten compared to bread flour. The solution here is to use what bakers call a preferment, or a bit of a boost to get that whole wheat flour really moving, plus adding a percentage of hard, unbleached bread... Read More
Wood-Oven Goat Cheese Sandwich With Shallot Relish and Kale
Dec 30, 2011Who doesn’t love a good grilled cheese? That’s a rhetorical question, since everyone loves a good grilled cheese (except you poor souls out there who are unfortunate enough to be lactose intolerant). This is a twist on the classic I came up with as a vegetarian option for a party, and I was surprised to discover it actually ended up outpacing all the meat options in terms of popularity with... Read More
Roast Chicken with Lemon
Dec 30, 2011You have a lot of flexibility when doing a simple roast chicken. If your oven is hotter than 550ºF, you can wrap the chicken in foil to keep it from burning, and remove the foil a few minutes before the chicken is done for browning. If your oven is less than 400ºF, you can leave it in the oven longer, 90 minutes or more. If your oven warm, but too... Read More
