The Wood-Fired Blog
Brick Oven Mushroom Stuffed Pork Chops with Pears
Dec 30, 2011From the Musa’s in Sacramento With thanks from Robert in Sacramento, CA The chops must have been two and a half inches thick and marbled with just the right amount of fat (it’s sad that it’s so difficult to get pork with fat in it these days). The chops had some sort of special name which escapes me right now. (You might have to reduce the cooking time of this... Read More
No Knead Bread
Dec 30, 2011The notion of baking bread without any kneading is not new, but the method received a lot of attention when it appeared in The New York Times on November 8, 2006. The formula given here is an adaptation of Jim Lahey’s version as it was given there. This bread is so simple to make, you will hardly believe it at first. It should be stressed from the outset that to... Read More
Pizza Sauce
Dec 30, 2011You can use canned San Marzano tomatoes (Pomodori Pellati) to create a wonderful, and simple pizza tomato base. Use a potato masher to get a good sauce consistency. Don’t use a food processor or hand mixer, as those will break the seeds and give your sauce a bitter flavor. If you are using a brick oven, you should not cook the sauce. The hot oven will cook the sauce perfectly.... Read More
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
