The Wood-Fired Blog

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Dutch Oven Bread

Jan 15, 2019

Blog by Guest Chef John Livera Baking Bread in a Dutch Oven Fresh bread is one of the most satisfying things to bake in a wood fired oven. However, if you are planning to make several courses, removing the coals is not ideal. An easy and fun solution for creating a perfectly crusted bread is to cook your dough in a Dutch oven – thus, allowing you to continue to... Read More

Wall and Floor Temperature in a Conventional Oven

Dec 10, 2012

I had an interesting encounter with the conventional electric oven in our kitchen yesterday (not one of the more interesting pizza ovens on my patio). We were doing some Sunday baking that included a loaf of banana bread, two trays of mince pies and a sheet of focaccia. Yum. Anyway, at one point the two trays with the mince pies were assembled and ready, but the banana bread was already... Read More

A Baguette Self-Critique

Jun 01, 2012

I have always thought of myself as a glass half full person, so in parsing my latest baguette lessons and trials, I’m going to start with the positive. As background information, I made a standard 70% dough using TJs AP flour. On the upside: I started my dough the night before using room temperature water and an initial knead for 10 minutes on KitchenAid at 3. The dough ball was... Read More

Bread Baking and Oven Temperature

Jun 01, 2012

We received an email question today from a member who has bee following my bread quest who was interested in hearing more on bread baking temperature. It’s a really good topic; one that deserves a lot more attention. One of the habits I have developed over years of wood-fired bread baking is a general (and probably misguided) disregard for oven temperature accuracy. Pizza ovens (and all wood-fired masonry ovens) are... Read More

Some Over-Hydrated (But Good Tasting) Whole Wheat Oat Bread

May 31, 2012

I took a second attempt at the “shoot from the hip” whole wheat oatmeal loaves, and learned a couple of useful lessons—or more accurately, I re-enforced a couple of lessons that I should already know. For example, in order to make my baking as accurate as I would like it to be, I need to be consistent in weighing my ingredients, and I need to learn how to manage some... Read More

More on Baguettes and Hydration

May 30, 2012

Following up on my previous posting on why 80% hydration is just too high for a straight yeast baguette (and my plan on trying different hydration and dough preparation methods), today I ventured off and made a couple of simple baguettes with 70% hydration. My plan was really simple. I made a straight-forward, room temperature dough: 500 grams of TJs AP flour 350 grams of water 5 grams of yeast... Read More

Water and Dough Structure

May 29, 2012

I have been experimenting with baguettes recently, including different approaches to fermentation time, better folding techniques, improved methods for loaf shaping, scoring, placement in the oven and steam. Now I am going to start trying to hone in on the optimal hydration for my flour of choice and my oven—Trader Joe’s All Purpose Wheat flour and a Presto pizza oven. As a general rule, wetter (higher hydration) doughs produce bread... Read More

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread

May 28, 2012

600 grams whole wheat 200 white whole wheat 200 AP flour 600 grams (60)% water 10 grams (1%) yeast 20 grams (2%) salt 40 grams olive oil 30 grams honey 2 cup old fashion oats (3-5 minute cooking) 2 cup boiling water Pinch of salt Please forgive my slightly funky recipe format, where I mix baker’s percentages and grams with cups—but the bread came out really well, so I will... Read More

Salt, Pane Toscano and Pisa

May 27, 2012

I think we all know that salt is an important component of hearth bread, but if you are like me, you have never really known exactly why. On a personal level, I have eaten a great deal of Pane Toscano, the regional bread of Tuscany that is famous, for among other things, for not using salt. The bread is dense and dry, and it does not have a developed crumb—haha,... Read More

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