The Wood-Fired Blog
The Damp Towel Trick
Jul 30, 2012Follow a tip from a reader, I covered my dough for overnight proofing in the refrigerator — and it worked really well. Thanks. I don’t really like using plastic wrap (it just seems wasteful to use a manufactured product once and throw it away), so I used a damp linen towel. It kept the surface of my dough from developing a dry skin and because it was damp, it didn’t... Read More
Cuisinart Mixer and Wet Dough
Jul 27, 2012Hmmm. We seem to have a problem. My new Cuisinart stand mixer doesn’t do a good job of mixing high hydration dough. I have been trying different solutions to address the problem (adding the water first, mixing the flour and water using the dough attachment before turning on the machine), but I can’t see to make it work. This isn’t good. Here is a photo of a 1Kg batch of... Read More
The New Napoli Ad
Jul 26, 2012We are going to be running a new ad for our wonderful Napoli oven in Pizza Today and PMQ (commercial pizzeria trade publications) in the coming months. Read More
Bittersweet — a Portable FB Pizza Oven for Sale
Jul 25, 2012This is from Roadfood.com. It’s a Forno Bravo Modena oven mounted on a trailer for sale in Georgia. The owner is going to be focusing on his new brick-and-mortar restaurant and is selling his trusty trailer oven — after many successful events. The owner is also offering coaching and help getting going in the portable wood-fired catering world. Happy and sad. I have a Forno Bravo Modina 120 mounted on... Read More
Heat Retention
Jul 24, 2012You will certainly take this with a grain of salt (after all, we are a pizza oven manufacturer), but these ovens are great! The heat up time and retention is so good, I just have to say something. haha. I lit the fire at 3:15PM this afternoon after stacking a nice top down fire with two pieces of wood broken down into thinner splits. After the fire was really burning... Read More
Forno Bravo on the Road in Madison, WI
Jul 24, 2012La Fortuna Mobile Wood-Fired Pizza in Madison, WI got some nice press this week. Madison Magazine has a nice article on the Lynch family, where they talk about pizza, local ingredients and community. Really good stuff. They have a Forno Bravo pizza oven on a nice red trailer from The Fire Within. The Lynches’ gleaming red trailer has become a staple at area farmers’ markets and festivals where you can... Read More
Dough Storage and Refrigeration
Jul 24, 2012Time to get a covered, air-tight dough storage container. If you take a look at this photo, you can see that a pretty thick and dry skin developed on my whole wheat oat dough overnight while it rested in the mixing bowl covered with a towel. I stretched and folded it out, and it will get re-hydrated inside the dough ball, but I don’t think this is a good thing. Read More
Dough and Refrigeration
Jul 23, 2012Longer fermentation times release more flavors from the grains we use and gives the yeast and enzymes in our dough more time to break down the carohydrates that are present. I recently read that a well developed dough can have up to 300 different flavor molecules. My guess is that we all pretty understand this at some level, but in general we might be too busy or rushed to actually do... Read More
Pretty Good Wood-Fired Baguettes
Jul 21, 2012These might be my best baguettes yet. There isn’t anything special about my dough prep (these at 70% hydration using Trader Joe’s AP flour), though I think I am getting better at baguette shaping. I think the biggest difference is that I am really getting my hands around my small pizza oven. For these two loaves I only used to two pieces of wood broken down into 2″ pieces. I... Read More
