The Wood-Fired Blog
June 2012 | No. 39; New FB Store & Wood-Oven S’mores
Jun 10, 2012Welcome! With summer in full swing, our June newsletter is here – just in time to add to your summer reading pile. This month on the cooking front, we have a great explanation from Peter Reinhart on why pizza dough needs to be made the day before (part of his new FAQ series on Pizza Quest). We’re also happy to pass along a new recipe from the Community Cookbook: wood-oven s’mores.... Read More
Outdoor Fireplace in New Orleans
Jun 02, 2012Here’s a nice outdoor fireplace from myneworleans.com; A house made for Summer. A young newlywed couple bought the house right before Katrina, but luckily it was spared, and they’ve been working on it ever since. Read More
The Outdoor Fireplace and Real Estate Values
Jun 02, 2012I’ve written quite a bit over the years about pizza ovens and real estate values. In the early days of the Forno Bravo Forum, we had a community member who had built (and loved) a Pompeii Oven, who had been transferred at work and need to move and sell his house. This was during the worst moments of the economic downturn and the drop in house values. But he was able... Read More
A Baguette Self-Critique
Jun 01, 2012I 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, 2012We 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
Pizza Ovens and Real Estate
Jun 01, 2012We are on a roll. Two Forno Bravo ovens in the real estate section of two different newspapers in one day! From the Post and Courier in Charlotte, SC. 225 W. Poplar St. — Art deco-inspired Wagener Terrace home coolly adds functionality for disabled child. Be sure to look at the slideshow to see our oven. In the corner of the yard is the redone garage, painted a festive yellow. It’s now... Read More
A Pizza Oven Can Help Sell Your House
Jun 01, 2012There are a couple of fun things to note on today’s NY Times Real Estate article, The Kitchen’s Day in the Sun. If you are a part of the Forno Bravo community, you probably already know this, but a great outdoor kitchen or pizza oven can help you sell your house; even in today’s extended down market. And even if your oven isn’t the feature that makes the sale happen,... Read More
Some Over-Hydrated (But Good Tasting) Whole Wheat Oat Bread
May 31, 2012I 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, 2012Following 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
