Photos of recent wood fired baking in Wellington Nz
Summer is slowly on its way here in Wellington and after a recent bake I thought I would share some photos for those interested in wood fired oven baking, as an amateur baker any hints and tips from experienced bakers in this craft would be much appreciate. After a few pizzas the bread went in, the bread pictured is a mixture of white and seeded loaves. The oven was a tad hot 260C but thought I would load it anyway.
Heating the hearth evenly after pizzas finished...
Loading the bread in...
700g loaves after 1/2 hour at around 240c...
Loaves out of the oven
Crust and crumb shot of loaves, excuse the piece missing in lower loaf, had to taste the product. As can be seen the scoring isn't great (done with the serrated knife in picture) any advise on where to purchase a nice lame either in New Zealand or online would be appreciated.
Cheers
Mr Vegemite
Comments
Whar kind of seeded bread is that? Looks delicious.
It is just a mixture of linseed/flaxseed, poppy seed and lightly toasted sesame seeds mixed through my white sourdough but with increased quantity of stoneground wholemeal flour.
I have tried all sorts of things to score bread for razor blades to fancy lames and what ended up working out the best for me was a cheap serrated paring knife - nice and sharp. I got mine a local restaurant supply store for under $10.00.
Janet
Thanks for your advice Janet, I will hunt one down and give it a try. My large bread knife has worked well in the past but I was having difficulty with scoring higher hydration dough.
Buy some double edged razors and use a coffee stirrer for the lame. Otherwise there area plenty online to choose from. i prefer the simple metal sticks from SFBI's website. That is San Francisco Baking Institute. I'm sure they are on amazon as well. Nothing beats a razor blade IMHO.
Josh
PS Lovley baking.
Thanks for the advice Josh, I will source a quality razor blade as well and compare results
What a joy!
Cheers for the enthusiasm hot donkey
In Japan as I quickly type bus about to leave! Neville Chun sells lame on trade me. I use razor blade or tomato knife
Thanks for you advice, I have been in touch with Neville from our previous conversation and he was very helpful.
I don't think I've ever seen one in action before. It must take awhile to bring up to temperature, but so worth the wait.
The oven takes on average 1-2 hours to get up to pizza temp depending on recent use and requires 3 hours plus with a steady burn to saturate with heat before baking. But its a great time to invite friends over for a couple of beers, chicken wings, sausages and watch the flames haha. Glad you enjoyed the photos.
Amazing what a little fire can accomplish. And anything that can attract friends for a fun time is good in my book!
Thanks for sharing!
Cathy
No problems with sharing the photos, there seems to be a lot about building wood fired ovens but not much in the use of them for people interested in them.
I'm envious of the oven. Thanks for sharing!
David
Thanks for the compliment
I couldn't buy a lame here in NZ so I made my own with razor blade and iceblock stick! works a treat.
When it comes down to it I know it's just a blade on a piece of stick, was hoping there was a craftsman in nz making something beautiful to finish the loaves with. Cheers for the DIY tip.