Bring out the WFO's

CCman - build that oven!  When it's too cold or windy to use the wood oven, I'll bake indoors.  I can bake 3 loaves or a dozen buns at a time the way I do indoors.  I take a large cookie tray.  My wife got them from her school's cafeteria, and they are heavy duty aluminum.  Anyway, I turn them upside down, spray them with Pam and let my loaves (3-500g) do their final rise before going into the oven.  I set my oven up with a stone on the bottom rack, in it's lowest position and another stone on the top rack in it's highest position.  Then I let the oven preheat to 475* for about an hour to really soak the stones.  When the bread is ready for the oven, I take the entire tray and lay it on top of the bottom stone.  It's bigger than my stone, so the edges sit on the rack.  It works great for me, and I can use my stones and still cook 3 loaves at a time. 

As far as preparing large quantities of dough.  My wife and I grab are 2 largest tupperware containters and add our ingredients and start the kneading process. Each bowl will result in about 7.5# of dough.   Once the dough has come together, I 'slap' it around on the countertop a few times, and then back in the bowls for a bulk rise in the fridge for 16-24 hours.  The next day it gets punched down, and then a bench rise before shaping.  Then shaping and the final rise.  I've actually used the same method above with the cookie sheets in my wood oven, as I can fit 2 in at a time.  I think that getting the bottoms off the hearth floor keeps them from getting too dark and I can get the bread in while the heats still a bit high.  I don't always do this, but sometimes I take the easy route.  In my wood oven, using the cookie sheets, I can get 3-4 loads.  Each load is 6 loaves or 2 dozen buns.  15# of dough yeilds me approximately 10-12 loaves and a dozen buns.  

I rec'd my Electrolux DLX mixer last Saturday and mixed a 7.5# batch with no problems.  I think it will handle 10# +-, but I just can't see a double batch fitting in the 8qt bowl.  It isn't necessarily a time saver, but I think it bettered the quality of the dough and gives me the ability to do bigger batches more easily.   I'm going to put it through it's paces again this weekend, and hopefully fire the wood oven since the temps are supposed to be in the 50's

Hope this helps! 

My own oven is on the smaller side -- about 2' X 3' hearth dimension. I can bake 5 good-sized loaves, or one large pizza, at one time. At the time I built mine, I was wishing I could have made it bigger. But eating 5 loaves of bread a week has taken its toll on my waistline! Now I find myself *glad* that the oven isn't bigger, or I would be bigger as well. ;-)

Serioulsy, you need to carefully consider sizing your oven. Bigger means more fuel and more time to heat. If most of your loads will not fill a bigger oven, IMHO, you're better off sacrificing the occasional large-load use. If the oven is too big for what you most often bake, you'll find yourself not bothering to use it as often as you otherwise would. Also, the bread comes out better when the oven is filled to capacity, so if you have a 10-loaf oven, you'll probably want to bake a minimum of 10 loaves at a shot. Large family of bread lovers? Go for it. Just you and wifey? Maybe not. Now that I have a smaller oven, I'm glad I was forced to downsize. I use mine every weekend and I doubt I would have if it had been much bigger. It would have been used only when I was entertaining, or needed extra-large quantites of something.

My bread batches are usually around 3-4 lbs I guess. I mix by hand, knead for about 5 minutes, and then stretch & fold twice at 15-minute intervals. This works well for pretty much any family-sized batches, so I've stopped lusting after dough mixers -- like I've stopped lusting after a bigger oven. ;-)

ClimbHi
Pittsburgh, PA

CH - My problem with the loaves is that they dissappear.  Friends & family stop over and a few loaves leave, you know how it is!  So I like to bake about a 10-12 loaves and some buns for a normal batch.  I also only leave out 1 loaf at a time and freeze the rest.  I've found that you can get at least one reheat out of a loaf without any ill effects.   When my freezer gets low, I mix up another big batch.  My wife and I actually made up baskets for xmas gifts with a bottle of wine, my wifes (almost famous) chocolate chip cookies and a loaf of bread.  They were a big hit.  I have 2 kids that keep me and my wife on the run, plus I have a few other interests, you know, golf, woodworking, hunting, clay shooting, mountain biking, antique/classic cars & tractors, smoking & grilling, etc.  I'm still getting to know my new Electrolux mixer, but it was nice to mix up 11 - 300g pizza dough balls last nite while I was having dinner.  The dough is silky smooth and workable.  I have 5 of the balls in the fridge on a long ferment for pizza's tonite with friends and the other 6 were bagged & frozen.  I worked harder cleaning up than I did making the dough.   After a morning bird hunt tomorrow with my German Shorthair, I plan on mixing up a big batch of bread dough and firing up the oven on Sunday.   My next step is to mix up some bread dough with a poolish.   I have been reading Reinharts "Crust & Crumb" and it interests (and confuses) me.  I've read some places where you can freeze the excess poolish and use it in the future, and I really like that idea.  I just can't seem to get my head around why a 24 hour long bulk ferment would be much different than a 24 hour ferment on a poolish?  Just wondering.