The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Big WFO bake

janij's picture
janij

Big WFO bake

This weekend we decided to bake a bunch of bread to give to the neighbors for Christmas.  We decided to warm up the wood fire oven Sat night.  SInce it is cooler we tend to fire it the day before and cook meat or something then bread the next day after the oven has been refired.  So last night we cooked a pork loin.  We have had good luck with birds (chickens or turkeys) but not with beef.  So we thought we would try pork this time.  It did not brown as nicely as I would have liked but it tasted wonderful.  So we baked that last night.  Then this morning I made a triple batch of multigrain whole wheat, a double batch of whole wheat, cinnamon, raisin and oat bread, and a double batch of plain white bread.  I was happy with all the dough.  I think I did a pretty good job.  I forgot to add the honey to the ww multigrain and added it after the autolayse and had a soupy mess.  But with a few fold and a little extra flour we were on our way.

I was grateful that it did not hit 70 today, even though I am sorely missing the sun.  It was about 50 and I could put the white and cinnamon raisin bread outside to proof since I needed to hold it longer that the ww multigrain.  I got concerned when my husband pulled out the coals really early.  But when it was time to load the bread, the temp was low, just undeer 400 and there wasn't much I could do.  I had 15 loaves of read and not enough fridge space.  I had my husband put some coals around the sides of the oven then we loaded the ww multigrain.  I need to work on my loading skills.  Actually I think I need a differnt peel.  But that is for later.  When I checked it 42 minutes later is was almost done and I got good oven spring.  Then we loaded the 8 loaves of white and cinnamon raisin.  Talk about oven spring.  Those loaves grew a good 2 niches in height.  I was so proud.  The oven was at about 350 by then.  So the part of the loaf in the pan did not brown as well as I wanted but they were good. 

After all the bread we put the weeks granola in the oven.  It will be good in the morning.  So I will post a few pictures.  I know that I need to work on some things, but I think we are coming right along in baking in the WFO!

Comments

raidar's picture
raidar

Looks fantastic!!

alabubba's picture
alabubba

Did you score the white and raisin loaves off center or did you get weird oven spring?

janij's picture
janij

I just got weird oven spring.  I am trying to figure out why.  Things are different in a wood oven than a regular oven.  Maybe I will send a message to ClimbHi who seems to really know WFO.

alabubba's picture
alabubba

You should tell people that you do it on purpose. Let them aww at your mastery with the scoring knife.

ehanner's picture
ehanner

You really have a nice sense of organization and timing to be able to manage all of what you did. Great job with this. Thanks for sharing.

Eric

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

You did a beautiful bake in your wfo...and look at all the fun you had too!

Happy Holidays!

Sylvia

janij's picture
janij

Thanks you so much to everyone on the compliments.  It was nice to see everyone's face when we dropped the loaves off.

Eric, the timing was probably not the best.  But with the cool weather it turned out better than expected.

M2's picture
M2

Gorgeous!!!

utahcpalady's picture
utahcpalady

You are clearly amazing, and I am quite jealous of your WFO, so if one wanted to build one, is there a site you would recommend going to to get started?  I have wanted one for quite a while, bread, pizza, I can taste it in my mind.

janij's picture
janij

The book The Bread Builders by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott is an excellent place to start.  Alan Scott is very well known in America for his ovens.  He passed away recently, but you can still order plans of his design from ovencrafter.net.  Also there is an Australian man who has a CD.  His website is traditionaloven.com.  Also, check out the posts made by ClimbHi here on TFL.  He posted a series of pictures of him and his wife building their oven.  I cheated and hired a mason.